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Overview
The Queen of Suspense arrives with a special tale for the holidays, featuring the return of two of her best-loved characters. A baby left in a rectory on Christmas Eve, a furtive burglar, and an accidental kidnapping fifteen years in the past leave a mystery to be solved amid the snows and lights of a New York City December. Former cleaning lady and amateur sleuth Alvirah Meehan, with oft-befuddled but always trustworthy mate Willy, return to the pages after appearances in the bestsellers Weep No More, My Lady and The Lottery Winner. Favorite characters, a seasonal tale and another Clark classic promise a triple-decker hit!Megabestseller Mary Higgins Clark tells a chilling Christmas story, reviving two of her most beloved characters in the process -- Alvirah Meehan and Alvirah's husband, Willy, from The Lottery Winner. Willy is playing Santa for the neighborhood children when he hears, from the last child in line, a desperate plea for help and the confession of a crime the child's stepfather is about to commit.
Synopsis
Mary Higgins Clark, the reigning queen of suspense, gives her millions of fans an early Christmas gift with All Through the Night. Clark's new novel is an engrossing suspense tale that reunites readers with Alvirah and Willy Meehan, that lucky couple who won 40 million dollars in All Through the Night and decided to do what any other multimillionaire couple would do: solve deadly crimes. All Through the Night gives the Meehans their most interesting case yet -- one of a possibly fraudulent will, a stolen treasure, and a young girl with a very mysterious past. While this is lighter than the usual Clark fare, its holiday theme and involving story line make it a wonderful stocking stuffer.
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
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewA Suspenseful Stocking Stuffer
Mary Higgins Clark, the reigning queen of suspense, gives her millions of fans an early Christmas gift with All Through the Night. Clark's new novel is an engrossing suspense tale that reunites readers with Alvirah and Willy Meehan, that lucky couple who won $40 million in The Lottery Winner and decided to do what any other multimillionaire couple would do — solve deadly crimes. And All Through the Night gives the Meehans their most interesting case yet.
Actually, the first chapter of All Through the Night leaves the Meehans completely out of the picture. Instead, it focuses on young, aspiring musician Sondra Lewis — who decides to abandon her newborn baby daughter on the local church steps in hopes of it having a better home than she could provide for it. To say that that plan is misconceived is an understatement. Sondra figures for the few minutes the baby will be on the steps, it would be warmer in a shopping bag. Coincidentally, a thief inside the church is in the process of stealing a valuable chalice. On his way out of the church, he sees the shopping bag, figures he'll grab it as well, and soon finds himself with a baby daughter — one that could possibly smooth a rift between him and his mother, who grudgingly allows him to stay with her so he can care for the child.
Jump forward seven years. Sondra can't stop thinking about her child, and feeling overwhelming guilt at having abandoned the baby without making sure it was well cared for. The thief now has a beautifulseven-year-olddaughter whom he plans to use in an upcoming scheme. And in those seven years, Willy and Alvirah Meehan have won 40 million dollars, allowing them to spend all their free time sleuthing away.
But the case the Meehans begin snooping around in isn't, at least initially, related to either the stolen chalice or the abandoned baby. It seems that the Meehans are very much in the Christmas spirit, and eager to help the neighborhood children any way they can. However, the local after-school shelter for the neighborhood kids has been condemned. At first, it seems there's nothing to fear — the kids can use a nearby beautiful brownstone building that has been willed to good-hearted Kate Durkin by her sister, who has recently passed away. But Alvirah's nose for crime tingles when a mysterious second will turns up — one that inexplicably leaves the building to a couple who certainly could not possibly care less about helping needy kids. The witty and intelligent Alvirah only has a few days to try to prove the will a fake before the building is turned over to the suspicious couple — a challenge that surprisingly manages to tie into the church crime seven years prior.
All Through the Night is a perfect holiday gift from Clark to her fans. The suspense and mystery is lighter here than in her usual novels, but that doesn't mean it's any less engrossing. Clark has placed the likable and amusing Meehans in the middle of a suspense tale that may not give you nightmares, but certainly will keep you guessing as to how it will all be resolved. All Through the Night is the ideal stocking stuffer for the suspense lover in your life.
