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Nighttime Is My Time

by Mary Higgins Clark

Nighttime Is My Time is another thriller by Mary Higgins Clark, justly famous for her terrific murder stories. Although Ms. Clark may never reach the exalted literary heights of some of her contemporaries, her work is compelling, imaginative, and sufficiently scary to place Mary Higgins Clark among the top ten mystery writers of our time. This book was first published in 2004, so it's not Ms. Clark's latest, but should definitely be added to your list of books to read even if you're not already a Mary Higgins Clark fan.

Nighttime Is My Time tells the story of a school reunion, where the former nerds have all become successful men, and the women who taunted them in school are mostly dead from accident or suicide. Among the men who appear at the twentieth school class reunion are Carter Stewart, playwright, Gordon Armory, cable TV czar, Mark Fleischman, psychiatrist, and Robby Brent, comedian. Jack Emerson, the only man who had remained in the town where they all grew up and went to school, orchestrated the reunion. The four men first mentioned above, plus two women, Laura Wilcox and Dr. Jean Sheridan, composed the six people who were to be honorees at the reunion.

Laura Wilcox has always been a beauty, but was now desperate for money. She was an actress, but not a very good one, getting along on her looks more than her talent. She hadn't had a regular job in two years. Jean Sheridan, on the other hand, had always been the quiet one, but had emerged from a number of prestigious colleges with a doctorate.

They also happened to be the last two of the former girls who had sat together at a table in the school lunchroom, where all of them except Jean had taunted and laughed at the nerdy boys. Now Jean is concerned about the daughter she gave up at birth, since she's received communications indicating someone knows who and where her daughter is – also threatening to kill her.

Mary Higgins Clark introduces us to The Owl – first when he murders the agent Alison of Los Angeles – since she had been the one sitting next to Laura at that cafeteria table. And gradually, we discover that one of the men in the story is probably responsible for all of the deaths, even though they've been seen by the police mostly as accidents. The Owl is intent on revenge. But his identity isn't revealed until Mary Higgins Clark has given us a number of trips down the garden path where we can suspect any one of the number of men involved.

Ms. Clark, like most good Irishmen, tells a good story. And like many of the Irish, she also uses an excellent imagination to conjure up different appalling circumstances in each of her many books. Mary Higgins Clark is therefore never tied down to a single protagonist in a series, but presents us with new and exciting characters in each new work. Because of this, one can readily overlook whatever the literary connoisseur may find lacking in her prose. Indeed, Mary Higgins Clark seems to improve in that area with every new effort!

Alan Paul Curtis

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