Nighttime Is My Time: A Novel

We are longtime readers of Clark [every book except her memoirs] and would like to express some amazement that she keeps pumping them out at age 75. But while the premise of this attempted thriller is OK, the storyline gets tiresome -- the novel might well be somebody's master's thesis on red herrings! The plot reveals that in the over 20+ years since a male classmate, playing an owl in a school skit, is humiliated by his classmates, he systematically murders off the list of seven girlfriends who always ate lunch together. Five are already dead when the 20th reunion arrives, but he has been so clever that nobody in law enforcement has even suspected foul play, let alone the connection between the deaths. As the classmates arrive for the big weekend, he is not only planning the imminent deaths of the remaining two, Laura and Jean, but also plans to off Jean's adopted-at-birth baby girl whose identity he has somehow learned. The prime male attendees are all suspects for the "Owl", including dark playwright Carter, caustic comedian Robby, real-estate tycoon Jack, sit-com producer Gordon, and talk-show psychiatrist Mark. For a couple of hundred pages, short chapters alternate between all these players, throwing out suspicion after suspicion to keep us readers totally on edge. Unfortunately, the red herrings soon grow into a mountain, and we just started getting tired and wanted the whole thing over. When the Owl kidnaps Laura (but conveniently keeps her alive so that he can kill Jean and her daughter while she watches), and then Jean, it's a long stretch to believe the women would follow his commandment to never utter his name (so that we wouldn't know who). In the end, while the bad guy was a modest surprise, we were pretty much beyond caring.
This time Clark's story took on a somewhat different nature. She lately has featured high-achieving leading ladies who go on to solve any and every crime despite the best but ineffective efforts of the professionals. Sometimes these women are unbelievably gorgeous, smart, and resourceful, which gets to be a strain of credibility. But in "Nighttime", the serial killer gets most of the attention, which may help explain why we weren't that thrilled by the climax -- we just weren't that terror stricken for the intended victims. If some of the nearly hundred chapters, all short and almost all featuring numerous changes of scenes and speaking characters, could have been pared and led us straighter line to a satisfying ending, we might have been more enamored with this tale. As it is, we hope Clark will go for higher quality next time, or get better editors, or (gasp) consider whether it might be time to retire the word processor. We'd prefer the former.

Set in the very real, very familiar town of Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, the exclusive Stonecroft School is holding its 20th Anniversary Reunion.
An eclectic cast of characters will be attending, one of whom is a murderer. Each comes with an agenda and with the exception of one character, all are possible suspects.
Alison, the hateful brat who delighted in ridiculing her classmates. When she is found dead in her swimming pool, it is impossible to feel sorry for her and one thinks she finally got the come uppance that was long overdue.
Laura - the stereotypical Golden Girl. Blond and blue-eyed, she delights in mocking people and is a shallow, selfish character. It is not surprising that she uses people and works closely with the hateful Alison. When she ends up missing, it is very possible that she has her own agenda as well.
Dr. Jean Sheridan, the Class Success Story. Armed with a secret past, she fears for her daughter's life, the child she placed for adoption hours after the baby's birth.
Joel - the boy Romeo who was the brunt of Alison's satircal wit. An adulterer with a shady financial past, he, too emerges as a possible suspect.
Howard/Carter - the Beatle mopped boy who was also a whipping boy for his peers. A successful playright, he exacts revenge by using his classmates as literary targets.
Gordon - the scrawny, abused child who suffered further humiliation at Stonecroft. The once browbeaten child becomes a successful television mogul in his own right. He, too has an agenda and is reliving his painful past when the duplicitious Laura uses him to further her career.
Mark - The psychiatrist who heals his own painful past by helping adolescents. The son of two callous parents who wrongfully accuse him of a tragedy he did not have any part of, he works hard through and for his patients. It is possible that he might have some insight as to who has been killing his former classmates.
Rob - Class clown, now comedian. Another whipping boy, Rob uses his bad experiences at Stonecroft, including mockery from teachers to good use. He verbally scathes his former classmates and a math teacher who humiliated him during his student days.
Good grief, since Stonecroft was such a bad experience for these folks, why the heck return for a reunion?! Add to it several former classmates died under mysterious circumstances prior to the reunion. Mark was the only likable character.

