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Goodbye Mary Higgins Clark

Posted on February 3, 2020August 13, 2023 By Sammy Younan

So what we’re not gonna talk at all that Mary Higgins Clark died (on January 31, 2020)?!

She was John Grisham before there was a John Grisham.

To be fair I stopped reading her around the early 90s. Her stuff from the late 70s and all through the 80s is incredible.

Tales like…

A Stranger Is Watching
The Cradle Will Fall
A Cry in the Night
Murder in Manhattan
Terror Stalks The Class Reunion
(excellent title!!)
While My Pretty One Sleeps

Those all sound like most excellent 70s/80s titles for an American era ruled by unchecked beliefs of razor blades inserted in Halloween apples and playing Dungeons & Dragons would summon Satan. Duh. Common Knowledge. (They also sound like heavy metal song titles/albums.)

By the early 90s I left her for Sue Grafton and never went back. Sue Grafton was my mystery writer June Carter Cash: I’d found the one who would make me happy and I’d spend the rest of my life with.

When I’d heard Mary passed away I felt bad. It’d been years since we were last together and ah…I haven’t really thought about her. Still, it’s sad to see her go.

She was 92; cranked out over 50 books. She did The Work and leaves behind an astonishing contribution to our pop culture.

I’m also partly sad because I still miss Sue Grafton. As readers, we develop relationships with characters…and occasionally with writers. What a journey its been as a book nerd.

“What have I become
My sweetest friend?
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way.”

Goodbye Mary Higgins Clark.

-28-

New Book Alert Tags:Reading is FUNdamental, Rest In Peace

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