The suspense genre recently lost one of its greatest literary figures: Mary Higgins Clark died on January 31, 2020, at the age of 92. She had been lauded for many decades as the “Queen of Suspense”—a well-earned titled considering that she published at least one best-selling suspense novel per year ever since her breakout debut in 1975. The suspense novel, or psychological thriller, is one of the many modern genres that evolved out of the Gothic. It is closely tied to another of these genres, detective fiction, and builds on Ann Radcliffe’s concept of terror as the driving force of Gothic fiction. Suspense novels generally involve some sort of crime and/or mystery and focus on the psychological states of the characters as they hurtle toward an uncertain outcome. These novels are characterized by ambiguity, plot twists, and most of all by the sense of worry and anticipation that they arouse in the characters and the reader. Mary Higgins Clark’s novels tend to feature resourceful female protagonists who must solve a mystery they are personally connected to. (One of her most common plot tropes is an accused woman who must prove her own innocence.) Her books are particularly beloved for their relatable leading ladies, who are usually older women that must take on the role of amateur sleuth when their lives are interrupted by violent crime. I reviewed one of Clark’s novels here on this blog a few years back, but today I want to take a broader look at her legacy.
I first discovered Mary Higgins Clark right when I started branching out from the children’s section of the bookstore and wandering over to the shelves sorted by genre in the adult section. I distinctly remember writing a book report in middle school for While My Pretty One Sleeps (1989). This book was Clark’s twelfth suspense novel, still relatively early in her career. It centers on Neeve Kearney, a fashion designer and boutique store owner, who teams up with her retired police commissioner father and is plunged into the underworld of organized crime while trying to solve the murder of one of her clients. The mystery becomes more layered when they discover that this recent murder is connected to the death of Neeve’s mother nearly two decades before, and that Neeve may now be in danger herself. Neeve and her father investigate numerous suspects and red herrings until the true murderer is revealed to be someone that they both trusted. The solution to the mystery hinges on Neeve’s expertise with high fashion and intimate knowledge of her friend, rather than on her father’s professional experience as a policeman. The novel’s setting among the glittering social circles of Manhattan’s wealthy elite lends an atmosphere of decadence that contrasts with the gruesome crimes committed in its midst.
Clark’s most well-known book is probably her debut suspense novel Where Are the Children? (1975), which set the tone for her later writing. The story’s protagonist, Nancy Harmon, started her life over after being charged with the murder of her first two children and released on a technicality. She changed her appearance, took on a new name, and started a new family in Cape Cod. But her past resurfaces when her two young children go missing. As the truth about her old life is revealed, suspicion is centered on Nancy. To prove her innocence and save her children, Nancy will have to track down the real kidnapper before it is too late. Clark drew the inspiration for this novel from true crime, basing it off of recent headlines about missing and murdered children.
One of her works that most clearly illustrates the influence of the Gothic is A Cry in the Night (1989). The plot of this novel strongly resembles Daphne du Maurier’s Gothic novel Rebecca. In Clark’s book, divorcée and single mother Jenny MacPartland has her life upended when she marries Erich Kreuger after a whirlwind romance. She moves with her family from New York to Erich’s isolated mansion in the country. But she soon realizes that the man she’s tied herself to and become dependent on may not be exactly what he seemed. Like Mrs. Danvers with Rebecca, Erich is creepily obsessed with his dead mother Caroline, whose portrait bears a striking resemblance to Jenny. Erich’s behavior becomes erratic, and Jenny’s situation grows more dire when she realizes she’s pregnant with Erich’s child. Then her daughters go missing, and Jenny must uncover Erich’s secrets in order to save her children. From the sudden marriage to an isolated mansion whose inhabitants are fixated on the past, it’s clear that Rebecca serves as the model for this type of suspense novel. The trope of a woman who suddenly becomes vulnerable when she arrives at an unfamiliar setting and falls under the power of the man who has authority there is even older, going back to the very first Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto.
Are you familiar with Mary Higgins Clark? Which of her novels have you read? Feel free to share your experiences and celebrate her life and works with me in the comments!
MHC novels were my first “adult” reads beginning when I was fourteen. I read much of what she’d written and her new books as they released during the early 1990s.