Review : Willy & Alvirah by Mary Higgins Clark

Plot summary ( from Audible )

Follow the adventures of lottery winning couple Willy and Alvirah Meehan through these best selling short stories . The couple is targeted and pursued by ex-cons after winning the lottery in ” Plumbing for Willy ” , they discover the body of actress Fiona Winter in their New York apartment in ” The Body in the Closet ” , and they help Cynthia Lathem solve the murder of her stepfather in ” Death in the Cape ” . As a special bonus , author Mary Higgins Clark pushes the aura of suspense sky – high in ” Stowaway ” and ” Milk Run ” , a pair of stories set aboard jetliners . . .

My thoughts on the book :

A quick note before getting started with the review – I have given the star rating for individual stories also ( just count the stars next to the title ) . . .

In Death in the Cape *** , Cynthia Lathem has served twelve years for a crime she did not commit – the murder of her step – father . She is back in town looking for answers to the questions which continue to haunt her about the night her step – father was murdered . Luckily for Cynthia , Alvirah is holidaying in town and she is not the one to miss out on a case like hers . . .This one suffers from too much of classic Clark – isms and a very predictable plot – a damsel – in – distress who is determined not to lean on anybody and is on a mission , her Prince Charming standing on the sidelines hoping that she would let him help her and looking only for a cue from her so that he can swoop in and help her in her mission ( obviously that cue is not going to come from our heroine – so Prince Charming should finally put his foot down and make an appearance even if our heroine thinks she can handle it all on her own . . . ) and Alvirah ‘s sunburst pin . . . Still , Clark ‘ s average outputs are superior to some of the much – hyped recent releases which are riddled with plot holes . . .

The Body in the Closet **** has Alvirah trying to hunt down the murderer of an up – and – coming actress Fiona Winter when her favorite playwright nephew becomes the prime suspect . While this is a clever one , Alvirah trying to play the Cupid in every story involving young people is highly exasperating . Also , several of the elements mentioned above have almost become constants with every MHC offering and it does not need a Kirkus to call them out . Still , it would have been a welcome surprise to have at least regulars like Willy & Alvirah evolve with every new anthology – I am expecting Alvirah to go all teary eyed ( and Willy to pragmatically observe that Alvirah should leave the lovebirds alone ) when two young people finally decide to get together after their life – altering ordeal and both never disappoint me . ( Duh ! )

I would suggest that you start with Stowaway ***** & Milk Run ***** – both definitely have some of the elements which I have mentioned earlier but the brilliant plotting makes them fantastic reads ( especially with Stowaway ) . Oh , you can also expect some mid – air drama in the style of movies involving plane hijacking . . . In a nutshell , Stowaway has a flight attendant helping a young boy from the underground evade capture by the Soviet police . In the Milk Run , a flight attendant is entrusted with some secret papers only to find that they have been stolen mid – flight . . . Can she retrieve them before touchdown ?

Alvirah ‘ s long suffering husband Willy gets kidnapped in Plumbing For Willy *** after a bunch of ex – cons watch an episode of the Donahue show in which Alvirah and her husband make an appearance . The ex – cons are sharp as marbles and with Alvirah roping in her sister – in – law Sister Caroline & friends in the rescue mission , you are guaranteed a romp . . .

Rating : 4 / 5

If you have already read Willy & Alvirah , let me know in the comments section about your thoughts on the book  . If you have any interesting recommendations , please do share them . Until the next review then . . .

Review: Daddy ‘ s Gone a – Hunting

The first book I picked up this year was The Chalk Man . It looks like C J Tudor used several elements from the Stephen King ‘ s books and fleshed out her narrative . While IT had Losers , C J introduces us to The Misfits and frankly the backstories of some of the Misfits sound vaguely familiar if you are familiar with the IT world . . My imagination did not bother or lacked the power to picturise the ” horrifying ” scenes down to the minute detail that I did not get scared as much as I hoped to be .  So I breezed through the book and returned it to the library . Nothing stood out about The Chalk Man that I remember it or could have written about here . .

That’s why I picked up a Mary Higgins Clark  . But even Clark turned out to be a huge disappointment this time . But I have finally come to terms with the bitter truth that every  great writer has a few mediocre  books to his or her credit and Clark is no exception . The first thing that popped up in my mind after reading this book was if Clark actually wrote this book . Okay , without further rant , I will get started with the review . .

