Most Popular Books by Mary Higgins Clark

New York Times bestselling author Mary Higgins Clark’s suspenseful masterpiece is a “crackling tale of menace and love that holds your attention to the last page” (Andrew M. Greeley). Elizabeth Lange has arrived at Cypress Point Spa in Pebble Beach, California, weary of heart and soul. Still grieving for her beloved sister, a famous actress who plunged to her death from her Manhattan penthouse, Elizabeth is determined to unearth the truth about how Leila died. Dashing multimillionaire Ted Winters stands accused of her murder, but Elizabeth has doubts. Along the windswept cliffs of the Monterey coast, in luxurious bungalows, between gourmet meals and beachfront walks, uneasiness stalks Elizabeth while she begins opening doors to the past. As glimpses of the dark truth about Leila''s life and death—and about Elizabeth herself—start to crash against her mind, an ominous wave from an unexpected source threatens to engulf her entirely.

In two days time, the state of Connecticut is to take the life of teenager, Ronald Thompson - found guilty of the murder of Nina Peterson two years before. His death will not stop the pain and anger of Nina''s husband, Steve, nor will it still the fears of Nina''s six-year-old son, Neil, who witnessed his mother''s brutal slaying. Only time, perhaps, can heal their wounds. But Ronald Thompson knows he did not kill Nina. And in the shadows a stranger waits and watches, a stranger who knows why Nina died, and who has unfinished business with the Peterson family…

After her husband Adam is killed when his private boat explodes, Nell McDermot is thrown into a pit of grief. She wants answers and she wants more than anything to say goodbye - but both now seem impossible. That is, until a medium contacts her claiming to be Adam''s channel. When the investigation proves the explosion was not an accident but a bomb, Nell goes to visit the medium. And, soon enough, she is receiving instructions from Adam from beyond the grave. Or is she? Haunted by grief, Nell undertakes the instructions - unaware that a terrifying chain of events is about to be unleashed. With a dangerous loop closing around her, Nell doesn''t realise that she might be going to meet Adam a lot sooner than she thinks . . .

The #1 New York Times bestselling author and Queen of Suspense launched her career with this classic thriller following a woman whose past holds a terrible secret. Nancy Harmon long ago fled the heartbreak of her first marriage, the macabre deaths of her two little children, and the shocking charges against her. She changed her name, dyed her hair, and left California for the windswept peace of Cape Cod. Now remarried, she has two more beloved children, and the terrible pain has begun to heal—until the morning when she looks in the backyard for her little boy and girl and finds only one red mitten. She knows that the nightmare is beginning again...

Fleeing the humiliating arrest of her husband-to-be on the eve of their wedding, Celia Kilbride, a gems and jewelry expert, hopes to escape from public attention by lecturing on a brand-new cruise ship, the Queen Charlotte. She meets Lady Emily Haywood, the owner of a priceless-- and cursed-- emerald necklace that she intends to leave to the Smithsonian after the cruise. Three days out to sea Lady Em is found dead-- and the necklace is missing. As the list of suspects grows Celia, with the help of her new friends Willy and Alvirah Meehan, sets out to find the killer.

Divorcee Jenny MacPartland''s struggle to support herself and her two small daughters is not helped by her irresponsible ex-husband. But suddenly a new man steps into her life. Rich, handsome Erich Krueger sweeps her off her feet and off to his mansion in the country.

A killer turns a young family''s dream holiday into an unfathomable nightmare in bestselling author Mary Higgins Clark''s Remember Me. Menley Nichols and her husband, Adam, a criminal attorney, rent a house on Cape Cod, in the hope of restoring their faltering marriage. The birth of their daughter, Hannah, has revitalized their relationship, but Menley has never stopped blaming herself for the accidental death of her two-year-old son. The serenity of the Cape promises a new start. But when they visit Remember House, an eighteenth-century landmark with a sinister past, strange incidents force Menley to relive the accident that killed her son, and she begins to fear for Hannah''s safety. Then Adam takes on a client suspected of murder when his wealthy young bride of only three months drowns in a storm—and the family is drawn into a rising tide of terror. A confrontation on a dark, rain-swept beach leads to a harrowing climax that only Mary Higgins Clark could have created.

