Piece of My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke – Review
Piece of My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke is a taut psychological suspense novel and the seventh entry in the Under Suspicion series, bringing back television producer Laurie Moran just days before her mid‑summer wedding to fiancé Alex Buckley when her world abruptly shifts into high‑stakes fear and investigation. Laurie, who has built a career re‑examining cold cases on her show, Under Suspicion, is celebrating with family at a beach resort when Alex’s seven‑year‑old nephew, Johnny, suddenly vanishes, leaving behind only his skim board washed up on shore and a terrifyingly wide array of possible explanations that could tie to long‑buried secrets and motives from the past. As the search intensifies and suspicions swirl around friends, relatives, and hidden histories, Laurie must use every resource she has to find the child while confronting shadows from earlier cases that could be connected to this disappearance.
To me this story felt both deeply personal and pulse‑quickening, because Clark and Burke balance Laurie’s fierce determination to protect a child she has grown to care for with the creeping dread that someone close might be involved, and the emotional complexity of her impending marriage adds an extra layer of tenderness and tension. Clark’s signature pacing keeps the mystery moving briskly, yet the book also makes space for Laurie’s inner life, her worries as a mother and partner, and her dogged persistence in the face of slim clues and mounting fear. The ensemble cast, including Laurie’s supportive father and quirky family members, brings warmth even as the suspense tightens, and the threads of past and present danger wove together in ways that kept me invested through each twist and turn.
Rating: 4 out of 5 because it delivered gripping suspense and emotional depth that stayed with me beyond the final page.