Moonlight Becomes You

De: Mary Higgins Clark

Narrado por: Megan Gallagher

In her 13th full-length novel - her most chillingly suspenseful yet - Mary Higgins Clark, "America's Queen of Suspense," delivers a tale of brilliantly sustained terror.

Set in Newport, Rhode Island, in a world of old money and proud names, Moonlight Becomes You has at its center Maggie Holloway, an independent young woman who has put personal tragedy behind her and become one of the fashion world's most successful photographers.

Accompanying her date to a party in Manhattan - a kind of family reunion for the Moore clan of Newport - Maggie is reunited with a woman who had once been her stepmother and who remains one of her fondest childhood memories. Nuala Moore is equally thrilled to see Maggie, and the two quickly get beyond old pains and resume their friendship. Nuala, now widowed, invites Maggie to visit her in Newport, and when Maggie readily accepts, Nuala plans a dinner for a group of friends so they can meet her long-lost stepdaughter. But when Maggie arrives, she finds Nuala dead, the victim of an apparently random break-in and robbery. Maggie is heartbroken at the loss and further stunned when she learns that, only days before her death, Nuala had changed her will and left her charming Victorian house to her stepdaughter, the only proviso being that Maggie occasionally visit an old friend, Greta Shipley, who lives in Latham Manor, an elegant retirement home in Newport.

It is when she accompanies Mrs. Shipley to the cemetery to visit Nuala's grave, as well as those of other friends Mrs. Shipley has recently lost, that Maggie discovers that something is wrong. Using her skills as a photographer to aid her in uncovering the secrets hidden on the gravesites, she soon realizes that Nuala's death may not have been a random killing at all but rather part of a diabolical plot conceived by a twisted and unfeeling mind. Suddenly it becomes all too apparent to Maggie that Nuala's killer must have been someone she trusted completely. Then, when Greta...

©1997 Mary Higgins Clark (P)2008 Simon and Schuster

Rather Dark; MHC Delivers the Goods as Usual!

MOONLIGHT BECOMES YOU is a good bet if you’re looking for a romantic suspense novel. It’s a fairly typical Mary Higgins Clark entry: successful young career woman encounters a murder and must try to find the killer, and along the way finds love with an attractive man and faces serious dangers to her life. It’s probably not a spoiler to tell you that things work out okay for the heroine in the end, because this is typical of MHC’s novels… but she does put her heroine through the wringer before she gets there!

This one is a bit darker than others, and a couple of the characters are pretty weird and creepy (including a funeral director with a fixation on anything related to death). Some of the plot points stretch credibility a bit, but then it’s about having a thrilling ride and it doesn’t pay to nitpick about such things. In general, the abridgment works. The murder victim gets bumped off very soon after she is introduced, so we never get to develop much understanding of her. Ditto for the murderer(s): they seem to appear more toward the end of MOONLIGHT BECOMES YOU, so their motivation is pretty straightforward and there are no serious attempts to delve into their psyches. With that said, I did not feel cheated and all of the necessary plot elements were in place to prepare me for the dénouement.

I realize that MHC is a female writer and writes for an overwhelmingly female readership, but I do admire her plotting and ability to tell a story. Abridged versions of her novels appeal to me because they remove a lot of details that don’t matter (to me): I don’t really care what the heroine was wearing, or how handsome a man is, or what wine they drank when they had dinner together! Maggie is a typical MHC heroine: a young, attractive, successful professional with some sadness and tragedy in her past. She isn’t exactly “virginal” (she is a widow), but quite well-behaved: no torrid, extraneous sex scenes here (or anywhere in MHC that I know of), so if you’re looking for that then look elsewhere. (MHC is a devout Catholic and has received several honors from the Holy See, which should tell you something.)

Megan Gallagher does a good job with the narration. She doesn’t go all-out to give each character his/her own “voice,” which is fine. She does convey the proper emotions: nostalgic without becoming sentimental, and frightened without becoming histrionic. Her diction and pace are excellent, and comprehension is not an issue for the listener with her narration.

Overall, an enjoyable listen and better than most: I’ve listened to it more than once, which should tell you something. Recommended! AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY