No Place Like Home
At the beginning of NO PLACE LIKE HOME, Celia's Nolan's husband surprises her with a new house. It just happens to be the same house where Celia (really Liza Barton) accidentally shot her mother, whom she was trying to protect from her stepfather who was abusing her mother.
The same day she sees her new/old house for the first time, someone vandalizes it with red paint. Lizzie had always been associated with Lizzie Borden, who was accused of murdering her mother and father, and the vandalism referred to that famous murder case.
Throughout the novel there seems to be one suspect in the many murders that occur, Ted Cartwright a local real estate developer, who is also Celia's stepfather, having survived the bullets Liza put in his leg after killing her mother.
I kept thinking “This is too easy; he obviously did it.” When do we get the twist? The first dead person is Liza's real father who supposedly died in a horse riding accident. In short order a real estate agent and a caretaker are also killed. One of the detectives thinks Celia is responsible and follows her around trying to intimidate her.
We get the twist I was expecting towards the end of the book, and it's really too much to believe. Just about everybody Celia knows is either a murderer or aiding and abetting a murder or murderers.
Writers call this author intrusion. The author needs a certain person to be guilty and he/she sometimes goes a bit to far, towards incredulity. For one thing, Celia has never told her second husband who she really is. Why not? Because it adds suspense. What will Alex do when he finds out? You won't believe how Clark handled that little dilemma.
I used to read a lot of Mary Higgins Clark's books, probably because I belonged to a book club, and she almost always had a selection. I don't think they were mysteries per se. They weren't exactly romances, but they leaned that way and were about everyday experiences. I preferred those to this.
The same day she sees her new/old house for the first time, someone vandalizes it with red paint. Lizzie had always been associated with Lizzie Borden, who was accused of murdering her mother and father, and the vandalism referred to that famous murder case.
Throughout the novel there seems to be one suspect in the many murders that occur, Ted Cartwright a local real estate developer, who is also Celia's stepfather, having survived the bullets Liza put in his leg after killing her mother.
I kept thinking “This is too easy; he obviously did it.” When do we get the twist? The first dead person is Liza's real father who supposedly died in a horse riding accident. In short order a real estate agent and a caretaker are also killed. One of the detectives thinks Celia is responsible and follows her around trying to intimidate her.
We get the twist I was expecting towards the end of the book, and it's really too much to believe. Just about everybody Celia knows is either a murderer or aiding and abetting a murder or murderers.
Writers call this author intrusion. The author needs a certain person to be guilty and he/she sometimes goes a bit to far, towards incredulity. For one thing, Celia has never told her second husband who she really is. Why not? Because it adds suspense. What will Alex do when he finds out? You won't believe how Clark handled that little dilemma.
I used to read a lot of Mary Higgins Clark's books, probably because I belonged to a book club, and she almost always had a selection. I don't think they were mysteries per se. They weren't exactly romances, but they leaned that way and were about everyday experiences. I preferred those to this.
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