Six successful alumni are being honored at Stonecroft Academy's 20th reunion, and one of them is a cold-blooded serial killer known only as "The Owl". His motives are clear; he seeks revenge on seven former female classmates who ridiculed him unmercifully during his teen years. There are only two still alive; Laura Wilcox, a flirtatious Hollywood actress who has seen better times, and Jean Sheridan, best-selling author, historian and college dean. No one has any idea that these two women are his latest targets. Meanwhile, someone is sending eerie faxes to Jean regarding her daughter Lily, whom she secretly gave up for adoption almost twenty years ago. She feels Lily is in grave danger, but has no way of warning her. As Jean beings a race against the clock to find her daughter's true identity, she is unknowingly being hunted by a former classmate; a ruthless killer who wants her dead by the end of the weekend.

Mary Higgins Clark has an amazing talent for creating spine-tingling nightmares just under the surface of everyday life. A high school reunion is one of those episodes of life most of us would just as soon want to forget. Reading this novel may make you think twice about how those old school days jokes can come back to haunt you. I like the style of this book, it's a slick departure from her usual "damsel-in-distress-protagonist" type books, and she creates a riveting psychological storyline that is played out by fascinating characters. My only complaints are minor ones - the editing could have been much better (too many typos) and the number of chapters could have been cut down drastically (96 + an epilogue - ugh!)

Still, this is a not-to-be-missed novel by the reigning queen of psychological suspense.

Enjoy!

Cris Cunningham

Mary Higgins Clark's 23rd novel "Nighttime is My Time" centers on Jean Sheridan. Sheridan is a 30-something historian and best-selling author who has returned to her hometown for her 20 year high school reunion. But something sinister is afoot. Sheridan has been receiving faxes froma mysterious source who knows of a child Sheridan gave up for adoption 20 years ago, and the source is threatening the life of the child. Sheridan also finds out that over the years 5 of her 6 closest friends in high school have met earlier and somewhat suspicious demises. Sheridan soon learns that one of her classmates has a diabolical scheme in place that will threaten not only her and her one remaining high school friend, but also the life of the daughter she has never met.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I am quite the Mary Higgins Clark fan and surprisingly was disappointed with her last novel "Second Time Around." However, I was completely entranced by this novel and could not put it down. Clark did an excellent job of crafting this novel and the mystery lover will not be disappointed.

A 20-year high school class reunion honoring six top achievers turns into a riveting whodunit. Protagonist, Dr. Jeanne Sheridan, college dean and author is among the six. Laura, a fading soap opera diva and four men, previously class nerds who have since made it big, are the other honorees. Ironically, another former student scheduled to be honored was discovered dead in her swimming pool only days before the event. Her death adds to the uneasiness among the group because five women comprising the former school lunch table clan have mysteriously died over the past 20 years leaving only Jeanne and Laura. Each incident had been ruled accidental, but the killer who refers to himself as "The Owl" knows differently. He leaves his mark, a tiny pewter owl charm, inconspicuously hidden at the crime scene and proclaims: "Nighttime is my time."

During the reunion festivities Jeanne receives mysterious faxes and notes threatening her daughter whom she gave up for adoption when she was 18 after her fiance was killed by a hit and run driver. Then, just when the festivities are coming to a close, Laura suddenly disappears leaving everyone on edge.

In my opinion, this was one of the author's best suspense novels with a well-executed plot sprinkled with clever twists & turns guaranteed to keep the reader flipping the pages groping for more clues. I was sure I had guessed the killer, but it turned out I was wrong! What a surprise ... but isn't that just like Mary Higgins Clark?

Jean Sheridan is returning to her hometown for the twenty-year reunion of alumni of Stonecraft Academy, where she will be honored alongside six other class members. Upon arriving Jean gets a bad feeling about the reunion, especially since a fellow classmate died days before under suspicious circumstances, but she goes through with the party only to have her bad feeling become a reality.
As the party gets under way Jean receives a mysterious fax exposing a secret that she has kept all her adult life. Who could have found out the secret and what do they want? These are the question that plague Jean, but in the middle of this turmoil comes another shock...Laura Wilcox, a fellow classmate and good friend to Jean disappears.
Jean is introduced to Sam Deegan, a detective obsessed with the unsolved murder of a young woman, who may also hold the key to Laura's disappearance, and with his help she can find her friend and put a stop to the threatening letters she is receiving. Before long, another body turns up and Jean and Sam find out this is the work of a twisted individual known as the Owl.
The Owl is on a mission of vengeance against the Stonecraft women who mocked and humiliated him and he won't stop until his last victim has been claimed, that last victim being Jean.
`Nighttime Is My Time' missed the mark on being an exciting read. This novel should have been better than it was, but the introduction of too many characters and over-abundance of scenes that had nothing to do with the story made it boring. Nothing in this book worked for me, the plot twists were unexciting and even the reveal of the killer's identity came with no real surprise, by the time I finished the book I didn't care what happened.
Mary Higgins Clark has written many excellent suspense novels, unfortunately this is not one of them. Suspense has always been a key element in a Clark novel, but this time it was left out for uninteresting character development. In all her years writing best-selling suspense novels, Clark, has only written a few books I didn't like, this being one of them, alongside `Moonlight Becomes Her' which I feel was her worst.
Better luck next time.
Nick Gonnella