Plot summary :

A dark secret from a family’s past that threatens the lives of two sisters, Kate and Hannah Connelly, when the family-owned furniture firm in Long Island City , founded by their grandfather and famous for its fine reproductions of antiques , explodes into flames in the middle of the night , leveling the buildings to the ground , including the museum where priceless antiques have been on permanent display for years.

The ashes reveal a startling and grisly discovery , and provoke a host of suspicions and questions . Was the explosion deliberately set ? What was Kate—tall , gorgeous , blond , a CPA for one of the biggest accounting firms in the country , and sister of a rising fashion designer — doing in the museum when it burst into flames ? Why was Gus , a retired and disgruntled craftsman, with her at that time of night ? What if someone isn’t who he claims to be?

Now Gus is dead , and Kate lies in the hospital badly injured and in a coma , so neither can tell what drew them there , or what the tragedy may have to do with the hunt for a young woman missing for many years , nor can they warn that somebody may be covering his tracks, willing to kill to save himself . . .

My thoughts on the book : 

This is not a regular Clark novel and here are the reasons for it –

I have always raved about Clark’s heroines being young women who can  tackle unexpected problematic situations in their lives with grit and intelligence .  But sadly , Hannah Connelly does not have neither the intelligence  or  the  grit for some amateur sleuth work or even bring some decent intuition until  the last  – but  – one  chapter . . . The amateur sleuth ( Hannah ‘ s sister Kate as a matter of fact ) is unfortunately sent to the coma within 3 chapters and we are left to put up with one of the most unimaginative Clark heroines who can only sit by her sister’s bedside holding her hand . . .

While I might have appreciated the deviation from the template requiring a  I – can – handle – it – all – by – myself heroine , what  irked me about Hannah Connelly is that she doesn’t bring anything to the plot . Take her out of the story line and still you would have a decent suspense story with the remainder of the characters  . Note :  You can also take her love interest from the plot . I seriously wouldn’t miss either of them . Katie ‘ s  friend and her love – interest atleast do some thinking and give us some new angles to  think about . . .

There is a reference to a Roman Catholic father who turns up at Kate’s hospital room to pray for her . I was expecting him to bring something significant information to the hospital visit along with his prayers . . . Nope , he had only the prayers and yet he took up an entire chapter . Talk about suspense genre writing  sins . . . In addition to introducing characters who were only trying my patience as they took up entire chapters , the overall character development was not satisfactory . Sometimes it looked even amateurish .

While we are guaranteed a happy ending with Clark ,  I can’ t buy some aspects of the plot . . . While I might liberally overlook if those aspects are those of the subplot  , the fact is that I can ‘ t  buy the reveal of the main plot itself . . .

** Spoiler alert **

Will a four year old repress her intuitive knowledge regarding her father and the associated memory and actually grow up to be a young woman whose interactions with that man are very normal like a regular father – daughter ? I happened to pick up Agatha Christie ‘ s Sleeping murder ( as a re – read ) in which , coincidentally the heroine ‘ s  ( Gwenda Reed ‘ s ) memory from early childhood gets triggered and she screams out when she sees the play The Duchess of Malfi and hears the following words spoken by one of the actors  –  “Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle; she died young” . . .

While Christie does not specify Gwenda ‘ s age ( at the time Gwenda actually thinks she witnessed the murder of a young woman named Helen ) , we can safely assume she was probably two or  two – and – a – half . While several little things help Gwenda piece the memories ( with Miss Marple ‘ s help , of course )  , wouldn’t anything in all these years of Kate ‘ s life triggered something like an uneasiness regarding the man whom she called her father ? ? The man had actually threatened Kate that she should not say those words again when she had inadvertently let the incriminating words slip through . Will the threat become a part of the sub – conscious that easily ? I just can’t buy that . . .

When you have umpteen questions  regarding the big reveal and downright unimpressed with the lead pair , you can ‘ t give it even a 3 .

Rating : 2 . 5 / 5

P . S : Now that we are in a lock-down in India  , I don ‘ t have any option but to revisit my bookshelves. I am thinking of picking up a classic for a change .  Hoping that the next read would be a change from all these disappointments . . .

Two books in three months – I know that the count is pathetic . . . Hoping I will be able to remedy that . . .