When you are so entangled in mundane things and frivolous animosities, it is always good to read something that can take you to a different world, by severing all ties from reality. In my case, no doubt, Mary Higgins Clark’s books often did take me to a different world. Besides, Clark has always given me a ‘Christmas feeling’. It might be because I always start reading her when Christmas is around the corner.
And I love winter and how December feels like – It’s pleasant, mysterious, joyful and in some other parts of the world, it might be snowing. It’s a dream to celebrate Christmas with snow all around. I might, one day…
I always think winter is the perfect season to read and write a cosy mystery.
How about rolling yourself up in a blanket reading a cosy mystery with a brewing cup of coffee. It sounds like heaven to me. And Mary Higgins Clark’s books have always given me that feeling.
December reminds me of Mary Higgins Clark
Besides, there’s Christmas, my birthday and her birthday. She was born on December 24 in 1927. I was born on December 2. And perhaps that’s why we have a December connection and the month always reminds me of her.
And if I experienced a lull in reading, her books always woke me up from the slumber. Since it’s December, ( almost going to end) I thought I would talk about her books and how they moulded me to be a better reader, writer and also how those books changed my perspective.
Mary Higgins Clark is well-known as the Queen of Suspense whereas Agatha Christie is known as the Queen of Crime. No…they are not contemporaries. Clark passed away in 2020.
So, I will start by giving a feel of one of her books. ‘On the Street Where you live’ is my favourite Clark book and here it goes…
When criminal defense attorney Emily Graham decided to leave Albany and take up a job in Manhattan, she just had a peaceful life in mind. She was going through an acrimonious divorce and also a devastating experience of being stalked.
Call it a sheer coincidence, it was at this time, her ancestral home, a restored Victorian house also came up in the market for sale and she was looking for a house to settle down. Emily did not have to think twice and she bought the house at Spring Lake. She thought it would give her a sense of belonging that she was yearning for quite a long time.
Her family had sold the house in 1892 when one of her ancestors, Madeline Shapley, then a young woman suddenly disappeared.
Emily had just moved to her new home, to her utter dismay, a skeleton of a young woman was found in her backyard when it was being excavated for a swimming pool. She was identified as Martha Lawrence who had disappeared from Spring Lake on a fine morning around four years ago. What bewildered everyone was within the skeletal hand of Martha Lawrence was a finger bone of another woman with a ring on it. And it was the heirloom of the Shapley family.
Could it be the finger bone of Madeline Shapley, Emily’s great great great aunt who disappeared a century ago?
And when the bodies of other women were found in the same way as they found the previous one, Emily as well as the police understood that they were dealing with a Copycat Serial Killer.
How the finger bone of a young woman who died a century ago could be found with the skeleton of a young woman who disappeared four years ago makes this book an exciting read?
No Cheap Thrills but a lot of suspense
To be honest, this book spooked me a little. I have read it twice and the first time I read it, I was alone in my flat and it sent shivers down my spine. This is what I like about her the most. She could spook you without the help of any gory descriptions and mutilated bodies. Still, there’s mystery and suspense that can put you on tenterhooks right from the first page.
Once she said she finds clues for her story from the newspapers – in other words, incidents that happen in the normal lives of people so that the reader can relate to the story easily.
You will never be a detached reader
What attracts me to Mary Higgins Clark’s book is always her writing. It’s so simple yet profound to make you feel that you are not a detached reader. When they run, you run, when they jump, you jump. There were many times where I felt one with the character.
When she writes, I don’t usually read the words, what I get are pictures. Clark deals with different female protagonists in her stories, unlike the same detectives who appear in some crime fiction series like Harry Bosch in Michael Connelly books or Dr Kay Scarpetta in Patricia Cornwell books. Even then, her heroines are imprinted on my heart forever, be it Emily from On the Street where you live or Pat from Still Watch. I know how they look, their characteristic traits etc. Such is the effect her heroines create on your minds.
I got introduced to competent female protagonists for the first time. I was 16, then.
I have read more than 20 of her books and what I am going to say next is my most precious take away from her books. I got introduced to competent female protagonists for the first time in my life through her books. When I say certain things, you have to understand that I am talking about my experiences years ago, probably more than 15 years ago. And I am talking about my place. Things haven’t changed much, it’s still a bit regressive. But I have evolved a lot and there’s a lot of conflict of emotions.
Before getting introduced to her books, I was reading fiction written in my mother tongue, where I saw female characters waiting for somebody to salvage them from any kind of conflicting circumstances or emotions they are in. Dependent, succumbing, never questioning anything, never raising a voice for themselves. And to my shock, the characters who showed these traits were hailed as the ideal women. I could never accept that, though I took years to put those thoughts into reality.
And I am not a meek person so I could not be as stoic as they are. I do not know whether you could imagine living in a world which you are not approved of and they don’t approve of you, either. But books especially Crime fiction that showcases women characters who try to solve problems by themselves gave me new hope.
And that’s what Mary Higgins Clark books did to me as I started with her. I was just 16 when I started reading her. I will always be grateful to her for that.
Now, I believe I am an independent person though I have to work hard on how to be emotionally independent.
So this is my story. If you have one such experience to share. Please do