NOTE: While this review contains detailed information about this story, none of it is in the nature of a spoiler. In fact, more details have been revealed on the bookjacket and in other reviews. My purpose is to provide the reader with the flavor and nature of the story; almost all the things I discuss are general in nature and occur very early in the book.
This murder mystery begins with Alison, the owner of one of the country's largest talent agencies, drowning in her own pool in a manner that causes the police to rule the death an accident. However, the reader knows that in truth she has been murdered by an unidentified figure intent on avenging some past wrong. We then learn that Alison had been about to attend her twentieth class reunion at Stonecroft Academy in Cornwall-On-Hudson, N.Y., but instead will be buried in her hometown cemetery and that a memorial service for her will be held during the reunion. Before the reunion can begin, the scene shifts to that small town where local detective and widower Sam Deegan is reviewing the case file regarding the still unsolved brutal killing of local teenager Karen Sommers twenty years ago before he pays his annual visit to Karen's widowed mother Alice on the anniversary of Karen's death.
Next we meet Jean Sheridan, who after leaving Stonecroft graduated from Bryn Mawr, received her Ph.D. from Princeton and has gained public recognition through the recent publication of a widely acclaimed historical study. Despite being one of the successful graduates that Stonecroft has chosen to honor during the reunion, Jean has been very reluctant to return to a town which we learn holds very bittersweet memories for her. However, she feels compelled to attend when she is notified that the memorial servive for her girlhood friend Alison will be held during the reunion. We soon learn that Jean's secret boyfriend, a cadet at the adjacent West Point Military Academy, died in a tragic accident just before her graduation and that someone has recently uncovered the secret of their relationship and is using this information to psychologically torture Jean. When Jean arrives on campus the final elements of the plot fall into place when Jake Perkins, a reporter from the campus newspaper attempts to interview her concerning the apparent "coincidence" that Alison was the fourth classmate of a group of six girls who regularly ate lunch together to die over the past twenty years in very tragic but seemingly unrelated accidents. Only Jean and Laura Wilcox, a well known actress who we soon meet when she arrives for the reunion, remain alive.
Now that the stage has been set, we meet Jack Emerson, their only classmate who has chosen to remain in their hometown and who has become a very successful real estate developer. Because of his local presence, Jack has agreed to serve as reunion chairman and greets the other honorees as they arrive. First is Carter Stewart, a well known writer of exceedingly dark plays. Next is Mark Fleischman, a therapist specializing in adolescent psychiatry who has become a popular media talk show host. Then Gordon Amory, the incredibly wealthy part owner of several media properties, arrives; he is followed by Robby Brent, a caustic comedian whose empathy and personal warmth are likened to that of Don Rickles.
As the story proceeds, Sam Deegan is called upon to investigate some apparently random and unrelated murders that occur in the vicinity. Then Laura Wilcox vanishes and soon after one of the other honorees disappears. What the reader knows is that this is all the work of THE OWL, the mysterious personality buried deep within one of the guests who occasionally emerges to select his prey and then utilize his sharp talons to avenge the humiliations visited upon him as an insecure teenager over twenty years ago. (And of course his mantra is NIGHTTIME IS MY TIME.) So this story is not only a traditional whodunit, but also a "race against time" thriller since the killer's task is unfinished.
The strong points of the story are that it has a very interesting plot and it is a real page turner that can easily be read during a rainy day or on a long flight. And the author does a fabulous job of misdirection with regard to the identity of THE OWL. Each of the male attendees seems to have sufficient motivation so that any of them could be the psychotic killer. The plot is interesting, but the number of suspects and their complex relationship required a paper and notepad for me to keep them all straight.
There are two negatives which kept me from a five star rating. First, there is almost no character development; NIGHTTIME is about keeping the reader engaged through non-stop action rather than developing empathy with the individuals involved. Second, since this book is written so that the reader has a broader overview of events than any of the individual characters, the outcome of several of the ancillary storylines will be obvious to most readers before Jean and Sam fit all the pieces of the puzzle together and the book reaches its conclusion. Despite these criticisms, I enjoyed the pace of the action, the complexity of the plot, and the fact the the author tied up all the loose ends in an almost "happily ever after" conclusion for the participants fortunate enough to remain alive.
As an addendum, if you enjoy interesting murder mysteries with complex plots but prefer substantial character development so that the participants seem three dimensional, I highly recommend THE LAST GOODBYE by Reed Arvin (review 2/17/2004). This is probably the best murder mystery I have read this year, and is well researched and wonderfully informative as well.
Tucker Andersen

