Mary Higgins-Clark

Mary Higgins Clark (New York, December 24, 1927 – Naples, Florida, January 31, 2020) was an American novelist of Irish descent, widely known as the “Queen of Suspense.” Raised in the Bronx, she experienced financial hardship and the early death of her father. Before achieving literary success, she worked as a secretary, flight attendant and radio scriptwriter. Following her husband Warren Clark’s death in 1964, she raised five children, writing early in the morning before work. She graduated from Fordham University with a degree in philosophy in 1979.

She began her literary career with short stories. Her first novel, Aspire to the Heavens (1968), concerned George Washington. Her breakthrough came with Where Are the Children? (1975), a psychological thriller about a mother whose traumatic past returns when the children of her second marriage disappear. It was followed by A Stranger Is Watching (1977), which combines kidnapping, wrongful conviction and the threat of execution.

Her best-known works include The Cradle Will Fall (1980), A Cry in the Night (1982), Weep No More, My Lady (1987), All Around the Town (1992), Pretend You Don’t See Her (1997) and Before I Say Good-Bye (2000). She also published the memoir Kitchen Privileges (2002).

Her protagonists are often independent women who discover danger, family secrets and crimes beneath apparently secure everyday lives. Shifting viewpoints, short chapters and the gradual revelation of the past sustain her suspense, with psychological vulnerability and emotional relationships at its centre.

She coauthored holiday thrillers with her daughter Carol Higgins Clark and the Under Suspicion series with Alafair Burke. More than one hundred million copies of her books have been printed in the United States alone. In 2000, the Mystery Writers of America named her a Grand Master in recognition of her contribution to the genre.