Mary Higgins Clark Books

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Mary Higgins Clark is an American-based author who specializes in the suspense genre. Al of her 51 books has become international bestsellers, with each enjoying immense success both in the United States and in European countries. Clark began writing at a very early age. After working for several years as a copy editor and also as a secretary, Clark spent one year working for Pan American Airlines as a stewardess. Clark had no option but to leave her job so that she could start a family, and get married as well. Unfortunately, her spouse passed away in the year 1964. Mary Clark Higgins began working as a radio scriptwriter, where she mainly focused on four-minute radio scripts.

Order of Alvirah and Willy Series with Carol Higgins Clark

# Read Title Published Details
1 Weep No More, My Lady 1987 Description / Buy
2 The Lottery Winner 1994 Description / Buy
3 All Through the Night 1998 Description / Buy
4 Deck the Halls ( With: Carol Higgins Clark) 2000 Description / Buy
5 The Christmas Thief ( With: Carol Higgins Clark) 2004 Description / Buy
6 Santa Cruise ( With: Carol Higgins Clark) 2006 Description / Buy
7 Dashing Through the Snow ( With: Carol Higgins Clark) 2008 Description / Buy
8 I'll Walk Alone 2011 Description / Buy
9 The Lost Years 2012 Description / Buy
10 As Time Goes by 2016 Description / Buy
11 All By Myself, Alone 2017 Description / Buy

Order of Under Suspicion Series with Alafair Burke

# Read Title Published Details
1 I've Got You Under My Skin 2014 Description / Buy
2 The Cinderella Murder 2014 Description / Buy
3 All Dressed in White 2015 Description / Buy
4 The Sleeping Beauty Killer 2016 Description / Buy
5 Every Breath You Take 2017 Description / Buy
6 You Don't Own Me 2018 Description / Buy
7 Piece of My Heart 2020 Description / Buy
8 It Had to Be You 2024 Description / Buy

Order of Where Are The Children Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 Where are the Children? 1975 Description / Buy
2 Where Are the Children Now? ( With: Alafair Burke) 2023 Description / Buy

Order of Mary Higgins Clark Standalone Novels

# Read Title Published Details
1 Aspire to the Heavens / Mount Vernon Love Story 1968 Description / Buy
2 A Stranger is Watching 1977 Description / Buy
3 The Cradle Will Fall 1980 Description / Buy
4 A Cry in the Night 1982 Description / Buy
5 Stillwatch 1984 Description / Buy
6 Caribbean Blues 1988 Description / Buy
7 While My Pretty One Sleeps 1989 Description / Buy
8 Loves Music, Loves to Dance 1991 Description / Buy
9 All Around the Town 1992 Description / Buy
10 I'll Be Seeing You 1993 Description / Buy
11 Remember Me 1994 Description / Buy
12 Let Me Call You Sweetheart 1995 Description / Buy
13 Silent Night 1995 Description / Buy
14 Pretend You Don't See Her 1995 Description / Buy
15 Moonlight Becomes You 1996 Description / Buy
16 You Belong To Me 1999 Description / Buy
17 We'll Meet Again 1999 Description / Buy
18 Before I Say Good-Bye 2000 Description / Buy
19 Daddy's Little Girl 2001 Description / Buy
20 On the Street Where You Live 2001 Description / Buy
21 He Sees You When You're Sleeping 2001 Description / Buy
22 The Second Time Around 2003 Description / Buy
23 Nighttime is My Time 2004 Description / Buy
24 No Place Like Home 2005 Description / Buy
25 Two Little Girls in Blue 2006 Description / Buy
26 I Heard That Song Before 2007 Description / Buy
27 Ghost Ship (Short Story) 2007 Description / Buy
28 Where Are You Now? 2008 Description / Buy
29 Just Take My Heart 2009 Description / Buy
30 The Shadow of Your Smile 2010 Description / Buy
31 The Magical Christmas Horse (Short Story) 2011 Description / Buy
32 Daddy's Gone A-Hunting 2013 Description / Buy
33 The Melody Lingers On 2015 Description / Buy
34 I've Got My Eyes on You 2018 Description / Buy
35 Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cry 2019 Description / Buy

Order of Mary Higgins Clark Short Stories/Novellas

# Read Title Published Details
1 Double Vision (Short Story) 1988 Description / Buy

Order of Mary Higgins Clark Short Story Collections

# Read Title Published Details
1 The Anastasia Syndrome 1989 Description / Buy
2 Death on the Cape and Other Stories 1989 Description / Buy
3 My Gal Sunday 1996 Description / Buy
4 The Body in the Closet and Plumbing for Willy 1998 Description / Buy
5 Death Wears a Beauty Mask and Other Stories 2015 Description / Buy

