Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
Mary Higgins Clark sends chills down readers' spines with the story of Lacey Farrell, a rising star on the Manhattan real estate scene. One day, while showing a luxurious skyline co-op, Lacey is witness to a murder — and to the dying words of the victim.... The dying woman is convinced that the attacker was after her dead daughter's journal — which Lacey gives to the police, but not before making a copy for herself. It's an impulse that later proves nearly fatal.
Placed in the witness protection program and sent to live in the Minneapolis area, Lacey must assume a fake identity, at least until the killer can be brought to trial. There she meets Tom Lynch, a radio talk-show host whom she tentatively begins to date — until the strain of deception makes her break it off. Then she discovers the killer has traced her to Minneapolis. Armed with nothing more than her own courage and clues from the journal, Lacey heads back to New York, determined to uncover who's behind the deaths of the two women — before she's the next casualty.
At once seductive and frightening, Pretend You Don't See Her is the "mistress of high tension" (The New Yorker) at her ingenious best.
The Queen of Suspense continues her glorious reign with her 13th novel, certain to become another jewel in her crown of bestsellers. A young woman assigned to the federal witness protection program realizes that once she has unexpectedly fallen in love she can no longer live a lie. Before she can marry, however, she must go back and reclaim her identity, despite whatever perils may await her. LG Main Selection.
Synopsis
Mary Higgins Clark sends chills down readers' spines with the story of Lacey Farrell, a rising star on the Manhattan real estate scene.
Publishers Weekly
There's no arguing with success, and no doubt Clark's eager following will lap up her 13th romantic suspense novel as eagerly as ever. All the elements are in place: an appealing, plucky working-girl heroine placed in instant danger; a virile, adoring would-be lover kept at arm's length until the curtain; a cute moppet (also in danger); a doting but somewhat foolish mother; a dead dad whose spirit is ever-present in times of crisis. What's lacking is any real suspense, or, in this case, a satisfactory windup. Lacey Farrell is a comely young real estate saleswoman in Manhattan who has a client, Isabelle Waring, murdered virtually before her eyes, then has to spend most of the book on the run from the killer, whom only she can identify. In the process she goes into the witness protection program, and the most interesting part of the novel (Clark is always good on research) is the details on how this works. The plot, however-involving Isabelle's certainty that her daughter was murdered, the suspicion that falls on the wealthy man who owns Lacey's real estate firm and his scapegrace son, and a hit man who remorselessly pursues Lacey-is perfunctory in the extreme. When the real villain is finally unmasked-in a few throwaway sentences-the reader has almost forgotten he existed and is given no clue as to how and why he did all his evil deeds. Maybe 13 isn't Clark's lucky number.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewMay 1997
Mary Higgins Clark's 18th thrilling book, Pretend You Don't See Her, revolves around Lacey Farrell, a brilliant young player on the Manhattan real estate scene. Lacey is hired to help Isabelle Waring, mother of singer and actress Heather Landi, who was recently killed in an apparent car accident, sell Heather's luxurious skyline apartment. Isabelle doesn't believe that Heather's death was an accident, however, and her suspicions prove correct when she becomes the murderer's next victim.
Lacey takes a wealthy lawyer, Curtis Caldwell, to see the apartment, and he makes an immediate offer. But when Lacey returns to the apartment later that day, she accidentally becomes the witness to Isabelle's murder — and to Caldwell, a professional hit man using an assumed name, fleeing the scene. Lacey also hears Isabelle's dying wish — to make sure that no one but Heather's father, restaurateur Jimmy Landi, gets some pages removed from Heather's journal — and promises to comply. She does not give the pages to the police but does make a copy for herself before turning the originals over to Jimmy Landi, an impetuous act that proves almost fatal.
With a contract out on Lacey's life, she must go into the federal witness protection program, giving up her life, her job, and her very identity. But the killer traces her into her new life, and Lacey's only way out is to face down the threat against her by following the clues in Heather's journal. She finds herself caught in a race against time, struggling to figure out who murdered the two women beforeshebecomes the next victim.