Mary Higgins Clark, the Queen of Suspense, crafts a terrifying story of murder and obsession with “a slambam finish” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). When Laurie Kenyon, a twenty-one-year-old student, is accused of murdering her English professor, she has no memory of the crime. Her fingerprints, however, are everywhere. When she asks her sister, attorney Sarah, to mount her defense, Sarah in turn brings in psychiatrist Justin Donnelly. Kidnapped at the age of four and victimized for two years, Laurie has developed astounding coping skills. Only when the unbearable memories of those lost years are released can the truth of the crime come out—and only then can the final sadistic plan of her abductor, whose obsession is stronger than ever, be revealed.

A family’s dark and grisly secret threatens the lives of two sisters in this captivating new thriller from the beloved Queen of Suspense. What was Kate Connelly—a tall, glamorous CPA—doing in her family’s furniture museum when it exploded into flames in the middle of the night, destroying priceless antiques? Why was Gus, a disgruntled retired employee, with her at that hour? Now Gus is dead, and Kate lies in the hospital in a coma—so neither can tell what drew them there, or what the tragedy has to do with a young woman missing for many years. Nor can they warn that somebody they know may be covering his tracks, willing to kill to save himself. Step by step, in a novel of dazzling suspense and excitement, Mary Higgins Clark once again demonstrates the mastery of her craft that has made her books international bestsellers for years. She presents the reader with a perplexing mystery, a puzzling question of identity, and a fascinating cast of characters—one of whom may just be a ruthless killer.

A “superbly plotted” (Los Angeles Times) page-turning classic from the undisputed Queen of Suspense and #1 New York Times bestselling author Mary Higgins Clark. A minor road accident landed county prosecutor Katie DeMaio in Westlake Hospital. That night, from her window, she thought she saw a man load a woman’s body into the trunk of a car...or was it just a sleeping pill induced nightmare? At work the next day, Katie began investigating a suicide that looked more like murder. Initial evidence pointed elsewhere, but medical examiner Richard Carroll saw a trail leading to Dr. Edgar Highley. He suspected that the famous doctor’s work “curing” infertile women was more than controversial—that it was deceitful, depraved, and often deadly. But before Richard could tell Katie his fears, she left the office for the weekend and an appointment for routine surgery...in Dr. Highley’s operating room. “A harrowing tale” (The New York Times Book Review) that’s “indescribably suspenseful” (San Francisco Chronicle), The Cradle Will Fall is a page-turning thriller of the highest order.

Dr Gary Lasch is found dead at his desk. The murder stuns his elite Connecticut community - especially when his beautiful young wife, Molly, is arrested and charged with his murder. Six years later, on Molly''s release from prison, she reasserts her innocence in front of reporters gathered at the prison gates. Among them is an old schoolfriend, Fran Simmons, who is currently working as an investigative reporter for a true crime television series. Determined to prove her innocence, Molly convinces Fran to research and produce a programme on Gary''s death. Fran agrees, but in doing so, she has a second agenda - to learn the truth about her own father''s suicide fourteen years earlier. Fran soon finds herself enmeshed in a tangled web of intrigue and menace - more deaths and more unanswered questions about Gary Lasch''s death. As her investigation proceeds, there are those who know they must make a choice: face ruin, or eliminate Fran.

Neeve Kearny may be the only person in New York worried about the disappearance of Ethel Lambston. Ethel, a bestselling author famous for her juicy exposés, is one of the best customers at Neeve''s exclusive Madison Avenue boutique. But Ethel''s ex-husband, her parasitical nephew, and the fashion moguls skewered in her latest article all have reason to be glad she''s no longer around. When Ethel Lambston is found with her throat cut, Neeve''s memories of her mother''s long-unsolved murder loom up once again. Now as an innocent witness in the Lambston investigation, Neeve is drawn into a new nightmare...a sinister labyrinth of greed and ambition that will lead her into mortal danger... A stunning tale of murder, glamour and romance, While My Pretty One Sleeps is the most exciting novel yet from Mary Higgins Clark, America''s undisputed master of suspense.

