Wednesday, July 15, 2009

I Heard That Song Before by Mary Higgins Clark

From the author's website: Kay Lansing grew up in Englewood, New Jersey, daughter of the landscaper to the wealthy and powerful Carrington family. One day, accompanying her father to work, six-year-old Kay overhears a quarrel between a man and a woman that ends with the man's caustic response: "I heard that song before." That same evening, young Peter Carrington drives the nineteen-year-old daughter of neighbors home from a formal dinner dance at the Carrington estate, but she is not in her room the next morning and is never seen or heard from again.

Decades later, a cloud of suspicion hangs over Peter, not only for his neighbor's disappearance but also for the subsequent drowning death of his own pregnant wife in their swimming pool. But when Kay Lansing, now a librarian in Englewood, asks Peter's permission to hold a literary benefit cocktail party on his estate, she comes to see Peter as misunderstood?and when he begins to court her, she falls in love -- and marries him. However, she soon makes a discovery that leads her to question her husband's innocence. She believes that the key to the truth lies in the identities of the man and woman whose quarrel she witnessed as a child. What she does not realize is that uncovering what lies behind these memories may cost Kay her life.


This was a good Mary Higgins Clark mystery. After being disappointed in the last one I read, I was so happy that I Heard That Song Before was a good read. The main characters were a likable couple. Neither was described as overly beautiful and they both enjoyed reading - maybe that helped me like them so much! There were a few of the Mary Higgins Clark standards including the wealthy setting but this time it seemed a bit modernized by acknowledging the fact that grand estates are not the norm. She made the grand estate the setting of a charity function - that's a common fundraiser plan around here so it seemed more real than just having ultra-rich people floating around all suspected of murder. I guessed "whodunit" early enough but the "why" escaped me so the story held my interest until the end - of course Clark's books are so readable that they only have to hold my interest for an afternoon - but I enjoy a light read and this was perfect for that.

1 comment:

Jenny said...

I have never been a Mary Higgins Clark fan, but your review made me want to try this one. I will have to look for it at our library.