Publishers Weekly -
There's no arguing with success, and no doubt Clark's eager following will lap up her 13th romantic suspense novel as eagerly as ever. All the elements are in place: an appealing, plucky working-girl heroine placed in instant danger; a virile, adoring would-be lover kept at arm's length until the curtain; a cute moppet also in danger; a doting but somewhat foolish mother; a dead dad whose spirit is ever-present in times of crisis. What's lacking is any real suspense, or, in this case, a satisfactory windup. Lacey Farrell is a comely young real estate saleswoman in Manhattan who has a client, Isabelle Waring, murdered virtually before her eyes, then has to spend most of the book on the run from the killer, whom only she can identify. In the process she goes into the witness protection program, and the most interesting part of the novel Clark is always good on research is the details on how this works. The plot however, involving Isabelle's certainty that her daughter was murdered, the suspicion that falls on the wealthy man who owns Lacey's real estate firm and his scapegrace son, and a hit man who remorselessly pursues Laceyis perfunctory in the extreme. When the real villain is finally unmaskedin a few throwaway sentences the reader has almost forgotten he existed and is given no clue as to how and why he did all his evil deeds. Maybe 13 isn't Clark's lucky number. Literary Guild main selectionPublishers Weekly -
There's no arguing with success, and no doubt Clark's eager following will lap up her 13th romantic suspense novel as eagerly as ever. All the elements are in place: an appealing, plucky working-girl heroine placed in instant danger; a virile, adoring would-be lover kept at arm's length until the curtain; a cute moppet (also in danger); a doting but somewhat foolish mother; a dead dad whose spirit is ever-present in times of crisis. What's lacking is any real suspense, or, in this case, a satisfactory windup. Lacey Farrell is a comely young real estate saleswoman in Manhattan who has a client, Isabelle Waring, murdered virtually before her eyes, then has to spend most of the book on the run from the killer, whom only she can identify. In the process she goes into the witness protection program, and the most interesting part of the novel (Clark is always good on research) is the details on how this works. The plot, however-involving Isabelle's certainty that her daughter was murdered, the suspicion that falls on the wealthy man who owns Lacey's real estate firm and his scapegrace son, and a hit man who remorselessly pursues Lacey-is perfunctory in the extreme. When the real villain is finally unmasked-in a few throwaway sentences-the reader has almost forgotten he existed and is given no clue as to how and why he did all his evil deeds. Maybe 13 isn't Clark's lucky number.Library Journal
Clark's lucky 13th novel shows that falling in love is hard work when you're in the federal witness protection program.Kirkus Reviews
Just in time for Mother's Day, a fresh bouquet of imperiled female virtue from ever-reliable Clark, who ought to take out a patent.Planning to sell her late daughter Heather Landi's East Side apartment, ex-beauty queen Isabelle Waring makes an appointment with realtor Lacey Farrell to check the place out. But when Isabelle finds and reads Heather's journal in the apartment, she refuses to sell to the promising client Lacey's got waiting in the next room. Too late: The client, who's really a hit man looking for the journal, shoots Isabelle, who only has time before she dies to beg Lacey to read the journal and turn it over to Heather's father, gruff restaurateur Jimmy Landi. So Lacey makes a copy of the journal for Jimmy, then reads it herself before taking it to the police. And when she finally does turn the journal over to the authorities, it doesn't do any good; first the original journal and then some crucial pages from Jimmy's copy disappear from police custody. By this time, the police are treating Lacey like some kind of criminal even as the hit man begins stalking her. The US Attorney relocates Lacey to Minneapolis under the Witness Protection Program, but things are no better there: Lacey's lonely, her mother back in New York keeps blurting out hints of Lacey's location to exactly the plausible male intimates veteran Clark-watchers will duly have noted as the most likely threats to Lacey's safety, and the hit man hasn't lost interest either.
Innocence unprotected, cops who actually sound like cops, and an implacable enemy with the momentum of a Metroliner. Even if the final revelation of the hit man's employer is weightless, Clark, by concentrating on what she does best—heavy-breathing menace as the hit man's footfalls echo ever louder—has produced her most successful tale since "Remember Me" (1994)—six books ago.