Order of Mary Higgins Clark Non-Fiction Books

# Read Title Published Details
1 Kitchen Privileges 2002 Description / Buy

Order of Regan Reilly Mystery Series with Carol Higgins Clark

# Read Title Published Details
1 Decked ( By: Carol Higgins Clark) 1991 Description / Buy
2 Snagged ( By: Carol Higgins Clark) 1993 Description / Buy
3 Iced ( By: Carol Higgins Clark) 1994 Description / Buy
4 Twanged ( By: Carol Higgins Clark) 1997 Description / Buy
5 Deck the Halls ( With: Carol Higgins Clark) 2000 Description / Buy
6 Fleeced ( By: Carol Higgins Clark) 2001 Description / Buy
7 Jinxed ( By: Carol Higgins Clark) 2002 Description / Buy
8 Popped ( By: Carol Higgins Clark) 2003 Description / Buy
9 The Christmas Thief ( With: Carol Higgins Clark) 2004 Description / Buy
10 Burned ( By: Carol Higgins Clark) 2005 Description / Buy
11 Hitched ( By: Carol Higgins Clark) 2006 Description / Buy
12 Laced ( By: Carol Higgins Clark) 2007 Description / Buy
13 Zapped ( By: Carol Higgins Clark) 2008 Description / Buy
14 Cursed ( By: Carol Higgins Clark) 2009 Description / Buy
15 Wrecked ( By: Carol Higgins Clark) 2010 Description / Buy
16 Mobbed ( By: Carol Higgins Clark) 2011 Description / Buy
17 Gypped / Scammed ( By: Carol Higgins Clark) 2012 Description / Buy
+ Show All Books in this Series

Mary Higgins Clark Anthologies

# Read Title Published Details
1 Murder on the Aisle 1987 Description / Buy
2 Caribbean Blues 1988 Description / Buy
3 Murder in Manhattan 1988 Description / Buy
4 Sisters in Crime 2 1990 Description / Buy
5 Women of Mystery 1992 Description / Buy
6 Malice Domestic 2 1993 Description / Buy
7 Justice in Manhattan 1995 Description / Buy
8 Bad Behavior 1995 Description / Buy
9 The Crown Crime Companion 1995 Description / Buy
10 The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories 1996 1995 Description / Buy
11 Murder For Love 1996 Description / Buy
12 More Malice Domestic 1997 Description / Buy
13 The Plot Thickens 1997 Description / Buy
14 Murder on the Run 1998 Description / Buy
15 The Night Awakens 1998 Description / Buy
16 The Best American Mystery Stories 1998 1998 Description / Buy
17 Master's Choice: Mystery Stories by Today's Top Writers and the Masters Who Inspired Them 2000 Description / Buy
18 On a Raven's Wing 2009 Description / Buy
19 By Hook or By Crook and 27 More of the Best Crime and Mystery Stories of the Year 2010 Description / Buy
20 Inherit the Dead 2013 Description / Buy
21 Manhattan Mayhem 2015 Description / Buy
+ Click to View all Anthologies
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The author Mary Higgins Clark was born on Christmas Eve in 1927 in The Bronx, New York, to Irish immigrant parents. She was born Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins, with the Clark being assumed after her married in 1949 to her first husband, Warren Clark. Mary Higgins Clark was enamoured with writing from a young age, particularly writing poetry and plays. With her Irish background, it was only natural that Higgins Clark would have a religious upbringing, and she attended Saint Francis Xavier Grammar School, and when she graduated from there, she was awarded a scholarship to attend the Villa Maria Academy. It was at the Villa Maria Academy that Higgins Clark really developed her writing under the encouragement of the teaching staff.

After graduating from Villa Maria Academy, Mary Higgins Clark enrolled in Wood Secretarial School and went on to work as the secretary for the head of the creative department at Remington-Rand. While there, she developed a passion for advertising and she studied in night school to learn more. She was eventually asked to write copy for catalogues and also model for several brochures. However, it wasn’t the life for Mary Higgins Clark, and she went on to become a flight attendant for Pan-Am, travelling the world for a year, before settling down with her Warren Clark, her soon-to-be husband.

In the ’50s, Higgins Clark took writing courses to fill her time, and she eventually formed a writing workshop with friends, a group that lasted almost four decades. Although Higgins Clark’s work was widely praised in her group and also by her tutors, she was unable to make a breakthrough in terms of getting her work published. That was until 1956, when, after dozens of rejections, Extension Magazine published one of her pieces.

In 1964, after suffering several heart attacks, Warren Clark was deemed unfit to work, and so Mary had to get back into employment. So she got in touch with a friend who wrote scripts for radios and eventually landed a job writing for a radio segment called Portrait of a Patriot. Her work was deemed exemplary and she was brought on to write for other radio series. However, there was little financial stability in this work, and coupled with the dwindling demand for her short stories, things were starting to get hard for Higgins Clark. So she decided to use the experience she picked up writing for radio to write a fiction biography of the relationship of George Washing and his wife Martha. It took her three years, but Mary Higgins Clark finished her first full-length novel, Aspire to the Heavens. However, although copies of the book were sold, it was not the success Higgins Clark had hoped.