— Matt Schwartz, barnesandnoble.com
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., NYMatt Schwartz
A Suspenseful Stocking StufferMary Higgins Clark, the reigning queen of suspense, gives her millions of fans an early Christmas gift with All Through the Night. Clark's new novel is an engrossing suspense tale that reunites readers with Alvirah and Willy Meehan, that lucky couple who won $40 million in The Lottery Winner and decided to do what any other multimillionaire couple would do -- solve deadly crimes. And All Through the Night gives the Meehans their most interesting case yet.
Actually, the first chapter of All Through the Night leaves the Meehans completely out of the picture. Instead, it focuses on young, aspiring musician Sondra Lewis -- who decides to abandon her newborn baby daughter on the local church steps in hopes of it having a better home than she could provide for it. To say that that plan is misconceived is an understatement. Sondra figures for the few minutes the baby will be on the steps, it would be warmer in a shopping bag. Coincidentally, a thief inside the church is in the process of stealing a valuable chalice. On his way out of the church, he sees the shopping bag, figures he'll grab it as well, and soon finds himself with a baby daughter -- one that could possibly smooth a rift between him and his mother, who grudgingly allows him to stay with her so he can care for the child.
Jump forward seven years. Sondra can't stop thinking about her child, and feeling overwhelming guilt at having abandoned the baby without making sure it was well cared for. The thief now has a beautiful seven-year-old daughter whom he plans to use in an upcoming scheme. And in those seven years, Willy and Alvirah Meehan have won 40 million dollars, allowing them to spend all their free time sleuthing away.
But the case the Meehans begin snooping around in isn't, at least initially, related to either the stolen chalice or the abandoned baby. It seems that the Meehans are very much in the Christmas spirit, and eager to help the neighborhood children any way they can. However, the local after-school shelter for the neighborhood kids has been condemned. At first, it seems there's nothing to fear -- the kids can use a nearby beautiful brownstone building that has been willed to good-hearted Kate Durkin by her sister, who has recently passed away. But Alvirah's nose for crime tingles when a mysterious second will turns up -- one that inexplicably leaves the building to a couple who certainly could not possibly care less about helping needy kids. The witty and intelligent Alvirah only has a few days to try to prove the will a fake before the building is turned over to the suspicious couple -- a challenge that surprisingly manages to tie into the church crime seven years prior.
All Through the Night is a perfect holiday gift from Clark to her fans. The suspense and mystery is lighter here than in her usual novels, but that doesn't mean it's any less engrossing. Clark has placed the likable and amusing Meehans in the middle of a suspense tale that may not give you nightmares, but certainly will keep you guessing as to how it will all be resolved. All Through the Night is the ideal stocking stuffer for the suspense lover in your life.
— Matt Schwartz, barnesandnoble.com
Kirkus Reviews
Lottery winners Alvirah and Willy Meehan are the guests of honor in this second helping of Christmas turkey from megaselling Clark (Silent Night, 1995, etc.).Seven years ago, rising-star violinist Sondra Lewis, following an unwise dalliance with a married pianist, had the misfortune to abandon her newborn baby outside St. Clement's Church just as low-level thief Lenny Centino was looking for some cover after stealing St. Clement's prized silver chalice. Oblivious to its cargo, Lenny grabbed Sondra's stroller before she could get through to Monsignor Thomas Ferris, and took stroller and baby home to his aunt Lilly, who raised the little girl as Jimmy's. Now the time is at hand for Providence, in the form of retired cleaning woman Alvirah and her husband Willy, to set things straight by restoring Stellina Centino to the forlorn mother who's come back to town in the hopes of picking up some word of her. And there's more work for the redoubtable $40 million winners this Christmastide. Alvirah's friend Bessie Durkin Maher, the housekeeper who married widower Judge Mayer to keep her job, has died; but instead of leaving her house to the after-school center run by Willy's sister, Sister Cordelia, an 11th-hour will leaves it to her house-proud tenants Vic and Linda Baker—or so it seems to duller wits than Alvirah's. Vowing to think like Poirot, Alvirah goes to work righting wrongs and slaying dragons. Though Alvirah and Willy are both toned down from the oblivious consumers of The Lottery Winner (1994), the dragons themselves are so winded—neither Lenny Centino nor those precious frauds the Bakers have enough presence to headline a third-grade pageant—that their misdoings are less like crimes than detours, temporary swerves from the way of true happiness.