Let Me Call You Sweetheart by Mary Higgins Clark

From the Publisher

It's a minor accident that brings prosecutor Kerry McGrath to the plastic surgeon's office with her beloved daughter, Robin. But even as the doctor assures Kerry that her daughter's scars will heal, she spies a familiar-looking beautiful woman in the waiting room and is seized by an overpowering sense of deja vu. When, on a return visit, she sees the same haunting face -- on another woman -- she has an intense flash of recognition: it's the face of Suzanne Reardon, the "Sweetheart Murder" victim, killed more than ten years ago! The case resulted in a guilty verdict and life sentence for Suzanne's husband, Skip. But for what possible reason would Dr. Smith be giving his patients the face of a dead woman?

As Kerry immerses herself in a fresh investigation, she is catapulted into the strange and ominous territory of those so obsessed with beauty they'll kill for it. Each new piece of evidence she unearths reveals a disturbing cache of questions. Not only does everyone involved want to keep the case closed, it's clear somebody will stop at nothing to keep it sealed forever. As she delves deeper she finds she's wrestling with a force so sinister that her own life -- and her daughter's -- is threatened with increasing peril....

Interweaving fascinating characters with deeply daring, staggeringly unpredictable plot twists, Mary Higgins Clark reminds us that she is, indeed, America's Queen of Suspense.

Publishers Weekly

The latest from the Clark suspense factory has a spunky New Jersey prosecutor, Kerry McGrath, as its heroine in danger. Kerry has taken an interest in a 10-year-old murder case, in which Skip Reardon had been found guilty of slaying his beautiful wife, Suzanne, and has since been pleading his innocence from his jail cell. When Kerry's small daughter, Robin, goes to a New York plastic surgeon after a car crash, it is apparent that Dr. Smith, who was Suzanne's father, is weird. He seems to be fashioning the faces of young women to resemble his dead daughter-and it was his testimony that sent Skip to jail. Kerry's interest in the case (and her parallel interest in Skip's good-guy lawyer) may harm her chances of a judgeship, and it also draws the ominous attention of another possible suspect, James Weeks, a wealthy real-estate magnate with rumored mob connections. Then there's elegant, tasteful art burglar Jason Arnott, who had also known Suzanne.... As usual, Clark's plot, unfolded in dozens of short chapters, is convoluted, full of red herrings and finally wrapped up with a villain out of left field. The writing is crisp but colorless, characterization minimal, atmosphere nonexistent; but the cozy evocation of a deserving damsel in distress who attains a happy ending seems never to disappoint her legions of fans.

Publishers Weekly

The latest from the Clark suspense factory has a spunky New Jersey prosecutor, Kerry McGrath, as its heroine in danger. Kerry has taken an interest in a 10-year-old murder case, in which Skip Reardon had been found guilty of slaying his beautiful wife, Suzanne, and has since been pleading his innocence from his jail cell. When Kerry's small daughter, Robin, goes to a New York plastic surgeon after a car crash, it is apparent that Dr. Smith, who was Suzanne's father, is weird. He seems to be fashioning the faces of young women to resemble his dead daughter-and it was his testimony that sent Skip to jail. Kerry's interest in the case (and her parallel interest in Skip's good-guy lawyer) may harm her chances of a judgeship, and it also draws the ominous attention of another possible suspect, James Weeks, a wealthy real-estate magnate with rumored mob connections. Then there's elegant, tasteful art burglar Jason Arnott, who had also known Suzanne.... As usual, Clark's plot, unfolded in dozens of short chapters, is convoluted, full of red herrings and finally wrapped up with a villain out of left field. The writing is crisp but colorless, characterization minimal, atmosphere nonexistent; but the cozy evocation of a deserving damsel in distress who attains a happy ending seems never to disappoint her legions of fans. One million first printing; major ad/promo; Literary Guild selection; author tour. (May)

