Where Are You Now? By Mary Higgins Clark
At first, this book was a complete headache to read. The protagonist (Carolyn) narrated about a third of the story in first person, but the rest of it was in third person from at least ten other points of view. It was difficult to follow because so many characters were being introduced so quickly. Eventually I had to pull out a pencil and start taking notes in the margins as to who each character was. It is a mystery novel, so there is some reasoning behind the confusion. Clark probably meant for it to be difficult to follow, but certain things could have been avoided. When writing in third person, she would often have the exact words of the person's thoughts written out, but did nothing to distinguish the verbatim thought from the surrounding paragraph. I often had to read these bits more than once in order to make sense of them.
One I got over the structural problems in the novel, and was finally able to remember who was who without looking back at my notes, I was completely sucked in. The copy I own is a promotional volume with three other "midlist" novels included. It refers to Clark as "America's Queen of Suspense" and I now understand why. Her tactic of giving the reader insight into the life of nearly every character builds suspense by making everyone look guilty, or at least partially so. She forces you to concentrate so much on the obvious suspects, you forget that the least likely person may be the guilty one. The end of this book was absolutely shocking, and well worth suffering through the first few chapters of utter confusion. Every single minor detail that you feel is pointless throughout the story is tied together in the end, and every single character has a role to play in the solution to this mystery.
Don't waste your time reading this if you don't like mystery, or if you're looking for a leisurely read. In order to appreciate this book, it takes a lot of thought and attentiveness. It was only about 150 pages, but it still took me, the queen of speed-reading, a few days to get through, because I had to keep my mind aware when I read it. There is a cute little romance included for those of you who like that, but it isn't a huge plot point. I suggest that if you are going to read it, make sure that you have the time to put into it, because reading this book a little here and a little there will not work. You'll forget most of the characters and subtle, but important details.