At the heart of the novel are two of Mary Higgins Clark''s most loved characters: Alvirah, the lottery winner turned amateur sleuth, and her husband, Willy, who are caught up in a Christmas mystery that calls on all of their skills and experience. Willy has been looking forward to playing Santa at the after-school centre recently set up to care for the children of working parents on New York''s Upper West Side, and Alvirah has been busy with rehearsals for the Christmas pageant. But suddenly a shadow falls upon the Christmas cheer. The centre is threatened with closure, a substitute promised for the play is mysteriously withdrawn, a valuable chalice is stolen from a neighborhood church, and a desperate young woman turns up, begging for Alvirah''s help in finding the baby she abandoned seven years earlier. In a final blow, the young girl who is to play Mary in the Christmas pageant disappears... A missing child. A stolen chalice. A desperate mother. Can Alvirah reach the truth in time for Christmas?

When Kerry McGrath- a smart, relentless prosecutor- takes her daughter to see a plastic surgeon following a car accident, she sees a woman in the surgery with a beautiful, hauntingly familiar face. On a subsequent visit, she sees the same face again- on a different woman. . . Suddenly she remembers: both woman look startlingly like Suzanne Reardon, the "Sweetheart Murder" victim whose husband, Skip, is now serving a life sentence for that murder. When Kerry starts asking questions, she discovers that just about everyone wants the case kept closed. Still she persists- but what she doesn''t know is that it is already too late. Her puzzled queries have triggered a response and she is in great, growing danger.

Always a lover of history, Mary Higgins Clark wrote this extensively researched biographical novel and titled it Aspire to the Heavens, after the motto of George Washington''s mother. Published in 1969, the book was more recently discovered by a Washington family descendant and reissued as Mount Vernon Love Story. Dispelling the widespread belief that although George Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis, he reserved his true love for Sally Carey Fairfax, his best friend''s wife, Mary Higgins Clark describes the Washington marriage as one full of tenderness and passion, as a bond between two people who shared their lives -- even the bitter hardship of a winter in Valley Forge -- in every way. In this author''s skilled hands, the history, the love, and the man come fully and dramatically alive.

It''s been 22 years since Ellie Cavanaugh''s testimony against 19-year-old Rob Westerfield convicted him of the murder of her sister. Now, Rob is up for parole. Ellie returns home to write a book, But she soon uncovers horrifying facts about her sister''s murder.

Even as a young girl, growing up in the Bronx, Mary Higgins Clark knew she wanted to be a writer. The gift of storytelling was a part of her Irish ancestry, so it followed naturally that she would later use her sharp eye, keen intelligence, and inquisitive nature to create stories about the people and things she observed. When Mary''s father died during the Depression, her mother decided to open the family home to boarders, and placed a discreet sign next to the front door that read, FURNISHED ROOMS. KITCHEN PRIVILEGES. The family''s struggle to make ends meet; her employment as a hotel switchboard operator; the death of her beloved older brother in World War II; her brief career as a flight attendant for Pan Am; her marriage to Warren Clark; sitting at the kitchen table, writing stories, and finally selling the first one for one hundred dollars (after six years and some forty rejections!) - all these experiences figure into Kitchen Privileges.

The newest thriller and instant #1 New York Times bestseller from Queen of Suspense Mary Higgins Clark shows us just how far a family and a town will go to protect their own in the wake of tragedy. After a party when her parents are away, eighteen-year-old Kerry Dowling is found fully dressed at the bottom of the family pool. The immediate suspect is her boyfriend, who had a bitter argument with her at the party. Then there is a twenty-year-old neighbor who was angry because she didn’t invite him to the party. Or is there another suspect who has not yet been seen on the radar? Kerry’s older sister Aline, a twenty-eight-year-old guidance counselor, is determined to assist the prosecutor’s office in learning the truth. She does not realize that now she is putting her own life in danger… From #1 New York Times bestselling author and the “Queen of Suspense” comes a thrilling investigation asking what we truly know about those we trust, and the secrets lying in even the most idyllic of neighborhoods.

“The mistress of high tension” (The New Yorker) and undisputed Queen of Suspense Mary Higgins Clark brings us another New York Times bestselling novel that USA TODAY calls “her page-turning best” about a killer who targets lonely women on cruise ships, a masterful combination of page-turning suspense and classic mystery. When Dr. Susan Chandler decides to use her daily radio talk show to explore the phenomenon of women who disappear and are later found to have become victims of killers who prey on the lonely and insecure, she has no idea that she is exposing herself—and those closest to her—to the very terror that she hopes to warn others against. Susan sets out to determine who is responsible for an attempt on the life of a woman who called in to the show offering information on the mysterious disappearance from a cruise ship, years before, of Regina Clausen, a wealthy investment advisor. Soon Susan finds herself in a race against time, for not only does the killer stalk these lonely women, but he seems intent on eliminating anyone who can possibly further Susan’s investigation. As her search intensifies, Susan finds herself confronted with the realization that one of the men who have become important figures in her life might be the killer. And as she gets closer to uncovering his identity, she realizes almost too late that the hunter has become the hunted. Is she the next one marked for murder?

When Natalie Raines, famous Broadway star, is found in her home in Closter, New Jersey, dying from a gunshot wound, her former husband, Gregg Aldrich, whom she was in the process of divorcing, is the chief suspect. What no one knows is that, only days before she was murdered, Natalie accidentally came face to face with the man who killed her former roommate, Jamie Evans. Two years later, career criminal Jimmy Easton, comes forward to claim that Aldrich hired him to kill his wife, but he turned the job down. Based on Easton''s testimony, Gregg is charged with the murder of his wife. Handling the case is Emily Wallace, an attractive thirty-two-year-old widowed assistant prosecutor. As Aldrich''s trial is making headlines, Emily''s boss, Ted Wesley, warns her that this high-profile case will reveal personal matters about her, such as the fact that she had a heart transplant. And, during the trial, Emily experiences sentiments which defy all reason and continue after Gregg Aldrich''s fate is decided by the jury.

Intrigue abound in the Queen of Suspense Mary Higgins Clark''s Stillwatch, as a young journalist uncovers secrets from the past that could destroy her. I told you not to come... Slipped under the door of her Georgetown home, the note was an ominous reminder of Pat Traymore''s past. The beautiful young television journalist had come to glamorous, high-powered Washington to produce a TV series. Her subject: Senator Abigail Jennings, slated for nomination as the first woman vice president of the United States. With the help of an old flame, Congressman Sam Kingsley, Pat delves into Abigail''s life, only to turn up horrifying facts that threaten to destroy senator''s reputation and her career. Worse still, sinister connections to Pat''s own childhood and the nightmare secrets hidden within are surfacing—secrets waiting to destroy her.

What happens when a young woman is accidentally caught up in a dangerous murder investigation, having merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time? Lacey Farrell, a rising star on the Manhattan real estate scene, is witness to a murder - and to the final words of the victim. The dying woman is convinced her attacker was after her dead daughter''s journal, which Lacey gives to the police, but not before making a copy for herself. It''s an impulse that later proves nearly fatal. Placed in the witness protection programme and sent to live in Minneapolis, Lacey must assume a fake identity, at least until the killer can be brought to trial. There she meets Tom Lynch, a radio talk-show host whom she tentatively begins to date - until the strain of her deception makes her break it off. Then she discovers the killer has traced her whereabouts. Armed with nothing more than her own courage and clues from the journal, Lacey heads back to New York determined to uncover who is behind the deaths of the two women… before she is the next casualty.

The disappearance of several apparently unrelated young women all over the country is the beginning of Mary Higgins Clark''s chilling new novel, as one person begins to suspect that the young women may have all been murdered or abducted by the same man--and he may be somebody she knows.

The brand new spine-tingling thriller from the world''s favourite thriller writer. Dr. Jonathan Lyons, a well-respected academic, has a stroke of luck when a previously missing ancient artefact - a highly valuable parchment - falls into his hands. Stolen from the Vatican in the fifteenth century, it was assumed to be lost forever - until now. Unsure of his next move, Dr. Lyons shares his discovery with a select few but, with so much money at stake, can he trust the people he''s told? Things take a turn for the worse when Jonathan is found brutally murdered in his own home. Then, as secrets in his personal life come to light, his wife, who suffers from Alzheimer''s, is soon implicated. It now falls to the couple''s 27-year-old daughter, Mariah, to uncover the true motive behind her father''s death. But the tangled web of secrets has spread much further than she knows. With someone still hell-bent on getting hold of the priceless document, will Mariah succeed in finding justice for both her father and her mother without putting her own life in terrible danger? ''Clark plays out her story like the pro that she is . . . flawless'' Daily Mirror ''Should come with a warning: start in the evening and you''ll be reading late into the night'' USA Today

Erin and Darcy, answering personal ads as research for a TV show, discover a whole new New York sub-culture - adulterers, con men, the shy and frankly weird, all looking for love. And one man looking for something darker . . . A serial killer who has just got away with murder for fifteen years, and has promised himself just two more . . .

