REVIEW: Where Are You Now by Mary Higgins Clark

REVIEW: Where Are You Now? By Mary Hig­gins Clark, copy­right April 2008, pub­lished by Simon & Schus­ter. Where Are You Now? is the latest book for Ms. Mary Hig­gins Clark and it is avail­able in hard­back and ebook at your favorite retailer.

Ten years ago, Charles Macken­zie, Jr. (Mac) dis­ap­peared from the Manhattan’s Upper West Side Apart­ment he shared with two col­lege room­mates, Nick and Bruce. Mac was about to grad­u­ate from Colum­bia Uni­ver­sity and head off to Duke Uni­ver­sity Law School. No one had a clue as to what hap­pened to him.

The only con­tact Mac has had with his family is a tele­phone call every Mother’s Day. When he talks to his mother he says very little and tells them “not to worry about me”. On 9/11, Mac’s father died in the Twin Towers tragedy-​leaving Car­olyn, Mac’s little sister, now 26 years old and her mother to wait each Mother’s Day for Mac’s call. After putting up with this for 10 years (she was 16 when he dis­ap­peared) Car­olyn real­izes that they cannot con­tinue with this ritual and decide that she will find her brother and get to the bottom of why he has not come home.

When Mac calls and is speak­ing with her mother, Car­olyn picks up the phone and tells Mac that she is going to find him no matter what. The fol­low­ing day after Mass ,a note is found in the col­lec­tion basket at Carolyn’s Uncle’s church. The note from Mac tells Car­olyn not to look for him.

Car­olyn pulls out all the stops in begin­ning her search for her brother. She decides that she would go back and start from the begin­ning of the inves­ti­ga­tion. All in all she picks up a few clues on people’s feel­ings and she thinks they are hiding some­thing from her. With noth­ing to go on –there just are not any clues since Mac left with­out saying a word to anyone and no one really saw him leave.

Low and behold, the detec­tive that Car­olyn even­tu­ally talks with thinks that Mac is behind the dis­ap­pear­ance of a girl that lives in her neigh­bor­hood. This is a poor assess­ment of blame to follow-​up on; But with noth­ing much more to go on, why not? I am sur­prised that some­one finally fig­ured out what was going on but not fast enough to keep Car­olyn from being abducted. From this point in the book I expected more but what I got was a fizzle.

The start of the book was a very slow and had too many char­ac­ters by my stan­dards. I had to go back just to remem­ber who was who and where they fitted in the story. I must admit that I skipped para­graphs. While the title is catchy, it reminds me of the shows on cable TV that asks the ques­tion of by gone stars and child actors and actresses – Where are they now?

This was a first read of this author’s work and I expected a better plot. I went to the back of the book and read the con­clu­sion because I wanted to know whether this mun­dane story was worth stay­ing up late to finish. I have read other novels that have been so com­pelling and each page was like every­thing you wish you could eat but dared not. Sadly, for this book I cannot say that. The ending was a let down. The wrap up of the novel seems to be just that a fast wrap up. I placed a book mark in the book and went to bed. I hope that the next book will be a better read. C is what I would give this book.

*****

This review was writ­ten by avid reader Agatha, who enjoys read­ing almost any­thing as long as it enter­tains. She will be con­tribut­ing the occa­sional review at avid​bookreader.com.

Tech­no­rati Tags: Mary Hig­gins Clark, Sus­pense, Fic­tion, Miss­ing persons

Tagged as: Agatha review, Fiction Review, Mary Higgins Clark, Missing Persons, Mystery, Suspense