Where Are You Now?

May 26, 2008
Mary Higgins Clark's latest novel is a well-paced thriller sure to please longtime fans. However, Jan Maxwell's reading is uninspired and sluggish. Her voice rarely diverts from the monotone droning that dominates most of this tale. There is little attempt to relate the underlying tension that Clark has layered throughout the story, and Maxwell offers little in the way of character development. The result is disappointing; an unenthused experience that will turn many listeners away thanks to a nuance-free performance from this Broadway star. Simultaneous release with the S&S hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 10).

March 10, 2008
Bestseller Clark (Where Are the Children?
) spins yet another imaginative tale of murder and deceit. Every Mother’s Day over the 10 years since Charles “Mack” MacKenzie Jr. disappeared from Columbia University just before his graduation, Mack has phoned his mother in Manhattan to let her know he’s all right, but otherwise reveals nothing. In the meantime, Mack’s lawyer father has perished in the 9/11 tragedy. Now Mack’s younger sister, Carolyn, a graduate of Columbia and Duke Law School, where Mack was intending to go, tells him during his annual call that she’s going to find him. When a note from Mack turns up in the collection plate at St. Francis church, asking Father Devon MacKenzie, his uncle, to tell Carolyn not to look for him, she becomes even more determined to do so. Based on a real story, as Clark notes in her acknowledgments, this novel of suspense will keep readers guessing to the nail-biting conclusion.