Sat 1 Feb 2020
Death Noted: MARY HIGGINS CLARK (1927 – 2020).
Posted by Steve under Authors , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Obituaries / Deaths Noted[10] Comments
MARY (THERESA ELEANOR) HIGGINS CLARK, author of some 50 plus crime and suspense novels died yesterday, January 31, 2020, at the age of 92. Her sales, in the millions of copies, must rank her as being among the greatest of any recent or current writer in the field.
Theatrical films have been made of the following novels: A Stranger Is Watching (1982), Where Are the Children? (1986), Lucky Day (2002) , and All Around the Town (2002), and dozens more have been adapted into made-for-TV films.
The following bibliography has been taken from the Fantastic Fiction website:
The Alvirah and Willy series —
[A lottery winner and her husband use their winnings to solve crimes.]
1. Weep No More, My Lady (1987)
2. The Lottery Winner (1994)
3. All Through The Night (1998)
4. Deck the Halls (2000) (with Carol Higgins Clark)
5. The Christmas Thief (2004) (with Carol Higgins Clark)
6. Santa Cruise (2006) (with Carol Higgins Clark)
7. Dashing Through the Snow (2008) (with Carol Higgins Clark)
8. I’ll Walk Alone (2011)
9. The Lost Years (2012)
10. As Time Goes By (2016)
11. All By Myself Alone (2017)
The Regan Reilly series (with Carol Higgins Clark)
[Regan Reilly is a private investigator based in Los Angeles.]
Deck the Halls (2000)
The Christmas Collection (2006)
Santa Cruise (2006)
Dashing Through the Snow (2008)
The “Under Suspicion” series —
[Laurie Moran is a producer on the television series ‘Under Suspicion’, a documentary program which investigates unsolved cold cases.]
1. I’ve Got You Under My Skin (2014)
2. The Cinderella Murder (2013) (with Alafair Burke)
3. All Dressed in White (2015) (with Alafair Burke)
4. The Sleeping Beauty Killer (2016) (with Alafair Burke)
5. Every Breath you Take (2017) (with Alafair Burke)
6. You Don’t Own Me (2018) (with Alafair Burke)
Other Novels —
Aspire to the Heavens (1960) aka Mount Vernon Love Story (non-criminous)
Where Are the Children? (1975)
A Stranger Is Watching (1978)
The Cradle Will Fall (1980)
A Cry in the Night (1982)
Stillwatch (1984)
While My Pretty One Sleeps (1989)
Loves Music, Loves to Dance (1991)
All Around the Town (1992)
I’ll Be Seeing You (1993)
Remember Me (1994)
Pretend You Don’t See Her (1995)
Let Me Call You Sweetheart (1995)
Silent Night (1995)
Moonlight Becomes You (1996)
You Belong to Me (1998)
We’ll Meet Again (1998)
Before I Say Good-Bye (2000)
On the Street Where You Live (2000)
He Sees You When You’re Sleeping (2001) (with Carol Higgins Clark)
Daddy’s Little Girl (2002)
The Second Time Around (2003)
Nighttime Is My Time (2004)
No Place Like Home (2005)
Two Little Girls in Blue (2006)
I Heard That Song Before (2007)
Where Are You Now? (2008)
Just Take My Heart (2009)
The Shadow of Your Smile (2010)
Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting (2013)
Inherit the Dead (2013) (with C J Box, Lee Child, John Connolly, Charlaine Harris, Jonathan Santlofer and Lisa Unger)
The Melody Lingers on (2015)
I’ve Got My Eyes on You (2018)
Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cry (2019)
Seven issues of Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Magazine were published sporadically between 1996 and 2000.
February 1st, 2020 at 1:32 pm
She was a classic, true original. R.I.P. Miss Clark.
February 1st, 2020 at 1:59 pm
Very much so, John. I have found this from her obituary in Variety:
“The author was awarded numerous honors throughout her career including the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 1980, and induction as a Grand Master of the Edgar Allen Poe Awards by the Mystery Writers of America. She was granted membership in the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans in 1997. Known as a devout Roman Catholic, she received the papal honor of being named Dame of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great. Additionally, in 2001, Simon & Schuster began to sponsor an annual award for suspense-fiction writers in Clark’s name.”
February 1st, 2020 at 2:04 pm
Funny, I always think of her as a romance writer. Have not read any of her books.
February 1st, 2020 at 2:15 pm
Rick
I’ve always thought of her books as falling in the romantic suspense category, but with a bit more emphasis on the suspense than on the romance. I’ve sampled her Regan Reilly books, since they’re PI stories, but otherwise, I have to admit, very few of the others. This has probably been a huge error on my part.
February 1st, 2020 at 4:40 pm
For some reason, my phone doesn’t let me post here.
Anyway, she was a really gracious woman, to the famous and non-famous alike. You’d find yourself in an elevator with her at a Bouchercon and she was just a warm, charming, delightful person to one and all.
February 1st, 2020 at 4:43 pm
The Regan Reilly series is written by her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark. They’re ok. I enjoy her books, and I also feel more suspense than romance.
She was so wonderful to everone. I remember missing she and Les Roberts doing a sing along at one of the Magna Cum Murders. I wish it had been taped.
What I enjoyed is looking at her picture on the dj’s of the book and seeing the jewelry get bigger and bigger
February 1st, 2020 at 7:29 pm
Jeff and Maggie
It was good to hear from both of you about meeting her in person. She seems to have been a friendly outgoing person. I never had the opportunity to get to as many mystery conventions as you two have — quite a few between you, I’m sure.
And Jeff, it looks like your phone let you post after all?
February 1st, 2020 at 8:22 pm
January always seems to be the month with an unusually high frequency of sad tidings like this.
And I’m not sure but last time I read about it, May is always the month with the highest number of plane crashes.
February 1st, 2020 at 10:04 pm
I didn’t know her well, but she was a nice and generous lady, and gave her readers more than they needed with her talent and understanding of them, and if she seldom challenged them, that isn’t the job of entertainers.
February 2nd, 2020 at 7:19 am
Actually, no. I had to wait to post on the laptop.