A Flavour of the Book: “Peter Carrington did something to that girl. I bet he was jealous of her.” Now Maggie sounded like the Lord Chief Justice of the United Kingdom pronouncing a verdict. “I gave him the benefit of the doubt until his wife was drowned, but it just goes to show that if you kill someone, you’re capable of doing it again…”
The Authortrek View: This is a very old-fashioned mystery novel that never truly comes alive. With two of the main families being called Althorp and Carrington, I Heard That Song Before feels like a mash-up between the British Royal Family and Dynasty. The scenario is also quite far from American noir, as all the main protagonists are very rich, although they are not without their vices, as Kay Lansing discovers. The characterisation of the ancillary participants is quite poor, with the exception of Nicholas Greco, as several are only there to push the plot along, such as Pat Jennings. Mary Higgins Clark cleverly uses the device of gossip to reveal some of the plot details. However, I thought that the title was perhaps a little too revealing with regards to the resolution. Mary Higgins Clark could be regarded as the modern-day Agatha Christie, although the character of the central detective is sorely missed. The kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s baby son inspired Mary Higgins Clark’s novel Where Are the Children?, so she seems to be going back to her roots by mentioning the story in the early pages of this book and by setting the novel in Englewood, where the kidnapping occurred. Indeed, there is so very little that is novel about this book that it could have been justifiably called I Read That Book Before, since it is so resonant with the blockbusters of the 80s.
To find out more about the author, please visit our Mary Higgins Clark page.
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