Mary Higgins Clark takes us to the twenty-year reunion of what must have been the unhappiest high school ever. Six members of the class are being honored, and you would be hard-pressed to find another group of such obvious malcontents. However, amongst the honorees is renowned historian Jean Sheridan who harbors the secret of having given up her out-of-wedlock child for adoption. Now, not only Jean, but her child and everyone who shared her lunch table is systematically being eliminated by a disturbed fellow student who identifies himself as "the Owl" because nighttime is his time.
This is a look into the mind of a psychopathic serial killer and the lasting effects of childhood bullying. Interestingly enough, all the men being honored were bullied as high schoolers, but all have become successful in their chosen fields. However, those long-ago scars cause serious repercussions that erupt at the reunion.
My main complaint with this book is there are too many characters to keep track of. The four men being honored are barely distinguishable one from the other and it is virtually anitclimatic when the killer is finally exposed.
On the other hand, the suspense you expect from Mary Higgins Clark is present as well as two sub-plots involving romance.
If you are already a fan of her work, this one will not disappoint.

When it comes to class reunions, not one person I know ever goes without a few qualms about facing their past. The most popular, the funniest, the shyest, the ones who melted into their desks, and those who just tried to get through it all to get on with their lives, they all look forward to reunions with nervous anticipation. In this book, the author has taken that concept one step farther to develop a psychological thriller based on the fear and dread of going back to meet your past head-on ... and facing the secrets you've tried hard to hide.

Stonecroft Academy plans to honor 6 of its most successful graduates at the 20th Reunion festivities. These include a playwrite, network media executive, a down-on-her-luck actress, a successful History professor, a comic headliner, and a renowned psychologist (a "Dr. Phil" type). However, there appears to be a jinx on this class, as a group of girls who all sat at the same lunch table have had mysterious, inexplicable deaths over the last 20 years. There are 2 of those girls left to attend the reunion -- the actress, Laura, and the Historian, Jean. The murderer? A classmate who was never able to conquer his childhood insecurities as he moved on to adulthood. His agenda for the reunion is to finish what he started ... and kill all of the girls who sat at that lunch table and mocked him.

The author brings in secondary characters, such as the detective and the high school journalist, who are well developed and add credible depth to the story. The story moves along at a good pace and the plot twists keep you guessing.

In my opinion this book could have been about 70 pages shorter and still been a winner. Although most of the chapters are quite short (6 pages or less) there just seems to be too much unnecessary narrative towards the end. It's as if she needed to drag the story out to meet a specified page count by her publisher. I was intrigued and drawn in for the first three-quarters of the book, but after that I found myself wondering why we needed yet another murder and storyline. For that reason, I'm rating this 4 Stars. I will definitely read more from this author in the future.

Yes, the part I truly enjoyed about this audio book was the last few tracks where the author discussed the writing of this book and her writing style in general.

The novel itself ... well, maybe it was the abridgement ... maybe it was the reader ... but it just came off as SO melodramatic.

I didn't find much depth in any character save The Owl and her tertiary characters were, at times, just silly.

Also, Jan Maxwell may be a good actress, but I thought her voice unsuited for the many male voices of the supporting characters.

I don't suppose I'll be reading or listening to any more books by Mary Higgins Clark. It's just not my style.

Unfortunately this was my first MHC book and after hearing how much everyone enjoys her writing I was seriously disappointed. I think that the basic story was a good one and without the red herrings, flowed well, but the constant jumps into the mind of the killer followed by a chapter obviously connecting one of the four men at the reunion to something that was reveal in the previous chapter was extremely frustrating. I felt like I was trying to play a child's guessing game in the middle of reading a story about the effects of childhood suffering and bullying. Less obvious clues given more discreetly and without blatantly trying to connect them to a suspect would make for a much more interesting read and a more enjoyable ending. I also wish that the male characters would have had a bit more diversity rather than being the same recycled character in a new package.

My, my, the Queen of Suspense certainly is slipping. I had the opportunity to read two of Ms. Clark's novels within a span of 15 days - "Two little girls in Blue" and "Nighttime is my time". Both of them were huge disappointments, although they helped me pass the time during my flights.

