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All Around the Town by Mary Higgins Clark — book cover

All Around the Town

by Mary Higgins Clark, Julie Rubenstein
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Overview

Mary Higgins Clark, the Queen of Suspense, crafts a terrifying story of murder and obsession with "a slambam finish" (Los Angeles Times Book Review).

ALL AROUND THE TOWN

When Laurie Kenyon, a twenty-one-year-old student, is accused of murdering her English professor, she has no memory of the crime. Her fingerprints, however, are everywhere. When she asks her sister, attorney Sarah, to mount her defense, Sarah in turn brings in psychiatrist Justin Donnelly. Kidnapped at the age of four and victimized for two years, Laurie has developed astounding coping skills. Only when the unbearable memories of those lost years are released can the truth of the crime come out — and only then can the final sadistic plan of her abductor, whose obsession is stronger than ever, be revealed.

The spellbinding New York Times bestseller from today's reigning queen of suspense. With a terrifying twist at the climax, the author of Loves Music, Loves to Dance takes readers on an emotionally riveting journey into the mind of a tortured women--accused of murder--who is at the mercy of a psychopathic personality. "For sheer storytelling power--and breathtaking pace--Clark is without peer."--People.

Synopsis

When Laurie Kenyon, a twenty-one-year-old student, is accused of murdering her English professor, Allan Grant, she has no memory of the crime. But at the scene of the homicid, her fingerprints are everywhere -- on the door, on the curtain, and on the knife used to stab him to death.

Publishers Weekly

Clark pulls out all the stops in this efficiently suspenseful page-turner, a Literary Guild main selection and a 15-week PW bestseller in cloth, telling of a college senior accused of murder and the televangelist couple who abused her as a child. (Feb.)

About the Author, Mary Higgins Clark

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."

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Clark pulls out all the stops in this efficiently suspenseful page-turner, a Literary Guild main selection and a 15-week PW bestseller in cloth, telling of a college senior accused of murder and the televangelist couple who abused her as a child. (Feb.)

Kirkus Reviews

For her ninth sure-fire bestseller, Clark returns to what she does best: using a threatened child (this time, a regressive college-student traumatized by a childhood kidnapping) to grab you by the throat and shake well. Back in 1974, four-year-old Laurie Kenyon was abducted from her posh New Jersey home by Bic and Opal Hawkins, a pair of hippies who raped and terrorized her for two years before the heat got so close they turned her loose. Now she's an honor student at Clinton College who unwittingly harbors four personalities—sexy Leona, truculent Kay, four-year-old Debbie, and a nine-year-old boy—that she's developed to keep her childhood memories at bay. Meanwhile, her kidnappers have transformed themselves into TV preachers on the brink of stardom who keep putting scary photos, knives, and severed chicken heads in Laurie's way in case she recognizes them and wants to speak out. The flash point comes with the murder of personable prof Allan Grant, who'd just gone before the administration with proof that the steamy letters from "Leona" he'd been getting were typed on Laurie's typewriter. When Laurie finds herself standing over Grant unable to remember whether or not she killed him, it's up to big sister Sarah, fanatically dedicated to protecting Laurie, to quit the D.A.'s office, take charge of Laurie's defense, and incidentally begin a chaste romance with Justin Donnelly, who's trying to tease the truth out of all those alter egos even as Bic Opal step up their campaign from threats to violence. Not enough menace for you? Clark even throws in the mystery of who really killed Grant, though her heart's not in it: broad hints from the outset will tip off all but themost witless readers. No whodunit, then—but Clark's legion of fans, enthralled by her undeniable skill in pushing their buttons, won't even notice. Just be grateful the author isn't running for office. (Literary Guild Split Dual Selection for July)

Book Details

Published
February 1, 1993
Publisher
Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Pages
352
Format
Mass Market Paperback
ISBN
9780671793487

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