I didn’t mean for this to be my first post, but on the very day that this blog went live, I found out that one of the major writers from my youth had died.
I first discovered Mary Higgins Clark with I’ll Be Seeing You back when I was in middle school. I was on vacation with my mother, and it was her airplane reading. I started it while we were out to dinner with some friends of hers, then stayed up all night to finish it. Over the next six years or so, I eagerly devoured everything she put out as well as making my way through her back catalog.
Eventually, my fever for her cooled. I think it was On the Street Where You Live that crystallized what I’d subconsciously realized, which was that her writing had become extremely formulaic and predictable. The heroine would always have at least two love interests. Sometimes there would be a third who was extremely creepy but would prove to be a red herring; he was responsible for some of the weird things that were going on but was not the main villain. Of the two main love interests, one would be the real killer. Almost inevitably, at some point he would threaten the heroine’s life, requiring her to be saved by the other love interest, who would be her true soulmate.
It wasn’t hard to guess which love interest was which, either. It reached the point where I could pick out the villain of the book as soon as he walked on stage—even if that was in the blurb!
And yet…
After that discovery, I wasn’t in love with Mary Higgins Clark to the same extent that I had been before, but I still enjoyed her. I still picked up her books whenever I saw them, I still read them, and I still read to the end. She was called “The Queen of Suspense,” and even though I knew what direction the threat came from, she still made me dread its arrival and root for the arrival of the hero that I knew would inevitably be coming.
I think Mary Higgins Clark can be compared to a baker. Her recipes aren’t complicated; they’re out there for all to see. And yet she’s still the one who can mix them up the best. I didn’t need to be surprised by a secret ingredient to enjoy her treats.
I don’t know if the publisher is going to try to keep “Mary Higgins Clark” going forever a la “V.C. Andrews.” I don’t think they can do it. As I said above, the formula is obvious, but it took a certain level of genius to take the formula and make it into entertaining book after entertaining book. There are still some of her newer novels I haven’t read yet, but I know now its a limited supply, and in the very near future, there will be no more new Mary Higgins Clark to read.
So, Mary Higgins Clark, if you can read this wherever you are, I just want to say thank you for many enjoyable hours. R.I.P.