Ms. Clark had built her reputation and earned my interest in her earlier books by creating in each novel, a strong and slightly unique plot, characters who all subtly hint at sinister motives, a smart and strong-willed leading woman whose strength of character shines through out the story, a romance gradually made to progress through the plot twists and turns, the goings-on narrated from the unknown perpetrator's point of view and a grand finale where the evil is revealed and the good once and for all vanquishes the evil.

Now for "Nighttime is My Time":
1. It has what passes for a plot - a former tormented student killing off his/ her tormentors one by one at a high school reunion. Wow, never in a million years would I have imagined that plot for a mystery novel.
2. In an effort to keep us guessing, Ms. Clark has all characters at the reunion hint, nay, shout their sinister motives from roof-tops throughout the pages of the novel. The reason for this, I can't help but think, is because Ms. Clark hadn't decided until the last chapter whom the killer was going to be and to cover her bases built up everyone to be one... you know, just in case.
3. All that Ms. Clark lets the readers know of the leading lady is that she comes from a broken home, had given up a baby for adoption after high school, and now is a successful writer who is very very sad and always sad, never happy, in tears at times... in fact, I can't remember a single page where she was happy and smiling and sure about herself and her success except perhaps in the last two pages. Really Ms. Clark, you can't think of one single reason why this woman should be happy now - she made the toughest decision any woman can make at the most difficult point in her life and has succeeded despite or because of it, and all she can feel is sadness?
4. The premise for romance is very feeble and is limited to two cups of tea, two club sandwiches and some 5 minutes of soul-baring amid swirling doubts of "is he or isn't he" ...the killer, that is.
5. Now the narration from the owl's point of view is what dominates the novel and gets pretty tiresome pretty fast. A lot of pages devoted to convey absolutely nothing. I recommend skipping these pages. Another confirmation of my nagging suspicion that Ms. Clark hadn't decided on the identity of the killer yet.
6. The grand finale is over in a rush and the only information I was eager to get to was whom had Ms. Clark decided to be the killer, in that instant she started writing the paragraph that reveals him.

All in all, I would say the re-runs of "Murder, She Wrote" and "Matlock" easily trump the last two novels I read of Ms. Clark's.

If you are an aspiring bad writer, take heart, because Clark has sold 70 million books. This is about as bad a book as you will find, in many ways. She has wide-open gaps in her mystery, she has one-dimensional moronic characters, she is consistently melodramatic, she changes point-of-view on the fly (she has a particularly irritating habit of being in third person but writing their thoughts in first person), she introduces every character with a name, as if they will be important, even when we never hear of them again, and she manages to introduce enough characters in the first few chapters to get you dizzy. And that is just for starters.

It's a tragedy that writing like this sells so well. This is template-driven, Harlequin mystery writing. It is so poor that it would be lucky to get a grade of "C" in a basic creative writing course. To be fair to Clark, this is the first work of hers I have read, so I don't know if she has just gotten lazy or if she has wasted 70 million books worth of trees pumping out this rubbish. I won't be buying more of her books, for the same reason I don't go to my dentist and ask him to fit me in for a root canal.

As a braille proofreader, I tend to come across a lot of bad writing. Mary Higgins Clark falls into this category.
There are several problems, as I see it, with the writing of this book. One is the way Clark handles thought processes. This is not an example from the book, but illustrates my point:
Wow, thought Jean, It still amazes me that, as a girl growing up with two parents who hated each other, thus not affording me the loving environment one feels children should have, and given the horror of discovering the man I loved was dead, both of which must have scarred me severely emotionally ... And so on. The past is told through thought, and it just seems inauthentic to me.
Another problem I had was with the ending itself. I will not reveal it, but with a good mystery, the reader is left thinking, "I should have figured that out." This is not the case with Nighttime. In the case of this book, the author seems to have (badly) penned a story, and at the end just picked one character whom she decided would be the murderer. Rather than provide clues to lead readers to the murderer, all she did was mislead and provide a few dead ends.
It's a bad writing style, it assumes no intelligence on the part of the reader, and I do not recommend it.

