Deck The Halls

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Twist Falls Flat
Review: As one who looks forward to any new Mary Higgins Clark book, I have to sadly admit that this was a disappointment. Being a lover of mysteries set at Christmas, I was totally captivated by her previous Christmas novella, "All Through The Night." This current one, while starting out on an interesting note (loved having Alvirah connect with Regan Reilly), falls flat quickly due to the lack of suspense. Is there any reader who does not know from early into the book how this is going to turn out? The suspense is virtually non-existent. Also, Mary has gone to the kidnapping at Christmas plot once too often. It worked so well in "All Through the Night" because the reader was caught up in the suspense of the helpless infant being the victim. It's hard to muster the same level of concern for two adults who seem far wiser than their inept kidnappers. I've read all of MHC's books and this one goes on the bottom of my list when ranking favorites. But I hope she does another Christmas one in 2001; just want her to be more imaginative and suspenseful.

Rating:
Summary: A bit of fluff !!
Review: Deck the Halls by the mother and daughter team of Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark is ideal for an afternoons read by the fire.Two private detectives, each a favourite character in the respective writers novels, team up to solve a kidnapping.It's a light,pleasant bit of flummery and, being such a slim volume, takes only a couple of hours to read without any brain strain. The crooks are bumbling idiots and the outcome is very obvious right from the beginning. Another thing that bothered me was the writing style-I seem to remember this speech pattern from my schoolgirl stories when I was a child and it just doesn't suit adult books.

Rating:
Summary: Deck the Halls
Review: I have read several novels by Mary Higgins Clark, but none by her daughter Carol. They team up to write "Deck the Halls", which has Carol's series character, Regan Reilly, and Mary's character, Alvirah Meehan, who has appeared in several of her novels. The novel centers around the kidnapping of Regan's father, Luke Reilly, and his driver just days before Christmas. Regan and Alvirah team up to help solve the crime. The kidnappers follow a plot used by Regan's mother, Nora, who is a mystery writer. This is an enjoyable read, and is recommended for 3-4 hours of holiday fun.

Rating:
Summary: Dynamic Duo Decks The Halls
Review: In their first joint effort, the perennially best selling Mary Higgins Clark (All Through the Night, Before I Say Good-Bye) and daughter Carol Higgins Clark, herself an up-and-coming author (Iced), create a winning detective duo by teaming up favorite characters from their own respective novels.

Christmas is looking not so merry for Luke and Nora Reilly. First, Mrs. Reilly trips over a rug and breaks her leg, ruining a planned family trip to Hawaii. Then, while she is recovering in the hospital, Mr. Reilly and his spunky chauffeur Rosita are kidnapped and held for $1 million ransom. What the bad guys don't know, however, is that the Reillys' daughter Regan is a savvy private eye. Enlisting the help of Alvirah Meehan, an amateur detective, Regan sleuths her way to solving the case, but not without encountering a few twisting setbacks along the way.

At the risk of flickering any MHC's long-burning fans, I feel I need to point out some plot devices do run a tad thin here and there, hey, I'm being honest -- the kidnapping scheme is , well, let me just say,I think Rudolph the red-nosed you-know-what could sniff out the clues. All in all, this ho-ho-ho story makes for an entertaining, Christmas or anytime read treat.

Rating:
Summary: Add A Star If You Are A Big Mary Higgins Clark Fan
Review: It has become an annual tradition for Mary Higgins Clark to put out a Christmas thriller. They are shorter books than her usual fare and I guess they are marketed as great stocking stuffers. Lately, I have found myself enjoying Clark's books less and less. They have become much too predictable and at best can be described as "lite" thrillers. If this type of book appeals to you, you will enjoy Deck The Halls. Loyal fans of Clark's work will find the usual elements that attract them to her books. For those readers looking for something fresh and exciting, this book is not for you. I have never read any of the books written by her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark(who she cowrote this book with), so I have no point of comparison on her end. I will say that reading Deck The Halls does not inspire to go out and read any of Carol's other work. This is not an awful book, it's just not an interesting one. Any mystery and thriller fan will be able to predict all the action in this book by the time they've reached page fifty. I realize that is actually a positive characteristic for avid Mary Higgins Clark fans. The familiarity of both the plot and characters is attractive to these fans and the formula will produce another New York Times Bestseller. For those who have never read Clark before this is not the place to start. Go back to one of her earlier works when her plots seemed fresh and new. A true Christmas present from Clark would be to write a book as good as those early ones. These books are an annual tradition I could live without.

Rating:
Summary: No suspense, no mystery, and not a thriller
Review: Why did the queen of suspense become involved with this novel? I assume it was to fulfill a lifelong goal for mother and daughter to write together or for a contract because that is all that was achieved. I've never read Carol Higgins Clark, therefore I do not know if her other books were as boring. Mary Higgins Clark, however, has kept me spellbound for hours.

The plot was mediocre -- Luke Reilly and Rosita Gonzazles are kidnapped for ransom. They are held in a leaky boat until the inept culprits get paid. The stupidity of these criminals comes through in their conversation and actions. The characters were one-dimensional and gratuitous, and it seemed their only purpose was to give names for identification while reading.

I was surprised by the immature style of writing. Even though we run into people with our name, it is not a good story approach because it can be confusing - two sets of Reilly's make for difficult character identification. Long time writers rarely make the mistake of switching the point of view (POV) multiple times within short segments or changing the verb tense from past to present while doing so. Perhaps I see this clearly because I'm an editor, but I think the sudden switches would be unwelcome by most readers. The book needed to be proofread, and may have been, but there were so many grammatical errors that I doubt if the authors even read it. Some of these items are question marks or periods immediately followed by a comma, or double period marks, and some misspellings. Every book has some proofread errors, and I, like most people, simply ignore them. There were too many to be ignored.

In my opinion, this book was published because of the author's names. Period. I do not recommend it.

Victoria Tarrani