No Place Like Home

My latest gym book was No Place Like Home by Mary Higgins Clark. I used to qualify my reading of her books by calling them "brain candy" or "guilty pleasures," but I don't even think that's necessary anymore. She may not be a queen of lyrical prose (and insists on sending her characters to get a "container" of coffee instead of a "cup"), but she can tell one heck of a story. This was one of her best, too! At least of those that I've read.

When she was ten, Liza Barton accidentally shot and killed her mother while protecting herself from her raging stepfather. The crime rocked the small New England town where the Bartons lived, with the community assuming Liza meant to kill her mother. Now as an adult, Liza is living as Celia Nolan, an interior decorator and mother of one grade-school-aged son. As a surprise birthday present, Celia's husband buys her a house in a small New England town . . . the house where Celia/Liza grew up and killed her mother.

As soon as the Nolans arrive, vandals strike the house, which has never shed its stigma, and nearly everyone with any stake in the house or the crime starts turning up dead. Of course, Celia starts to look guilty, and she's constantly afraid someone will discover her true identity.

I usually don't even try to figure our Clark's mysteries. She creates so many plausible bad guys, it's nearly impossible to pick the guilty one. I did suspect one person from the start, however, and turned out to be right. I take this as a significant personal victory! At first I thought there were too many characters to keep straight, but when Clark reintroduces the characters, she does a good job of giving us some detail to remind us who the person is.

After reading The Grift, I appreciate Clark's mastery of mystery and suspense more than ever!