Having read a couple of decently suspenseful books by MHC, I thought this one would be equivalent. Wrong. It's terrible. The writing is some horrible "what if, why, oh woe is me, blah blah blah, she thought, blah blah blah, she pondered" that goes on for pages at a time. There can't be more than 50 pages of actual dialog and events -- maybe less. The rest of it is random wordy thought bubbles by any and all characters in the book, none of whom we care about. MHC apparently believes that if you randomly describe unimportant objects and places, that this will improve a book. Note to MHC and her editor: No, it doesn't. If you want the book to be interesting, look into the concepts of plot and character development. As if the writing wasn't bad enough, whatever idiot edited/proofed this book didn't even catch glaring continuity errors. As an example, the detective worries that he can't find Jean's cell phone number when she doesn't answer her hotel phone, after we were just told that Jean recorded her cell phone number on the hotel voicemail so that she could be reached at any time. Huh? At the beginning, the killer is underwater and whispers something to his victim. Has MHC ever tried to whisper something while under the water? Maybe she should try it before she claims a character has accomplished this great feat. MHC also seems to have no idea how police investigations are conducted, and has her detective calling people and saying things like "you are in danger from a homicidal maniac." ROFL. The book starts bad and ends bad. In the middle are hours of agony (or great examples of awful writing). On the plus side, if you are with a group of friends, it can be great fun to find and read aloud the worst sentences in the book. (Just borrow it, so you don't have to waste your money.)

I became a MHC fan immediately after reading Where Are The Children? and thoroughly looked forward to each new book she wrote. However, I began to notice that with her last 3 - 4 books, the plots were becoming weak, the dialogue repetitious, and the mysteries, luke warm.
With Nighttime is My Time, I began skipping full pages, just to get through the chapter; that's how tedious the writing was. Also, by the time I found out who the 'Owl' was, I really didn't care, because there was no real rhyme or reason supporting the villain.
When I get to the point where I'm checking the story to see if there are any 'fancy' vocabulary words that I may not know, I realize the book no longer holds my attention. This was the case of Nighttime is My Time. I think I'll begin waiting for MHC books to come out in paperback!

She would prefer to ignore the invitation to return to Stonecraft Academy for her class' twentieth anniversary reunion, but renowned historian Jean Sheridan is one of six recipients being honored at the gala for their accomplishments. Still the award would not have propelled Jean to return to the academy, but posthumously honoring another winner is the reason for the author to drive to Croton on the Hudson to attend the festivities.
At the hotel, Jean receives a fax that follows up on a package sent to her that contains evidence that someone kidnapped her teenage child, who she gave up for adoption at birth. She is further stunned when attendee Laura Wilcox followed by Robby Brent vanish. When Laura calls to confess that she sent the fax and wants to meet Jean, the historian has no idea the danger she will be stepping into. The serial killer the Owl has made a home at Stonecraft Academy and Jean would be a prize addition to the victim list of at least five from the class of two decades ago.
Though the plot seems anemic in spite of a serial killer and the abduction, the suspense is at its usual stratospheric levels as expected from a Mary Higgins Clark thriller. The story line focuses on the Professor dealing with two crises that interconnect with her. Readers will appreciate the heroism of the reluctant female champion as she grits her teeth and goes forth to do battle against an unknown enemy who might be abetted by a peer betrayer. Ms. Clark shows why she is amongst the top echelon of psychological suspense authors with this taut tale.
Harriet Klausner

Heard the taped version of NIGHTTIME IS MY TIME by Mary Higgins Clark . . . I remember saying to myself a few years ago that I was done reading Clark's mysteries . . . they were all too similar, and I tended to feel very little for any of her characters . . . yet since this was not a book, per se, I decided to give it a listen instead . . . and was disappointed having done so.

NIGHTTIME is the story of a college dean who returns to her hometown to attend a 20-year reunion of Stonecroft Academy alumni . . . there's only one problem: five of her classmates have come to a sudden, mysterious end . . . what's more, there's a taunting, anonymous fax referring to the dean's daughter--a child she had given up for adoption 20 years ago.

The plot rambled, and there were far too many characters to hold my interest . . . none were particularly well drawn, either . . . by the time the ending finally came around, I vowed to myself

that this was it now for both written AND taped books by Clark.

Mary Higgins Clark is my favorite mystery writer. My daughter started reading her books that I had in the house, and now MHC is her favorite writer. Most people these days are used to being fed trash and garbage by writers who can't really write, but sell books by filling the pages with explicit sex, violence, and other perverted junk. I'm so glad that MHC does not feel the need to write that junk in her novels. All of my children and my grandchildren can read and enjoy her novels. And, she is a really good writer. Ms. Clark, keep up the good work, regardless of what some of the negative reviews say.

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER!

