Much better than "Nighttime", suspenseful page-turner!

We were worried after barely plodding through til the end of Clark's just prior novel, "Nighttime is My Time", that our author had lost her charm after passing age 80. Imagine our thrill to discover in "Home" that our "Queen of Suspense" is back in good form, almost reminiscent of her earliest fine work. While some reviewers feel the villain (there's not necessarily just one) is a little too obvious, and our heroine, Celia Nolan, a little too dumb for her own good, if you can tolerate the coincidence that starts off this novel, then you're in for a good ride.

Nolan had the misfortune as a ten-year-old to fire a gun that killed her own mother and injured her step-father; she was acquitted of murder in a notorious trial. She was adopted and departed for parts unknown, and, needless to say, changed identities. Now her second husband (she's widowed from a first, with a son by him) has bought her a house by surprise, and it turns out to be the very one where the tragedy occurred (right, tough to swallow). Soon a spate of murders threatens to not only expose her past, but Celia herself seems a good suspect for the killings, even though we know she's not. But getting to who-really-dunit takes us down many paths until an unexpected twist at the end wraps things up in a most satisfying finale.

Clark could always craft a good plot. Sometimes her leading ladies are just so wonderful, we get a little sick of them. Not here: Nolan seems a little short on smarts in a crisis, and for once the cops pretty much know what they're doing. So combine a clever story with plenty of villains to go around, with lots of reporters and busybodies to keep the creative juices flowing, and we have a tale which turns pages fast, always a good sign! We don't know how many books our matriarch might have left in her, but if she can produce a few more like this one, we say bring `em on!