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NO PLACE LIKE HOME
by Mary Higgins Clark
Pocket Books, January 2006
384 pages
6.99GBP
ISBN: 1416502211


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

In Mary Higgins Clark's latest mystery, NO PLACE LIKE HOME, Celia Nolan moves into the house that her new husband swears is his dream house, and ought to be hers. Unfortunately, it's the house in which she grew up, and, at a very young age, fatally shot her mother and wounded her stepfather.

Back then, she was known as Liza Barton. She hasn't told the new husband about her past, but it appears that other people in the quiet New Jersey town know -- and are committing more murders, and trying to frame 'Celia' for them. In order to save herself, she must unravel the mystery.

Told from the viewpoints of several different, interestingly eclectic characters, NO PLACE LIKE HOME is a quiet psychological thriller. The whodunit plot is difficult to piece together because of the constant motion of Clark's large cast of characters. I was able to put together the hidden back story before Celia did, but the ending was a surprise. In fact, it was one of those surprise endings that makes the reader feel very stupid for not having guessed it before.

As a heroine, Celia is a mundane, maternal-and-wifely type, far removed from her desperate attempt to save her mother from her stepfather's violence. She's an interior decorator by profession, but doesn't do much business during the novel's time-span. She has a four-year-old son who is almost always a good, manageable kid. He's a staple of the woman-in-danger mystery: the baddies who come for Celia also pose a danger to her child, so she really, really must frustrate them.

Although some elements of NO PLACE LIKE HOME are fairly common and predictable, Clark makes Celia decide to take risky but necessary action, years after she did so as a child. She ends up demonstrating qualities that seem beyond the range of the Celia of the first chapters.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME isn't a book you'll want to re-read in order to catch the subtleties or lingering questions, as there aren't any, but it's an engaging tale. As a beach book, it'll do adequately. In short, if Clark is what you like, then you'll probably like it.

Reviewed by Rebecca Nesvet, April 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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