I have noticed that MHC's last few books have differed from her longtime "standard," trying tactics such as writing in the first-person and varying the rather standard personality of the leading female. I think I prefer the standard. :) This book kept me captive, as hers always do... they are such a quick read I pretty much end up glued to them until I am finished. I resisted the urge to skip to the end of this one, though to be honest it wouldn't have made much difference. The major down side to this book, in my opinion, is that the personalities of the characters-in-question were not better developed. I loved the way "The Owl" was worked in, always nearly revealing his true identity in some way, but never quite. However in the end when the identity really was revealed, I was underwhelmed. To me three out of the four characters sort of ran together without much to differentiate their personalities, and the other becomes Jean's love interest, although she has difficulty trusting him at first... standard fare for a MHC novel! Despite the predictability though, I will be first in line for her next one. They may be enjoyable fluff, but they are certainly still enjoyable.

What a disappointment! Although I've read all of Ms. Clark's books, I have noticed the quality diminishing of late. This was the last straw - I couldn't even read it through to the end; I just skipped ahead to the solution because, after slogging through half the book, I realized the rest of it just wasn't going to be worth my time. I wasn't drawn to any of the major players; in fact, the bit players were more interesting!
What's most bothersome about this latest novel is the writing style - repetitive narrative & an unrealistic form of "stream-of-consciousness" to explain the back story and/or personal reactions. NO ONE talks to herself/himself this way! It seems that many of today's "bestseller" authors are being pressured to write a book a year, and that's too quick for some of them, including Mary Higgins Clark.
Don't waste your money or your time on "Nighttime Is My Time". If you must read this, however, borrow it from a library.

A reunion at Stonecroft Academy should have been a happy and joyous time. But for the honorees it has become a nightmare.One is killed before the reunion.One is abducted and thouhgt to be dead, another is tormented by faxes that have to do with the past. All the male honorees are suspects. A murder twenty years ago enter twines with what is going on . Two new murders take place during the reunion. A student currently from Stonecroft is a great help to the detectives. When the owl is revealed you'll never have guessed who it was.
Mary Higgins Clark has to many suspects. Hard to keep tract of them. She does keep you guessing.If you want something to fill your time with pick it up.

This book was terrific. There are so many twists and turns that you did not know what to think. The fact that all the girls were friends and that Jeannie had a secret that she thought was safe. All the different personalities were set just right to keep the story alive. This book was a good page turner and had the suspense, action, drama and spicey ingredients to make you keep reading and not put the book down.
Mary Higgins Clark is definitely the true queen of suspense and drama. I can't wait to see what the next novel will bring.

Very well-done! The reader for Clark's books really do them justice and make you become more involved than maybe you should (if you're driving).

The Owl wants revenge for the cruel nature of a lunch table of girls who made his life hell growing up. Several of those women are dead...who's next?

The creep factor of this was high, especially driving alone at night. Great reader; I recommend all of Higgins Clark books as audio.

Mary Higgins Clark has made a name for herself writing suspense thrillers that are not immortal classics--but they're always very entertaining, and that's what her readers want. I find it humorous that some reviewers have put her latest work down as if they're commparing it to Tolstoy or Hemmingway. Thanks for the big belly laughs!

This latest work kept me engaged during a car trip to another city. While I agree with others that this was not the best book of hers I've ever read and there were not enough clues entwined throughout to point to the killer, it was good. That's GOOD--not a life-changing wonder-book. The killer was creepy and his motives even creepier. The characters seemed well-developed enough, they weren't just one dimensional and predictable. It did strike me as funny that of the classmates that made it big, the men were all class "losers" and the women were all stereotyped, preppy popular girls (e.g., the "pretty one" and the "smart one"). I guess that MHC wanted to spend more time on other details.

If you're looking for a book that is a fun read (but not knock-your-socks-off unforgettable/phenomenal) look no further than this page turner. It's a great read for this summer!

Mary Higgins Clark has made a name for herself writing suspense thrillers that are not immortal classics--but they're always very entertaining, and that's what her readers want. I find it humorous that some reviewers have put her latest work down as if they're commparing it to Tolstoy or Hemmingway. Thanks for the big belly laughs!

This latest work kept me engaged during a car trip to another city. While I agree with others that this was not the best book of hers I've ever read and there were not enough clues entwined throughout to point to the killer, it was good. That's GOOD--not a life-changing wonder-book. The killer was creepy and his motives even creepier. The characters seemed well-developed enough, they weren't just one dimensional and predictable. It did strike me as funny that of the classmates that made it big, the men were all class "losers" and the women were all stereotyped, preppy popular girls (e.g., the "pretty one" and the "smart one"). I guess that MHC wanted to spend more time on other details.

If you're looking for a book that is a fun read (but not knock-your-socks-off unforgettable/phenomenal) look no further than this page turner. It's a great read for this summer!

Before reviewing this book, I read what others had to say and I concur with many of them. Book was much too long and confusing. Too many characters.

