I’ve Got You Under by Skin by Mary Higgins Clark

Val Penny ♦ May 18, 2015 ♦ 1 Comment

I have not read many books by Mary Higgins Clark, but the ones I have read, I have really enjoyed. She is a bestselling American author of mystery and suspense books. My favourite genre! Mary Higgins Clark was born Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins on 24 December, 1927, in the Bronx, New York, USA, the second of three children to Nora and Luke Higgins. Higgins’ father died when she was 11, and after she graduated from high school she worked as a secretary to help support the family. She then spent a year as a flight attendant with Pan Am before marrying a neighbour, Warren Clark, who was nine years her senior. When she was widowed in 1964 she had five children to care for so Clark decided to try her hand at writing books. Her first suspense novel,Where Are the Children? was an instant bestseller. Clark was president of Mystery Writers of America and has an award named for her. She now lives in Saddle River, New Jersey.

On a recent visit to the library I picked up I’ve Got You Under My Skin. As it is a novel by Mary Higgins Clark I thought I knew I would be able to concentrate on the story line as I worked at unraveling the mystery presented in this book. I was right. The story starts with a delightful family scene: a father playing with his young son in a park, but the picture soon turns dark when the father is brutally murdered. Only his three-year-old son, Timmy saw the face of his father’s killer.

Five years later the killer’s piercing blue eyes still haunt Timmy’s dreams. His mother, Laurie Moran is also haunted, not only by the death of her husband but also by the killer’s threat to her son as he fled the scene: “Tell your mother she’s next, then it’s your turn.”

When Laurie is appointed as producer of a true-crime, cold-case television show she has to deal with murder again. The series will launch with the twenty-year-old unsolved murder of Betsy Powell. Betsy was a socialite who was found suffocated in her bed after a gala celebrating the graduation of her daughter and three friends. The sensational murder was news nationwide. The case is re-opened in its lavish setting and with the cooperation of the guests from that night. Laurie believes she is sure to have a hit on her hands however, when the estranged friends begin filming, it becomes clear each of them is hiding secrets.

A pair of blue eyes is watching events unfold, too. This mystery was multi-leveled with many people in questions as the book went along. I would recommend I’ve Got You Under My Skin to anyone who enjoys a good mystery. I certainly did not solve the mystery.

Valerie Penny