I've Got You Under My Skin

March 24, 2014
Fans of MWA Grand Master Clark will find plenty of intrigue and excitement in this contemporary thriller, which opens with the fatal shooting of Dr. Greg Moran in a Manhattan playground by a shadowy figure known only as "Blue Eyes"âthe latter's moniker originating with the chilling shouts of the victim's three-year-old son, Timmy: "Blue Eyes shot my daddy⦠Blue Eyes shot my daddy!" Five years after this tragedy, the doctor's high-powered TV producer widow, Laurie, who's still haunted not only by her husband's death but also by his killer's parting promise to come back to murder her and Timmy, hatches an idea for a new TV series to reenact unsolved criminal cases. "It was a risky ventureâwith great potential for success and also for chaos," Laurie admits to herself, and so if proves when she selects the 20-year-old murder of Betsy Powell, the wife of eccentric billionaire Robert Powell, for the pilot episode. Four estranged best friendsâone of them Betsy's own daughterâare reunited at the Powell estate in Westchester County, N.Y., to recall the harrowing evening of the murder. Clark keeps readers guessing and in suspense, with any one of the old companions potentially culpable and Blue Eyes making a number of startling reappearances.

April 1, 2014
That up-to-the-minute phenomenon, reality TV, provides the basis for Clark's most retro tale ever. Coming off two failed projects, television producer Laurie Moran, widowed five years ago by a killer who told her 3-year-old son, "Timmy, tell your mother that she's next. Then it's your turn," is hungry for a hit. She thinks she's struck gold with Under Suspicion, a series that will reopen cold cases via interviews with the people who were on the scenes at the time, taped at the same places the bodies were found. Her first choice is obvious: The smothering 20 years ago of society hostess Betsy Bonner Powell during the night of the Graduation Gala she and her husband, hedge fund colossus Robert Nicholas Powell, threw for Betsy's daughter Claire and her three high school buds. The criminal-reunion setup screams Agatha Christie (think Five Little Pigs or Sparkling Cyanide), but Clark adds some deliciously bitchy bickering to the proceedings once all four of the lead suspects improbably reveal their secrets and motives to an obliging blackmailer. St. Augustine realtor Regina Callari lost her father to suicide after he sunk his assets in Rob's hedge fund. Cleveland pharmacist Alison Schaefer, married to a football player whose dream of sending her to medical school ended with his crippling by a hit-and-run driver, wonders if she killed Betsy while she was sleepwalking. Nina Craig, a failed actress eking out a living as a Hollywood extra, lives with a mother who's driving her crazy. And Claire herself, not to be outdone, had good reason to hate both her mother and her stepfather. Will Laurie and her crew trick a confession out of one of them before the killer who's been stalking her takes his shot? Rest easy, Agatha: Clark (Daddy's Gone A Hunting, 2013, etc.) can't match your skill at spinning webs as logical as they are surprising. Along the way, however, few readers will be able to resist her creaky charm.

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November 1, 2013

No wonder award-winning TV producer Laurie Moran initiates a new cold case series with friends and family reenacting each case; her doctor husband's killer is still at large.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.