Books & Literature

Book Review: As Time Goes By, by Mary Higgins Clark

A journalist finds herself drawn to the trial of Betsy Grant, who has been charged with murdering her millionaire husband, but she’s not the only one with motive…

It’s hard not to know of Mary Higgins Clark: she’s been an author for over thirty years, having written more than thirty books with over 100 million novels sold in the USA alone.

In As Time Goes By, she again weaves multiple stories together in a way that makes for a fun whodunit. Although fans may be able to foresee how the plots are going to intersect, I found myself staying up late to finish “one more page” to see how it ended.

AsTimeGoesByBOOK200Delaney Wright is a journalist who finds herself drawn to the trial of Betsy Grant, who has been charged with murdering her husband. Betsy’s husband, Ted, had Alzheimer’s disease for 8 years and had been displaying more and more erratic behaviour, so family and friends are not necessarily surprised.

As Delaney delves deeper into the story, we find out more about the family – Betsy was a nurse who caught the eye of the multimillionaire while treating him at hospital. Her stepson, Alan, is in financial difficulties. On top of that, there are other friends and colleagues who may also have had a motive for murder.

Running parallel to this is Delaney’s journey of self-discovery. While she has always known she was adopted and has a loving adopted family, she has also wanted to find out her family background. This is handled in a sensitive, if not idealistic, way – why would the investigators Delaney hired trust complete strangers who asked to be paid to reveal information about her birth family?!

Fans of the author will not be disappointed despite easily recognising her formulaic style of suspense and character depiction (after 30 odd novels, it would be hard not to be formulaic).

Mary Higgins Clark hits a lot of buttons with adoption and managing family with Alzheimer’s disease, not to mention murder. It’s a combination that could make for a difficult read yet it isn’t. I found myself racing through it, eager to find out whodunit.

Reviewed by Michelle Baylis

Rating out of 10:  7

Publisher:  Simon & Schuster
Release Date:  July 2016
RRP:  $45.00 Hardback, $32.99 Paperback, $12.99 eBook

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