We'll Meet Again

Rating:
Summary: Fish in a Barrel
Review: What manner of novel becomes a #1 New York Times bestseller and has the New York Times Book Review raving over as having a "diabolical plot [... prepared] so carefully and [executed] with such relish"? One, obviously, painstakingly researched, every detail checked, rechecked, and then checked again. It is unfortunate then, that the extent of research for We'll Meet Again appears to be limited to a Connecticut state travel guide.

Although the author may be known as a mystery writer, this book is much less a mystery than a fawning description of the New England aristocracy that she most likely yearns for. A world in which coffee is drunk from "demitasse cups," live-in cooks are named Pedro, and which is populated by "attractive and socially desirable women." One of sterile emotion and flat character. A world that she is eager to demonstrate her knowledge of in the most insipid detail. There are so many references to Interstate 95 and the Merritt parkway that one would hardly deny that Ms Clark must be intimately familiar with them.

It seems that MHC has a love affair with adjectives. What, really, is a "generous view," and how exactly are "Virginia ham and Swiss cheese removed from a refrigerator with careful pleasure"? Please! The "dried-up" and "tearless" tautologies become "instantly arid". Then there are these flourishing gems of literary style: "His prodigious memory bank instantly furnished the facts he was seeking." In other words, he remembered? Or heart-rending emotion: "It was as though the entire time had been simply a dream sequence. Dream? No- nightmare!" Good grief! Could she possibly have been conscious of the delicious irony in naming her television station NAF TV? And what about the obsession with trivialities, such as the precise manner in which these socialites "throw the rest of a sandwich in the compactor." Who cares?

But enough, because criticizing the literary style of MHC is like shooting fish in a barrel. Unfortunately the story itself is sparse and confused, and eminently comical. Sadistic doctors and evil HMOs are engaged in a conspiracy to kill expensive patients, and when the murder of one of the doctors is witnessed by his wife, she develops amnesia and is convicted of the crime. I can't believe anyone would have the gall to use the amnesia ploy again, but there you have it, MHC is pushing the boundaries of literature- right down the toilet.

A complete waste of time, unless you happen to live in Madison, Connecticut (where it ranks fourteenth in sales by Amazon), or if you like I-95.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD MYSTERY A La M.H.Clark
Review: You should know what you're in for if you have read any of Clark's books...no bloody gore or gross language, just a nice, easy read mystery. The plot centers around a hospital, HMOs, and the murder of one of the doctors. Molly is just released from prison for killing her former husband, Gary. She cannot remember doing it but can't prove it. Ten days later, Gary's girlfriend is killed and Molly is again the suspect. Fran, an investigative reporter wants to do a TV show about it. School friends of Molly's offer support as does her lawyer. But do they really believe she didn't do it? Molly's part-time housekeeper has a few secrets she is not sharing so as to protect her not- normal son who doesn't always take his medications. But he likes Molly and wants to visit her. Power plays for the hospital to take over the HMOs are suspicious in their secret meetings. Who is the killer(s) and how were they done? MHC keeps you in enough suspense and flips the suspect out of the stew to surprise all but the very best of readers who often claim to know the killer from page two.