A one-of-a-kind mystery collection that showcases the immense storytelling talent #1 New York Times bestselling author Mary Higgins Clark has honed over her tremendous career—including a bone-chilling, previously unpublished short story forty years in the making. In 1974, master storyteller Mary Higgins Clark began writing a novella inspired by the dark side of the New York City fashion world. She then put the unfinished manuscript aside to write Where Are the Children?, the novel that would launch her career. Forty years later, Clark returned to that novella and wrote its ending. Now—for the first time ever—Death Wears a Beauty Mask is available for readers along with a stunning array of short fiction that spans her remarkable career. From Clark’s first-ever published story (1956’s “Stowaway”), to classic tales featuring some of her most memorable characters, Death Wears A Beauty Mask And Other Stories is a jewel of a collection brimming over with the chills and heart-pounding drama we’ve come to expect from the Queen of Suspense. Death Wears A Beauty Mask And Other Stories is a spine-tingling read and a special glimpse into the evolution of a world-class writing career.

A collection of short stories from bestselling author and Queen of Suspense, Mary Higgins Clark. In the short novel The Anastasia Syndrome, prominent historical writer Judith Chase is living in London and preparing for her marriage to Sir Stephen Hallett, expected to become England''s next Prime Minister. Orphaned during World War II, Judith wants to trace her origins. In this quest, she goes to a renowned psychiatrist and becomes the victim of his experiments in regression. When a woman in a dark green cape sets off bombs in London, Sir Stephen and Judith are faced with an intangible, mysterious force threatening their very existence. Obsessive love is the subject of Terror Stalks the Class Reunion; psychic contact with a dead twin sister is the only defense against a murder in Double Vision; Lucky Day, compared to O. Henry''s The Gift of the Magi, begins premonition of imminent danger; in The Lost Angel, mother follows her intuition in a harrowing search for her missing child.

A beloved aunt''s agreement to help her niece with college essays reawakens past secrets about the night a grandparent was murdered, an event that compels the woman to investigate a treasured music box to uncover the truth.

From the “Queen of Suspense” Mary Higgins Clark, a gripping and twisting mystery featuring a television news reporter who finds herself drawn into a terrifying web of treachery, where nothing is as it seems and the truth may be too devastating to pursue... The murdered woman could have been her double. When reporter Meghan Collins sees the sheet-wrapped corpse in a New York City hospital, she feels as if she''s staring into her own face. And Meghan has troubles enough already without this bizarre experience. Nine months ago, her much-loved father''s car spun off a New York bridge. Now, investigators are saying that there''s no trace of his car in the river, and they suspect he faked his own death. With frightening speed, links start to appear between Meghan''s father and her dead lookalike. Meghan may be in danger herself, but she''s determined to find the truth to the mystery. In a nightmare journey spiraling from New York to Connecticut to Arizona, Meghan finds that the truth can sometimes be deadly.

At a party in Manhattan, Maggie Holloway--one of the fashion world''s most successful photographers--is thrilled to be reunited with her beloved former stepmother. A widow now, Nuala Moore is equally delighted to see her long-lost stepdaughter, and invites Maggie to spend a few weeks at her home in Newport, Rhode Island. But when Maggie arrives, she finds Nuala murdered.

This #1 "New York Times" bestseller by America''s Queen of Suspense is a riveting thriller about a young woman whose wealthy, sleepwalking husband may have murdered his first wife--and could be planning to murder her.

"The second novel in the New York Times bestselling Under Suspicion series, following The Cinderella Murder, features intrepid television producer Laurie Moran as she investigates the case of a missing bride.

