All Through the Night » (Abridged)

Mary Higgins Clark likes to delve into different worlds in her crackerjack novels of suspense; but while the milieus change, her stories are always compelling. As she puts it: "I write about people going about their daily lives, not looking for trouble, who are suddenly plunged into menacing situations."

With Silent Night, Mary Higgins Clark, America's Queen of Suspense, gave her listeners their best Christmas present ever. Now, with All Through the Night, she once again celebrates the Christmas season with a tale of suspense that will keep us listening -- all through the night.

At the center of the novel are two of Mary Higgins Clark's most beloved characters, Alvirah, the lottery winner turned amateur sleuth, and her husband Willy, both of them caught up in a Christmas mystery that calls on all of Alvirah's deductive powers, as well as Willy's world-class common sense. When the story begins, Willy is looking forward to playing Santa Claus at the after-school center his sister Cordelia has established to care for the children of working parents on New York's Upper West Side, while Alvirah is busy with rehearsals for the Christmas pageant.

But suddenly a pall falls upon the Christmas cheer. The center itself is threatened with being closed down, a substitute...

Library Journal

Clark's popular lottery winners, amateur sleuth Alvirah and her husband, Willy, are getting ready for Christmas. When the local after-school center is threatened and a friend's will is contested, Alvirah goes on the job. Before long, she also finds herself trying to locate a child abandoned seven years earlier by a young mother and trying to solve the mystery of a stolen chalice. Normally known for her suspenseful stories, Clark (You Belong to Me, Audio Reviews, LJ 6/1/98) doesn't quite deliver. The listener isn't all that surprised at any of the revelations at the end of the program. The reading, by the author's daughter, best-selling writer and actor Carol Higgins Clark, is lively. However, numerous characters and little voice differentiation make the narrative difficult to follow. The author is always popular, but this is not an essential purchase. Recommended for larger collections.--Adrienne Furness, Lockport P.L., NY