Moonlight Becomes You

Rating:
Summary: Not her best, but still good!
Review: I have read all MJC's books. "Moonlight Becomes You" ranks in the top half, but is not her best. But who cares? If you're a fan, don't miss it. In my opinion, her best was "While My Pretty One Sleeps"

Rating:
Summary: Moonlight Becomes You
Review: Mary Higgins Clark is the "Queen of Suspense". Moonlight Becomes You is her twelfth novel. Maggie Holloway, one of the most successful photographers in New York, meets her former stepmother, Nuala, in a cocktail party. Nuala lives in New Port, Rhode Island, which is an hour away from New York. After a week, she invites a group of friends and Maggie to introduce her long-lost stepdaughter. When Maggie arrives at Nuala's house, she finds that Nuala is killed and the house has been ransacked. The next day, she is amazed that Nuala has left a fancy Victorian house to her. The conflict among the characters begins with Nuala's death and the house. Although Nuala has been murdered in that house, Maggie decides to stay there for two weeks as she planned at first. Malcom tries to persuade Maggie to sell her house again and again. She delays to respond because she thinks there was a reason that Nuala changed her mind and refused to sell. She goes to Latham Manor to see Nuala's best friend, Greta. While they are going to the cemetery to visit Nuala, Greta tells Maggie the memories about Nuala. At the cemetery, using her skills as photographer, she takes many pictures of graves. Then, Maggie discovers something is wrong. Several bells were there, including Nuala's. Soon, Greta dies with a sudden heart attack. In a week, three women die suddenly: Nuala, Greta, and Mrs. Rhinelander who dies a few days before Nuala. These consecutive deaths make Maggie to feel weird and strange. She doesn't realize that she has become a target for the killer as well, and that each clue she uncovers brings her closer and closer to shocking and unimaginable fate. Mary Higgins Clark did much research to write this book. She set up the story line based on some historical facts. In the Victorian Age, there was a unique funeral custom. If there was a person whose death was judged as sudden, people put a string on his or her finger when buried. The string was connected to a bell outside the grave. The reason why they did this was to avoid suffocating a person who had been accidentally buried alive. When a person awoke in the coffin, he or she could ring the bell by tugging the string. It notified a grave keeper, and he would dig up the grave. Then the person could come out. It's incredible, but it happened on occasion. In fact, Moonlight Becomes You was little bit hard to turn the pages to me at first, though. It is still worth trying this book. Most mystery books I read use wise men to lead the story. However, Mary Higgins Clark uses a clever and dedicated woman to solve the mystery. And as you close to the last page, Mary Higgins Clark won't let you down.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed at times, but still a good read
Review: I am usually a very avid fan of Mary Higgins Clark, and Moonlight Becomes You, although a good read, was not one of her works that rank up there. First of all, there were too many characters, some almost laughable at times. Some of the characters were well-written though, but most were just too drawn-out and bland. The plot was good, not excellent, but like myself, many readers would suspect who the killer was. It was really obvious. I'm not going to give away the name, that is for you to decide if you want to read it or not. After half-way reading through it, I was about to just skip to the end to see who it was, but I didn't want to spoil the surprise. The ending left me waiting. When I finished it, I asked myself, "Isn't there more, maybe a few pages are missing," but it was all there. The ending just dropped off, and a bit confusing. The whole victorian bells thing I could noy understand. Still it isn't the worst of her works, and I recommend reading it. Like Nuala, this book died in the beginning.