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Product Description: From America's Queen of Suspense comes a gripping tale of a young woman trying to unravel the mystery of a family tragedy -- a quest with terrifying repercussions. It has been ten years since twenty-one-year-old Charles MacKenzie Jr. ("Mack") went missing. A Columbia University senior, about to graduate and already accepted at Duke University Law School, he walked out of his apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side without a word to his college roommates and has never been seen again. However, he does make one ritual phone call to his mother every year: on Mother's Day. Each time, he assures her he is fine, refuses to answer her frantic questions, then hangs up. Even the death of his father, a corporate lawyer, in the tragedy of 9/11 does not bring him home or break the pattern of his calls. Mack's sister, Carolyn, is now twenty-six, a law school graduate, and has just finished her clerkship for a civil court judge in Manhattan. She has endured two family tragedies, yet she realizes that she will never be able to have closure and get on with her life until she finds her brother. She resolves to discover what happened to Mack and why he has found it necessary to hide from them. So this year when Mack makes his annual Mother's Day call, Carolyn interrupts to announce her intention to track him down, no matter what it takes. The next morning after Mass, her uncle, Monsignor Devon MacKenzie, receives a scrawled message left in the collection basket: "Uncle Devon, tell Carolyn she must not look for me." Mack's cryptic warning does nothing to deter his sister from taking up the search, despite the angry reaction of her mother, Olivia, and the polite disapproval of Elliott Wallace, Carolyn's honorary uncle, who is clearly in love with Olivia. Carolyn's pursuit of the truth about Mack's disappearance swiftly plunges her into a world of unexpected danger and unanswered questions. What is the secret that Gus and Lil Kramer, the superintendents of the building in which Mack was living, have to hide? What do Mack's old roommates, the charismatic club owner Nick DeMarco and the cold and wealthy real estate tycoon Bruce Galbraith, know about Mack's disappearance? Is Nick connected to the disappearance of Leesey Andrews, who had last been seen in his trendy club? Can the police possibly believe that Mack is not only alive, but a serial killer, a shadowy predator of young women? Was Mack also guilty of the brutal murder of his drama teacher and the theft of his taped sessions with her? Carolyn's passionate search for the truth about her brother -- and for her brother himself -- leads her into a deadly confrontation with someone close to her whose secret he cannot allow her to reveal. Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-08
This wasn't MHC's best, but it wasn't horrible
I wouldn't say I'm disappointed because the mystery was good, but there was an overload of characters and more police work than I usually care to read about...it didn't add to the strength of the story for me.
Also, I didn't feel the connection between Carolyn and her missing brother, Mack. She talked about him a lot, but it seemed to be just that - talk. I didn't feel sad at the end the way I'm sure MHC intended her readers to feel. It was an OK ending, and the epilogue certainly wrapped things up nicely, but it lacked a lot for me to be able to call this a satisfying read. Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-06
Starts Strong, Quickly Loses Steam...
I have been a fan of MHC for many years, dating back to when I was in junior high. While I was very excited to read this book, I was ultimately very disappointed.
The premise is really intriguing: a young man has been missing for 10 years and only calls his family once a year (on Mother's Day). The book gets off to a good start but loses momentum somewhere in the middle. I felt that MHC was stretching the events of the novel to fill pages. I was pretty bored with the novel after the first 150 pages and had to push myself to finish it.
Other thoughts:
- MHC always balances a full cast of characters, but there were simply too many characters in this novel! I had to constantly return to earlier pages because I couldn't remember who certain characters were.
- This is another one of those books where every major character has attended Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, etc. Why?? There are plenty of strong, non-Ivy league colleges in the country. The wealth and prestige of the main family added nothing to the book for me.
- The behavior of the police was unrealistic and their dialogue was very repetitive.
- The ending, while unexpected, lacked any tension or excitement.
While this was a nice change of pace from the traditional romantic suspense MHC wrote in the 80's & 90's, I expected better. It could have been better plotted. Rating:
Date: 2008-07-06
Disappointed Long Time MHC Fan ...
I've read every Mary Higgins Clark book ever written. Love the lady and love the way she weaves suspense and great characters (in this day and age, it's wonderful to find characters you can LIKE!). In recent years, MHC has shown glimmers, too, of delving into more complex psychological areas ala Ruth Rendell. Alas, to me, this book was incredibly formulaic. I never really got to KNOW Carolyn, the main character, or sympathize with her. Another issue I've noted lately is the author's tendency to write kindly of the wealthy and privileged - while those less financially fortunate characters are always portrayed as devious plotters. This is one of the few MHC books I may not finish - I simply don't care to find out "whodunnit." Rating:
Date: 2008-06-28
So Boring!
Talk about boring. MHC started boring me with "On The Street Where You Live". I didn't finish that book and I forced myself to finish this one. She use to be one of my favorites, but this is it for me. As mentioned before, there were just too many characters to keep up with. I had to flip back a few times to see if I'd missed a certain characters introduction. There was absolutely nothing compelling about this novel. I'll admit to being surprised over who the killer was, but even that reveal fell kind of flat. I'm so glad I borrowed this from the libary. Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-27
This is one of MHC's best.
The author says she got the idea for this novel from a true news story about a college student who disappeared without a trace just before graduation.
The missing young man of Clark's novel also seemed to have everything going for him when he disappeared without a trace and for no apparent reason. The family of the young man, Mack, has hoped for 10 years that he is alive. Their hope is fueled by a once-a-year phone call from Mack on Mother's Day. As the novel begins, Mack's mother is overwhelmed with the grief of not only losing her son, but now she has lost her husband on 9/11. Mac's little sister, Carolyn, is a recent law school grad who is determined to find him and see her mother happy again.
Then another student disappears, a young girl who is a neighbor of Carolyn's, and the police believe Mack may be responsible.
As Carolyn investigates, her own life is put in danger.
You'll want to read this book in one sitting, because every time you think you have it all figured out, another character's secret is revealed. |