So in the ’70s, Higgins Clark started her own company which wrote radio scripts. But she never gave up her writing, and this time she turned to her childhood love of suspense novels for inspiration. In 1975, Mary Higgins Clark’s first suspense novel was published, Where are the Children? It was a huge commercial success and got Mary out of the financial straits she had found herself in. She then followed Where are the Children? Up with A Stranger is Watching, her second novel in the genre, which again was a huge hit.

Mary Higgins Clark has continued writing from that point out, and even her first novels, Aspire to the Heavens, became a huge hit when it was retitled Mount Vernon Love Story and republished in 2002. She even turned her hand to writing children’s fiction, with the novel Ghost Ship, which was published in 2007. And she has even kept some of the writing in the family, regularly collaborating with her daughter, Carol, to write the Christmas-themed novels in the Alvirah and Willy series.

The Queen of Suspense has picked up many, many awards in her time as a writer, including several lifetime achievement awards and many honorary doctorates. Several of Mary Higgins Clark’s books have also been adapted for stage or television, all pleasing fans of her work, new and old alike.

However, a few years into the business of writing radio scripts, her agent decided to try and persuade Clark into authoring novels. Clark’s first novel, which was a fictionalized account of George Washington’s life, which apparently did not perform so well. Thus, she decided to start penning down suspense and mystery novels. Clark’s suspense novels performed exceedingly well. By the year 2007, all her books had sold more than 80 million copies in the US alone. Despite the fact that various novels quote that Mary was born in the year 1927, Mary Higgins Clark was born in the year 1927 on Christmas Eve. She is the only daughter and second child of an Irish immigrant. When she was still a small child, Mary had an interest in writing, and she even composed her very first novel at the age of 7.

She also loved to compose short plays, which were performed by her friend. At the age of seven years, Mary Clark began keeping her journal, where she documented everything that happened throughout her day. Mary’s and her family relied on the earnings, which were generated from her family’s Irish Pub, which was a great amount of money. They even owned a cottage on Long Island and a home, which was located in the Bronx. Despite the fact that the great-depression had begun when Mary Higgins Clark was still an infant, her family was not in any way affected, and they even had more than enough to feed the people who came to their house looking for work. However, when Mary Clark Higgins turned ten years old, her family began to experience financial problems, especially since their customers were reluctant to pay whatever they owed the family. Thus, Mary Higgins father was forced to release a few employees and instead work for extra workers.

Mary Higgins Clark Awards

Clark is the recipient of numerous literary awards such as the Edgar Grandmaster Award, Anthony Award, and a Grand Prix literary award.

Mary Higgins Clark Books into Movies

Several of the works that Mary Higgins Clark has worked on have been adapted for screenplay. Some of the works that she is famously known for include Remember Me, Cradle Will Fall, Two Little Girls and My Girl Sunday.

Best Mary Higgins Clark Books

Where are the Children: This is one of the most outstanding works by Mary Higgins Clark. In Where are the Children, Clark introduces the readers to one Nancy Harmon. Nancy used to be a housewife who had two children One day; Nancy took her children to one of the local stores so that she could be able to buy a few things. Deciding that she was going to take a minute, she decides to leave her children inside the vehicle. When Nancy came back from the store, she discovered that all her children were gone together with her vehicle. A few days later, the children were located with plastic bags on their heads. Nancy became the prime suspect in the investigation. Eventually, she was acquitted because the main suspect in the investigation went missing.

To escape the prying locals and the reporters, Nancy had to move across the country so that she could be able to have a fresh start. Nancy eventually began a new life and got remarried once again. She eventually was blessed with two more children and the pain of losing her other children was beginning to fade away. Eventually, the horror began once again. One morning, Nancy’s children were playing outside, however, when she went outside to check on them, her children were gone. This time around, Nancy was more than determined to find out who was doing this to her. It proved to be an uphill task because once again everyone believed that she was the one responsible for the missing children.

Mary Higgins Clark FAQs

Q: What nationality is the author Mary Higgins Clark?

A: Mary Higgins Clark is an American author, and she has an Irish heritage.

Q: What is the name of Mary Higgins Clark’s first book?

A: Mary Higgins Clark’s first book is called Aspire to the Heavens, which was later republished under the name Mount Vernon Love Story. Her first book in the suspense genre was Where are the Children? which was published in 1975.

When Does The Next Mary Higgins Clark book come out?

Mary Higgins Clark doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is It Had to Be You and was released on April, 16th 2024. It is the newest book in the Under Suspicion Series.

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