I had great difficulty trying to remember who did what to who, etc. Very little

relevance throughout the book to what happened at the end. Think perhaps

Ms Clark is trying to write too many books and with the length of this one,

one could assume she is selling her books by the pound. Almost felt her

niece was writing the book as it was certainly not up to her standards.

while i always enjoy reading mary higgins clark, this time i was disappointed. as i read "nighttime," i kept finding similarities to one of her older books, which for the life of me i can't remember.
i always have a hard time remembering my "who did it list," and this time was no different. but the one i thought for sure did it, didn't. the one i thought didn't, did.
isn't that what mystery is all about

I think all of MHC's books are highly predictable and are just slight variations on each other, but this one was especially hard to swallow. A 16 year old high school kid who is everywhere the action is to get a scoop for his school newspaper? And he gets pissy when the police think he's an annoyance? And what about him calling his HS teacher by her first name? What kid does that?!
Kudos to the author for including a character named Jack or Mac---it wouldn't be a MHC novel without it!

This book seems highly contrived and not up to the usual standards that i would expect from one of my favorites.
I am glad that i checked it out from the library and did not purchase this book. The way you are continuously supplied with reasons for EVERY man in the book to be the killer makes me feel manipulated. I will not be adding this to my collection!

There is just something about the mysteries Ms Clark writes. Having updated my high school class' roster in preparation for our proposed 50th reunion, I'm certainly hoping we don't have a psychotic killer among them! Nice setting along the Hudson River in this thriller!

Early Mary Higgins Clark books were very good. Recent efforts have really not been up to her early work at all. In NIGHTTIME IS MY TIME characters are rather one-dimensional and interchangeable. The suspense is sustained only through numerous red herrings. It was confusing and I just could not wait to get through the book, which was a problem, since I kept putting it down. My advice is to skip it.

First of all, to all you who have posted negative reviews proclaiming that you reach for Mary Higgins Clark when you want a quick and mindless read...

Is there a reason you need an easy read? Do you have problems that keep you from reading a well-woven story? Do you prefer those short books with the big print so you can shout "I finished it!" when you are done?

If you read mystery novels simply because you feel it is easier to read than a different genre then you are committing a great injustice making negative comments about one of the few authors left out there who is able to write a good story, consistently from book to book without stealing other authors concepts, names, references, etc.

Mary Higgins Clark books are not marketed as an "easy read". Maybe they seem easier to read because she writes well and her story flows from her gifted prose. (Assuming you know what prose means)

I must note that one of the best reviews on this book was by Carole Imes (Winter Springs, Florida USA), who references details rather than ranting. She understands the role of a protagonist in a mystery story and like the rest of us who show intelligence enough to "get" a M.H.C. book.

Night Time is My Time is an AWESOME novel and clearly one of M.H.C.'s best works. You go girl!

This book has finally brought Mary Higgins Clark to the lowest point of her career.
The author that held us all in suspense with "Where are the children" has resorted to the use of superfluous language to fill a book that wouldn't be accepted by Harlequin Romances.
As an example. A 29 word sentence to describe flicking on a light switch? That's not including the sentence that proceeded it, that had the character flick on the light switch.
This book was a waste of money. Now I intend to stop wasting my time. Four days to read 165 pages. Once I would stay up all night to finish a M H C novel. This one is just too tiresome.
Mrs. Larry Crommett

There were some amazing characters in this book, but they weren't the main characters -- Jake, the highschool reporter; Sam, the cop; Alice, the first victim's mother and the old guy at the store. The honorees lacked flavor pretty much, but the plot was pretty good. I enjoyed the book immensely. Had the killer been someone other than who it was, made the difference in a 3-star rating and a 4-star rating. I was a bit let down by a romance that should have developed and didn't. This will make my favorite MHC list, but it won't be at the top.

It was disappointed with Mary Higgins Clark latest novel Nightime Is My Time. This was the cast of too many characters and not enough plot. By the time I finished reading it. i didn't care about who the killer was or anything else. Hopefully the next will be better.

I enjoyed this book although I agree with some of the other reviewers that it was not one of her best. I didn't find the charchters confusing as a lot of people stated although they were all very similiar in that they had unhappy upbringings. I also felt as if I knew who "The Owl" was all along. A couple of times I thought perhaps it was another charchter but in the end I was right and it was disappointing. With a better ending though I would have given it 4 stars.

The characters are not well-developed and the plot is somewhat predictable, but it was entertaining and took me to the end to see whether my guess as to who was The Owl was correct - it was. But it's a fun, light read.