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While Mary Higgins Clark is certainly an excellent suspense writer, familiarity in some ways breeds contempt. This is true, in general, of suspense writing, but can be said in particular for some of Mary Higgins Clark's work.

I was once what you would call an addict. For a long while I collected every Mary Higgins Clark mystery book ever written. The thing that struck me upon reading book, say, fifteen of my collection was a series of conventions that she employs in every single one of her works. These are identifiers that I admit to actually liking, though I can't say that this would mean that these are the only things I would ever want to read.

For example - strong and, more importantly, beautiful female protagonists. This is key for most of her novels. The lead, if older, is strong with a sense of beauty evocative of even MORE beauty from her younger years. Enclosed with this beauty are flowing skirts. It is a must in her novels.

Seriously, though, the idea of a female lead with the aptitude for figuring out even the most emotionally distressing problems was always an appeal to me, especially when I was younger. It is a factor not important to the suspense itself, but once you are aware of this aspect of Clark's "formula" then it tends to take you out of the text.

She is however, one of my favorites and will continue to be. Her novels move quickly, and are typically the kind that force you to keep reading. There is not much more that you can ask for in a suspense novel than that.

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