You Belong To Me

Rating:
Summary: "You Belong To Me" is not one of Clark's best efforts.
Review: "You Belong to Me" is not vintage Mary Higgins Clark. It lacks the suspense and well-developed characters to make it the page turner and one-night read she is famous for. The villian is easily spotted, and the plot is drawn out so that the last 100 pages are far from exciting.

Rating:
Summary: A mixture of bland writing and implausible characters
Review: Mary Higgens Clark's popularity remains quite high but her recent books do not measure up to earlier offerings which offered intricate, suspenseful plots and characters and settings which were richly described and quite believable. In her latest book, You Belong to Me, the main character is in danger from a psychopath and the reader is forced to guess which one of the seemingly normal men in the story is the villain. The heroine, however, is not developed enough for us to care who is after her; in addition, the three suspects are merely paperdoll characters and one gets the impression that the author simply said "eeney, meeney, miney, mo" and picked the bad guy before she wrote the final chapter. No matter what the hype, skip this one.

Rating:
Summary: Not her Best
Review: "You Belong to Me" was not Mary Higgins Clark at her best. The characters were cardboard cutouts, and Clark followed a plot pattern similar to many of her other books. I felt no real attachment to any of the characters and no real suspense, I guessed who the killer was after twenty-five pages.

Rating:
Summary: It was worth the wait!
Review: MHC has written another masterpiece. Enjoyed reading it immensely!

Rating:
Summary: Multiple murders,Masterful mystery,Magnificent!
Review: I've been waiting weeks for this book to come out.I read it in two days!This is MHC at her best!A great whodunnit loaded with murder victims and murder suspects.Dr.Susan Chandler is a great character as the "sleuth".She is a former assistant DA,now a radio psychologist with a small private practice.Her family adds alot of humor,and situations people can relate to.This is a great week-end read for all mystery fans,not just the MHC readers.

Rating:
Summary: AS good as she always is
Review: Psychologist Dr. Susan Chandler hosts a radio call-in show. Her topic is the disappearance of women, including the vanishing of Regina Clausen. A caller, using the alias Karen, tells Susan that she experienced something similar on a cruise ship when a handsome man courted her and gave her a ring inscribed with the inscription "You belong to me". Karen says she also has a photo of her paramour. She will provide both to Susan.

However, before she can deliver on her promise, Karen is run over by a van. Most witnesses and the police insist it was an accident. However, one person swears the victim was shoved into the van. Now Susan, a former prosecutor, begins to investigate what happened even as she places herself in danger from a suave killer.

YOU BELONG TO ME is a superb thriller from one of the genre's all time greats, Mary Higgins Clark. The story line is filled with non-stop action and the lead character is a strong, but obstinate individual. The secondary players add depth, as several of them could be the murderer. Ms. Clark still has the finesse to provide her myriad of fans with a top rate reading experience.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: You Belong to Me
Review: Mary Higgens Clark is one of my favorite authors. She writes suspensful and page turning novels. "You Belong to Me" is one of the most entertaining books I have ever read. Her style of writing is original and intense with excitement. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys books that are so riveting, it's difficult to put down. The story's main character is Susan Chandler, a psychologist with her own radio show. She uses the radio show to look into a case of a missing woman, Regina Clausen. Regina disappeared on a cruise ship and was never seen again, but in her possessions was found a ring with "You belong to me" engraved on it. A woman, who calls herself Karen, calls into the show and states that she has a similar ring and a picture of the man who gave it to her. The killer hears her and is enraged that his identity might be revealed. He follows Karen, whose real name is Carolyn Wells, to the post office and pushes her in front of a speeding van. The killer is so obsessed with protecting his privacy, he kills three more people who might have had information leading to his identity. Meanwhile, Susan is dating a wealty man named Alex Wright, and another psychologist, Don Richards. Susan likes both men, but is really interested in Alex Wright. She continues to uncover more clues about the killer and is starting to understand the connection between the recent deaths and the killer's habits. She is at her desk one night going through pictures she accured when the killer suprises her and attempts to kill her. To find out who the cold-hearted killer is, read "You Belong to Me". There is nothing I would change about Mary Higgens Clark's book. I applaud her ways in keeping the reader continually guessing the identity of the killer. The unexpected ending will bewilder you. I look forward to reading her next book and encourage everyone to read her splendid book, "You Belong to Me".

Rating:
Summary: Ridiculous
Review: I listed to this on tape and I was very disappointed. Susan Chandler is supposedly a very intelligent woman, yet the audience figures out who the killer is WAY before she does. And she's an educated talk show host? I think Dr. Laura would have this gal for lunch. The turquoise ring thread was a lot of overkill too. What interested me at first was the luxury cruise ship connection, but even that got old after awhile.

Rating:
Summary: MHC is amazing--one of her best!!!
Review: MHC is an amazing writer--Her ability to create such suspense in each book never ceases to astonish me. I've read every one of her books, and this was one of the best. The ending was a tad predictable, but the plot and premise of this story were excellent. Her best work, I feel, was All Around the Town, but this definitely is right up there.

Rating:
Summary: Fast paced and rivoting
Review: Mary Higgins Clark writes a well-crafted novel that succeeds in luring the reader in and keeping them turning those pages. In "You Belong to Me" her highly lucrative formula of alternating chapters focusing on the varying third person perspectives works extremely well to keep the reader from guessing the identity of the murderer until Clark sees fit to reveal it at the very end of her story.

The plot revolves around likeable call-in radio psychologist Susan Chandler who inadvertantly triggers a spree of seemingly unlinked killings when she decides to center a few of her broadcasts on the subject of disappearing women, in particular Regina Clausen, a leading financial analyst who disappeared 4 years earlier without a trace while on a cruise in the Far East. As readers, we get a glimpse into the mind of the murderer as he himself listens to the show and strategizes to keep his overall plan a secret by eliminating people who simply get in his way. We are privy to police investigations, and the ruminations of private eyes and eye witnesses. We walk for a while in the shoes of intended victims and share their horror as the murderer moves along his amoral course without regrets. We uncover facts about Dr Susan, immediately understanding that she is undergoing some personal problems of her own regarding her parent's divorce and her father's subsequent marriage to someone she dislikes; her mother's ensueing depression and her sister's angry betrayals. Most entertaining is guessing which of the three men linked to Dr. Susan personally is our deranged serial killer and what motivation has provoked such a terrible vengenance.

Clark doesn't disappoint, she keeps you interested until the last page. As in her other novels, none of the characters are really developed---there are so many of them---it would be difficult to analyze each of them thoroughly and stay within the 300+ page parameter of the popular novel. Nevertheless, the momentum of the story allows you to overlook the lack of indepth characterization. Indeed the story itself is the strongest character as is the backdrop of New York and its world of traffic, crowds and taxi rides.

Recommended to all lovers of suspense who like a contained story where all loose ends are tied at the climax and denouement in a lovely logical bow.