โ Scribed by Mary Higgins Clark
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Fans of Mary Higgins Clark and cozy mysteries will relish this Christmas confection. Unlike her previous holiday novel, Silent Night, All Through the Night is virtually free of life-and-death crime. Rather, it is a Dickensian tale of good deeds rewarded and crimes punished.
The wintry story begins on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with 18-year-old Sondra Lewis, an aspiring violinist, tearfully leaving her baby on the steps of St. Clement's Church. Unbeknownst to her, Lenny Centino is robbing that same church on the same night, with his attention particularly on the Church's diamond inlaid chalice. He finds a buggy outside the church and uses it for cover as he flees. Only later does he realize that his take for the night includes the infant Stellina (Italian for star). The narrative then abruptly moves ahead seven years. Clark's lottery-winning protagonists, Alvirah and her husband Willy (introduced in Weep No More, My Lady) return for some amateur sleuthing. Sister Cordelia's thrift shop doubles as an after-school recreation place for neighborhood children (including a shy little girl named Star), but the building has been condemned. Bessie Maher had vowed she was leaving the house to the nun and her children. Now that she is gone, the will indicates that the tenants of the house, Vic and Linda Baker, are the true heirs. As December rushes on towards Christmas, Alvirah struggles to put things right before the children are left in the cold.
Like the best holiday stories, All Through the Night steers toward sentimentality, but it veers back on course with narrative wit and Alvirah's charm. Clark's prose is lean and her plotting is brisk. This is a mystery that would be a pleasure to share aloud with a family gathered at the fireplace for some holiday cheer. --Patrick O'Kelley
Clark's popular lottery winners, amateur sleuth Alvirah and her husband, Willy, are getting ready for Christmas. When the local after-school center is threatened and a friend's will is contested, Alvirah goes on the job. Before long, she also finds herself trying to locate a child abandoned seven years earlier by a young mother and trying to solve the mystery of a stolen chalice. Normally known for her suspenseful stories, Clark (You Belong to Me, Audio Reviews, LJ 6/1/98) doesn't quite deliver. The listener isn't all that surprised at any of the revelations at the end of the program. The reading, by the author's daughter, best-selling writer and actor Carol Higgins Clark, is lively. However, numerous characters and little voice differentiation make the narrative difficult to follow. The author is always popular, but this is not an essential purchase. Recommended for larger collections.AAdrienne Furness, Lockport P.L., NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
๐ SIMILAR VOLUMES
### Review Connie Brockway delivers!" \--Tami Hoag, author of _A Thin Dark Line_ "Connie Brockway is a master at creating sparkling chemistry." \--Laura Kinsale "[Connie Brockway's] work brims with warmth, wit, sensuality, and intelligence." \--Amanda Quick "Connie Brockway's powe
Wayne, scarred physically and emotionally, has a background in special-ops he's trying to forget. But he gets his arm twisted into helping a quirky group of seniors who've been scammed out of their retirement. Breaching the con man's high-security island estate, Wayne recovers the stolen money in an
A woman compelled. . . In the glittering world of Regency England, Anne Wilder played a dangerous game. A widowed lady by day, by night she became a masked thief preying on society's elite. She roved high above London's black rooftops, compelled by phantoms from her past to take ever greater risks.
*A desperate mother. Her missing child. A stolen chalice.* With *Silent Night,* Mary Higgins Clark, America's own Queen of Suspense, gave her readers their best Christmas present ever. Now, with *All Through the Night,* she once again celebrates the Christmas season with a tale of suspense that
### Amazon.com Review Fans of Mary Higgins Clark and cozy mysteries will relish this Christmas confection. Unlike her previous holiday novel, *Silent Night*, *All Through the Night* is virtually free of life-and-death crime. Rather, it is a Dickensian tale of good deeds rewarded and crimes punished
**A gripping and deftly plotted narrative of family and belonging,_Lights All Night Long_ is a dazzling debut novel from an acclaimed young writer "_Lights All Night Long_ is utterly brilliant and completely captivating. . . . One of the most propulsive, un-put-downable literary novels I've read i