Struggling with unending heartache for the toddler son who went missing in Central Park two years earlier, interior designer Alexandra is wrongly accused of identity theft and implicated in the murder of a stranger. By the best-selling author of The Shadow of Your Smile. Reprint.

Originally published: New York; London: Simon & Schuster, 2006.

A young mother from the Midwest travels to New York during the Christmas season to be with her husband who lies desperately ill in hospital. She has brought with her their two young sons, hoping to salvage for them at least some of the joy of the holidays. She, however, is rapidly reaching a point of despair. While watching a street musician near Rockefeller Center''s famous Christmas tree, Brian, the younger boy, sees another woman take his mother''s wallet, and with it, not only all their money, but a precious family memento his grandmother has just given them, a St. Christopher medal which saved her husband''s life in the war, and which she believes will save that of Brian''s father. Without telling his mother what he is doing, Brian follows the thief into the city''s subway system, thereby beginning a journey that will forever change not only his life, but that of his mother and the thief as well.

A Manhattan ER doctor is in the local playground with his young son when someone ruthlessly guns him down. Now his young widow, a television producer, is raising their son alone and is under pressure to come up with a successful TV series. Her new show will focus on cold case files. Revisiting unsolved crimes one at a time, she and her TV crew plan to gather friends and family of the victim who have lived under suspicion of guilt for many years. By paying them to reenact the crime on television, they will be given a chance to clear their name - unless, of course, they are guilty . . . Praise for Mary Higgins Clark: ''I adore Mary Higgins Clark'' Karin Slaughter ''Trust Mary Higgins Clark to know what frightens us to death'' New York Times ''Clark plays out her story like the pro that she is . . . flawless'' Daily Mirror ''Should come with a warning: start in the evening and you''ll be reading late into the night'' USA Today

America’s Queen of Suspense—Mary Higgins Clark—joins forces with her daughter Carol—bestselling author of the Regan Reilly mysteries—in this fast-paced novel set on a special holiday cruise that sets sail from Miami the day after Christmas. Alvirah Meehan, lottery winner turned amateur sleuth, and private investigator Regan Reilly are guests, along with their spouses, on the “Santa Cruise.” The cruise is a gift from Commodore Randolph Weed to a select group that “has made the world a better place.” His largesse is prompted by the desire to create a buzz about his new cruise ship, the Royal Mermaid, as she sets out on her maiden voyage. Alvirah, Regan, and her new husband Jack—head of the NYPD Major Case Squad—are joined as guests on the cruise by a mystery fan convention, celebrating “a ghost of honor,” as well as ten men who donated time playing Santa Claus, now hoping for a restful post-season. That tranquility vanishes when two Santa suits disappear from a locked room, a storm develops, and an attempt is made on a passenger’s life. As the Royal Mermaid sails through troubled waters, Alvirah, Regan, and Jack uncover clues that lead them to dangerous criminals not on the original guest list…

A popular guest at many of the town''s finest homes, he particularly enjoyed participating in the sombre discussions about Martha''s disappearance that still came up from time to time over the dinner table. ''I could tell you about it, every little detail,'' he said to himself with a self-satisfied smile as he strolled the boardwalk, exchanging pleasantries with good friends he met along the way. ''But of course I won''t. That''s our secret: mine and Martha''s.'' In the gripping new novel from the Queen of Suspense, a young woman is haunted by two murders that are closely linked - despite the one hundred and ten years that separate them. Following the acrimonious breakup of her marriage and the searing experience of being pursued by an obsessed stalker, criminal defense attorney Emily Graham accepts an offer to leave Albany and work in a major law firm in Manhattan. Feeling a need for roots, she buys her ancestral home, a restored Victorian house in the historic New Jersey seaside resort town of Spring Lake. Her family had sold the house in 1892, after one of Emily''s forebears, Madeline Shapley, then still a young girl, disappeared. Now, more than a century later, as the house is being renovated and the backyard excavated for a pool, the skeleton of a young woman is found. She is identified as Martha Lawrence, who had disappeared from Spring Lake over four years ago. Within her skeletal hand is the finger bone of another woman with a ring still on it - a Shapley family heirloom. In seeking to find the link between her family''s past and the recent murder, Emily becomes a threat to a devious and seductive killer, who has chosen her as his next victim.