I’ll Be Seeing You  by Mary Higgins Clark

 

This is a complex mystery that features justice. I’m not sure if this is my first Mary Higgins Clark, but it won’t be my last. This mystery kept me enthralled from beginning to end. And I did not figure it out until Ms. Clark wanted me to.

I’m not a fan of amateur sleuths, but this does not really fall into that sub-genre even though the person that solves the case isn’t a private detective or law enforcement officer. Meghan Collins is a news reporter for a local television station in the New York City area. Several months prior a massive accident occurred on a local bridge. Her father was on that bridge at that time and disappeared, presumed dead, forced over the bridge into the river below. Meghan and her mother have been dealing with his death. However, since there is not yet a body, the insurance will not pay off due to no death certificate. This may force Meghan’s mother to sell the Connecticut Inn that’s been in her family for three generations.

Meghan covers another death at a Manhattan Hospital. A young girl, about Meghan’s age, is brought in who had been stabbed. She dies before she can be treated. This death is the straw in the proverbial camel that launches the mystery.

Another straw involves an invitro fertilization clinic. This book was written thirty years ago, so invitro fertilization was still a recent process. Meghan covers the story of a woman who has been impregnated with her son’s twin fertilized egg over three years after her son was born.

Things come to light at this clinic that put more straws into this mystery. Another woman is murdered. Someone starts calling Megahn and her mother claiming to be her dad. And Meghan has a stalker.

All these threads are woven together into an exciting, thrilling mystery. Because this was thirty years ago, there are no smart phones or even cell phones. Though there are car phones. When’s the last time you heard that term?

One warning. There are a lot of characters and there are a lot of points of view. Ms. Clark even changes point of view within a scene. Supposedly a writing faux pas, but she pulls it off. Just pay attention, though, to who is who and who is doing what.

Ms. Clark paints fascinating characters caught up in difficult circumstances. There are several twists, the biggest being at the end.

To top it off, the book is clean. No profanity. No sex. And no graphic violence. I’ll rank this one fourth of the books I’ve read this year.

  1. Rooms by James L. Rubart
  2. The First Lady by Ed Gorman
  3. Every Dead Thing by John Connolly
  4. I’ll Be Seeing You by Mary Higgins Clark
  5. Several Deaths Later by Ed Gorman
  6. Citadel (Palladium Wars Book 3) by Marko Kloos
  7. Death of a Messenger by Robert McCaw
  8. The Little Grave by Carolyn Arnold
  9. Barrier Island by John D. MacDonald
  10. Jake of All Trades by A.T. Mahon
  11. Fireplay by Steve P. Vincent
  12. Wrong Place Wrong Time by David P. Perlmutter
  13. Nowhere Safe by Kate Bold
  14. The Bone Key Curse by Mike Scantlebury
  15. Run for Your Life by C.M. Sutter

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