Pretend You Don’t See Her by Mary Higgins Clark

This book features justice. I didn’t see any redemption and it’s not about vengeance. It’s a good old fashioned crime mystery. The second book of Ms. Clark’s I read in the last couple years. Not as good as the other one, but still well worth the read.

Lacy Farrell is a young, single professional woman who finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and witnesses a murder. She is the only one that can identify a wanted mob hitman who law enforcement has been after for a long time. Lacy is put into the witness protection program.

The mystery in this is compelling, complex, and well-concealed, with a couple obligatory red herrings. I didn’t guess the culprit behind it all until about thirty pages from the end. It’s a fascinating look at someone within the witness protection program. How that person’s entire life is put on hold or even stopped. Much of the book is Lacy coping with being away from her family, in a new, unfamiliar city, with a killer closing in on her. The suspense is subtle but always there in the background. As the noose tightens around Lacy, the suspense ratchets up to an exciting conclusion.

I find Ms. Clark’s writing style interesting in that she breaks several commonly held fiction author rules. Of course, when she sells millions of books, she doesn’t need to worry about artificial writing rules. The only reason I even noticed these methods is because I write fiction myself and have had these rules drilled into me from other writers.

Like the other one of her novels I’ve read, this one is clean. No profanity. No on page sex. And the violence is muted and essential to the story. I applaud Ms. Clark for giving us a thrilling, complex mystery involving the police and the FBI without resorting to foul language. The lack of the “true” way cops speak did not take away from the story at all.

I’m going to put this book at number 8 for this year. But the margins between number one through eighteen are narrow. All great books and highly recommended.

1. The Record Keeper by Charles Martin
2. The Samaritan’s Patient by Chevron Ross
3. Days Coming by Pat Simmons
4. The Runaway Jury by John Grisham
5. The Maid by Nita Prose
6. The Blue Cloak by Shannon McNear
7. Where is My Sister by Jane Daly
8. Pretend You Don’t See Her by Mary Higgins Clark
9. Braving Strange Waters by Sarah Hanks
10. Another Ending by Sara Whitely
11. Blood Red Deceit by Steve Rush
12. Without Fail by Lee Child
13. The Dark Wind by Tony Hillerman
14. The Sacred Bridge by Anne Hillerman
15. Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke
16. A Vanishing Act by Edwina Kiernan
17. Awakening by Diane Dresback
18. Harlot’s Moon by Ed Gorman
19. The Hidden Saboteur by Charles Besondy
20. Cali’s Hope by John Matthew Walker
21. Field Training by Patrick O’Donnell
22. Deadly Pursuit by Elle Gray
23. American Prophet by Jeff Fullmer

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