Before I Say Good-Bye

April 3, 2000
Romantic suspense has no more reliable champion than Clark, despite the relative weakness of her writing. For 25 years, through 22 novels (counting this one), she has delivered respectable entertainment to her legions of fans, who haven't dwindled in number. This novel, too, gives them what they want--a damsel in distress aided by a dashing knight; and Clark adds a little zest to the formula by weaving psychic phenomena, including messages from the dead, throughout. The damsel is columnist Nell McDermot, granddaughter of legendary Manhattan congressman Cornelius McDermott and about to run for office herself. Nell's plans are put on hold when the ship on which her husband, Adam, an architect, is attending a business meeting is blown to pieces. Evidence surfaces that Adam may have been involved in shady deals; meanwhile, the cops investigate the explosion, with suspicion falling on a petty hood looking for vengeance for one of those deals; a new man--stalwart physician Dan Minor--enters Nell's life, as does a psychic who claims to be channeling Nell's dead husband; and a predatory real-estate developer circles Nell and property she's inherited from Adam. For much of the novel, the danger is more implied than actual, like dark clouds amassing in the sky, and often manifests itself psychically as Nell sees black auras envelop people or feels terribly afraid. The novel's finale, however, which unmasks some unexpected villains, pulls out the stops in melodramatic fashion. Clark's characters aren't deep--after donating old clothes to charity, two of them, "feeling virtuous for having done a good deed had lunch at a new Thai restaurant on Second and Eighty-first"--but they're breezy fun, and so is this confection of a book. 1.1 million first printing; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club Main Selection; simultaneous S&S Audio; 7-city author tour.

April 15, 2000
Clark, in her latest thriller, is back at her page-turning best. Nell MacDermott, a newspaper columnist, has just decided to run for her grandfather's's former seat in Congress. Her husband, Adam, an architect, disapproves, and the two quarrel. Adam leaves angrily to go to a meeting on his boat with a few of his colleagues. Disaster strikes when the boat explodes, apparently killing all four people on board. Nell is devastated, both because of the fight and the fact that the explosion was no accident. Shortly afterwards, she is contacted by her great-aunt's psychic friend, Bonnie, who claims to be in contact with Adam. Meanwhile, Nell is also discovering that her husband's colleagues might not have been as honest as they seemed. Was Adam involved in any of the underhanded goings-on? Who set the bomb on the boat? Who was the target? Clark offers up a wealth of suspects, from an angry criminal whose mother sold Adam the building he and Nell lived in to a ruthless businessman who is desperate to get his hands on the plot of land that Adam owned. As always, the elements of Clark's plot masterfully converge to reveal the killer. A fast-paced, fun ride that leaves the reader guessing until the end. ((Reviewed April 15, 2000))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2000, American Library Association.)