Title: Where Are You Now?
Author: Mary Higgins Clark
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Publisher: Pocket Books Fiction International
"Ten years ago, twenty-one-year-old Columbia University senior Charles MacKenzie Jr. ("Mack") walked out of his Manhattan apartment without a word to his roommates and disappeared. He calls his mother once a year, on Mother's Day, but refuses to answer her frantic questions. This year when he calls, Mack's sister Carolyn, now twenty-six, announces her intention to track him down, no matter what it takes.
Ignoring a cryptic warning note and the angry protests of her mother, Carolyn swiftly plunges into a world of unexpected danger and unanswered questions. What do Mack's old roommates--a charismatic club owner and a wealthy real estate tycoon--know about his disappearance? Can the police possibly believe that Mack is a shadowy predator--or even a murderer?
Carolyn's passionate search for the truth leads her into a deadly confrontation with someone close to her whose secret he cannot allow her to reveal."
With Where Are You Now?, the "Queen of Suspense" Mary Higgins Clark takes us on a journey as the main character, Carolyn MacKenzie, unravels the mystery behind the mysterious disappearance of her older brother Mack ten years ago, who now only calls his mother and sister once a year on Mother's Day but refuses to inform them of his whereabouts. The synopsis (posted above) really attracted me towards the book, and it seemed very promising for thriller-mystery fans such as myself.
One of the elements of a good thriller-mystery novel is the ability of the writer to keep the readers guessing up until "the big reveal" towards the end. Mary Higgins Clark certainly has done a great job in this aspect (not like a certain author who failed miserably--check out this review to see what I'm talking about), and I honestly ached for the "big reveal" to just happen already as I had to keep on guessing what really happened based on clues unraveled throughout the novel. This is exactly why I did find it hard to put this book down, especially as I was nearing the end of it. When the "big reveal" did finally come towards the end, my initial reaction was shock (quite naturally), but I also felt amazed at how well the author concealed this truth (which, now that I think about it, was somewhat obvious or expected) from the readers by directing our attention to other things.
Unlike other thriller-mystery authors who keep their readers' hearts pumping by putting in a lot of action-packed scenes, Mary Higgins Clark, through Where Are You Now? would rather mess with the readers' heads by putting in a lot of characters with some elements in the plot that may lead us to believe that they are somehow connected to Mack's disappearance. Even Mack himself is not spared--at some point in the novel, the readers are made to believe that he himself may be a suspect--a deranged lunatic behind his own disappearance as well as the mysterious disappearances of several young ladies years ago.
Still, though, the introduction of a bit too many characters and the switching of narratives between chapters did leave me quite confused. The middle part of the novel also seemed to just go on and on with the author dwelling into too many unnecessary details that don't really contribute to the advancement of the story--like how many times do we really need to know that the characters had a cup of coffee? Do we really need to know every last detail of Carolyn's outfit? Also, I felt that everything felt quite rushed already after the big reveal happened, leaving little or no room for some heart-racing, action-packed confrontation that would have resulted in a climactic ending. In the epilogue, the author may have also forgotten to tell us what had happened to some of the characters that she had introduced. With that, I was left hanging, somewhat.
Despite certain shortcomings, I still recommend this book. The book is fairly easy to read with several short chapters, with some just half a page in length. If you're looking for a good thriller-mystery book to pass away the time, then Where Are You Now? may just be ideal for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment