So here is the deal: there are authors that write several books but seem to drift away in the wind. Then there are those that stand the test of time. Have you ever read the list of previous novels by an author and found yourself amazed that you had read and remembered parts of the plot? That is a talent indicator. Mary Higgins Clark fits the latter description. I had read the original WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN, so I eagerly grabbed a copy of her latest titled WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN NOW?. Any fan of this hugely talented and popular author would do the same. Reading the front portion of this book there is that list. As I read down that list my smile just kept getting bigger and bigger. So many wonderful books. So many wondrous memories.
Which one would you think of first? I immediately thought of bells on coffins, and gravesites – bells that did not have a clapper. Gruesome picture provoking. Mary Higgins Clark at work.
Now onto her newest novel. The supposition is that there is still someone out there making children disappear. And the supporting cast is made up of survivors of the first book. Alive but scathed.
Melissa Eldridge is an attorney who specializes in getting justice for her clients. Chosen because the system did not manage their case fairly, in Melissa's opinion. She had most recently had a judgment reversed for her client charged with the murder of the husband. Strangely enough, there is still a cloud over her client’s innocence.
Now Melissa has a podcast where she discusses these cases. In her own history, there is still a case with a dubious outcome. The kidnapping of Melissa and her brother Mike when they were young children. They survived but continue to face lingering issues. Melissa now experiencing disturbing dreams. Mike wants to get passed that time. Both adults with successful careers and Mike cannot understand why Melissa cannot move on. Until he realizes she is now having these dreams.
The problem is those dreams include folks from the present. Does that mean they are now in peril. Is there still someone out there who is capable of preying on young children like them? Are Melissa and Mike still in the sights? Between her work, her new family, and nightmares Melissa is a victim of heckling from an online troll on her social media. Unsettling to be sure but is there also something sinister about?
We meet several new characters that have a decidedly odd connection to the siblings. As the paths somehow converge or cross, we are brought into a new drama. The stage is cleverly, carefully, and dramatically set by the master of drama and crime Mary Higgins Clark and her co-writer Alafair Burke.
Enter Jayden Kennedy and his girlfriend Julie. Jayden has just taken advantage of an opportunity to rent his home for a month through a group. Jayden needs the infusion of cash. He puts his faith into the company that organizes these rentals and is off to spend the next month at Julie’s. So very innocent. But those that know Mary Higgins Clark know that nothing is innocent or irrelevant. Everything and everyone have a role albeit fringe or central to the plot of WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN NOW?.
By chapter eight you are fully vested. Armchair detectives will flex their muscles. Moments where you need to yell oh no do not do that. I admit to being quite vocal reading crime novels especially when well-crafted as WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN NOW?.
The story travels seamlessly back and forth from the siblings past to the present. If you have not read the first book Alafair Burke does a wonderful job filling in much-needed details. But I would be remiss in not suggesting reading it. Fans of Mary Higgins Clark thought the story of Where Are The Children had come to a startling beautifully written conclusion. WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN NOW? does a fabulous job of reminding us that children victims of crimes suffer from the trauma for long, perhaps forever.
The legacy of the “Queen of Suspense” continues with the highly anticipated follow-up to Mary Higgins Clark’s iconic novel Where Are The Children?, featuring the children of Nancy Harmon, facing peril once again as adults.
Of the fifty-six bestsellers the “Queen of Suspense” Mary Higgins Clark published in her lifetime, Where Are the Children? was her biggest, selling millions of copies and forever transforming the genre of suspense fiction. In that story, a young California mother named Nancy Harmon was convicted of murdering her two children. Though released on a technicality, she was abandoned by her husband and became such a pariah in the media that she was forced to move across the country to Cape Cod, change her identity and appearance, and start a new life. Years later her two children from a second marriage, Mike and Melissa, would go missing, and Nancy yet again became the prime suspect—but this time, Nancy was able to confront the secrets buried in her past and rescue her kids from a dangerous predator.
Now, more than four decades since readers first met Nancy and her children, comes the thrilling sequel to the groundbreaking book that set the stage for future generations of psychological suspense novels. A lawyer turned successful podcaster, Melissa has recently married a man whose first wife died tragically, leaving him and their young daughter, Riley, behind. While Melissa and her brother, Mike, help their mom, Nancy, relocate from Cape Cod to the equally idyllic Hamptons, Melissa’s new stepdaughter goes missing. Drawing on the experience of their own abduction, Melissa and Mike race to find Riley to save her from the trauma they still struggle with—or worse.
Just like the original, Where Are the Children Now? keeps readers guessing and holding their breath until the very last page.
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