One of my favorite authors of all time is Mary Higgins Clark. Her novels are are easy to read, yet thought provoking as to "who-dun-it". She is relatively clean (PG mostly) in her stories. "I don't use explicit sex or violence so I wind up on the reading list for the seventh grade." I've always just preferred the idea of implied violence. The Hitchcock way. How many ways can you shoot people up? I think footsteps... that can be scarier. And I think the sexiest line written this century is, "You'll not shut me out of your bedroom tonight." I swear that's sexier than all this rolling in the hay." (http://www.powells.com/authors/higginsclark.html)

She has written well over thirty books, twenty-four of which have been on the best seller list. A widow with five children Mary had to make a living some how. With a colorful history to draw from for her novels Mary has never had a regret about any of them. In her words she says "I'd been a flying hostess with Pan Am...It was very glamorous, but I did it for a year and got married. When I got married, I said, "Now I have to learn how to be a professional writer." In the meantime I'd seen Europe, Africa, and Asia, at a time when I would have been a senior in college. I saw a revolution in Syria. In India they had independence, but it still felt like the colonial empire. I was in Africa when it was still the Belgian Congo and the British Gold Coast and French West Africa. Marvelous experiences. But then when I got married, well, in those days you had to quit. But I was ready. I'd seen the world, and I wanted to become a professional writer. I had to learn how. And I started taking writing courses at NYU." (http://www.powells.com/authors/higginsclark.html)

I write about her and her background as an introduction to her movies. Based on her novels, Mary Higgins Clark has several movies to her credit. Not that she produced them or scripted them in any way, but she saw her "babies" grow into adulthood as they were shown on the big screen. I have seven of them in my collection. Most of them had been filmed in Canada. One movie is rated "R" because it shows a pencil in the head of a psychiatric hospital guards head. The others are all rated PG-13. These ratings are extremely high when compared to the rating system of the United States. I applaud Canada for their stricter rating. The United States would probably rate them all at PG.

Listed below are just a few of the movies based on her novels:

"Haven't We Met Before?"
"We'll Meet Again"
"All Around the Town"
"Your Belong to Me"
"Pretend You Don't See Her"
"Lucky Day"
"Loves Music, Loves to Dance"

Her novels and movies are suspense in nature. They are frequently shown on Lifetime Movie Network. I would say they are akin to Kellie Martin's "Mystery Woman" series.



Mary also writes with her daughter Carol Higgins Clark. Carol is a prolific writer herself. Both Mother and Daughter are world renowned.




If you don't have time to read the book then go to your local video store and pick up one of the movies. You can't go wrong either way.


http://yourldsneighborhood.com/