Library Journal

Prosecutor and aspiring judge Kerry McGrath can kiss the judgeship goodbye if she snoops into the murder of the beautiful Suzanne Reardon. Ten years earlier, the seemingly open-and-shut case propelled political careers and doomed the husband, Skip Reardon, to a 30-year sentence despite his desperate pleas of innocence. While sitting in the waiting room of a plastic surgeon, Dr. Smith, Kerry sees a patient who looks exactly like Suzanne Reardon. Kerry's shock is surpassed days later when she sees another. Questioning Dr. Smith wildly ruffles his feathers, and when Kerry learns that the doctor's testimony helped convict Skip Reardon, she teams up with Reardon's attorney and scours the world of gem thiefs, murderers, child stalkers, the Irish Mafia, and more to solve the mystery. This latest by the popular author of The Lottery Winner (S. & S., 1994) should do well in public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/95.]-Cynthia Ann Cordes, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.

School Library Journal

YA-Kerry McGrath, a young attorney on her way to a judgeship, seeks the medical assistance of plastic surgeon Dr. Charles Smith when her daughter is injured in a car accident. While waiting for Robin in the doctor's office, Kerry is amazed to see two women sharing the same face. She is further confused to discover that the face is that of Dr. Smith's own daughter, Suzanne Reardon, murdered 10 years earlier. Skip, Suzanne's husband, is serving a life sentence for her death. His attorney soon gets Kerry's interest in appealing Skip's conviction as well as attracting her romantically. The cast of characters includes Kerry's boss; her benefactors and great friends, State Senator Jonathan Hoover and his invalid wife; and her former husband, who is defending a Mafia client. All of their paths cross as Kerry must choose between her professional future and her belief in Skip Reardon's innocence. A suspenseful novel that's sure to please Clark's fans and create some new ones.-Katherine Fitch, Lake Braddock Secondary School, Burke, VA

BookList

Addicts of the queen of suspense won't be able to resist her latest novel, in which Kerry McGrath's chance encounter with a creepy plastic surgeon sends her on a mission to right a past injustice. As an attorney with a judgeship in her future, Kerry's energies suddenly turn to protecting her young daughter and to finding out who really killed Suzanne Reardon 10 years earlier. Could it be Dr. Smith, the surgeon who keeps creating Suzanne's beautiful face for his female clients? Or Kerry's boss, who convicted Suzanne's husband of the murder? Or Jimmy Weeks, a rich thug? (Or any of Clark's other suspicious characters?) With an assorted cast of manipulators and truth seekers, Mary Higgins Clark reveals the real crime--in her own inimitable style. A one million first printing guarantees demand.

Product Details

• ISBN: 0671568175
  
• ISBN-13: 9780671568177
• Format: Mass Market Paperback, 320pp
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
• Pub. Date: May 1996
• Edition Description: Reprint
• Sales Rank: 27,636

• Read an Excerpt

Read an Excerpt

Kerry smoothed down the skirt of her dark green suit, straightened the narrow gold chain on her neck and ran her fingers through her collar-length, dusky blond hair. Her entire afternoon had been a mad rush, leaving the courthouse at two-thirty, picking up Robin at school, driving from Hohokus through the heavy traffic of Routes 17 and 4, then over the George Washington Bridge to Manhattan, finally parking the car and arriving at the doctor's office just in time for Robin's four o'clock appointment.

Now, after all the rush, Kerry could only sit and wait to be summoned into the examining room, wishing that she'd been allowed to be with Robin while the stitches were removed. But the nurse had been adamant. "During a procedure, Dr. Smith will not permit anyone except the nurse in the room with a patient."

"But she's only ten!" Kerry had protested, then had closed her lips and reminded herself that she should be grateful that Dr. Smith was the one who hadbeen called in after the accident. The nurses at St. Luke's-Roosevelt had assured her that he was a wonderful plastic surgeon. The emergency room doctor had even called him a miracle worker.

Reflecting back on that day, a week ago, Kerry realized she still hadn't recovered from the shock of that phone call. She'd been working late in her office at the courthouse in Hackensack, preparing for the murder case she would be prosecuting, taking advantage of the fact that Robin's father, her ex-husband, Bob Kinellen, had unexpectedly invited Robin to see New York City's Big Apple Circus, followed by dinner.

At six-thirty her phone had rung. It was Bob. There had been an accident. A van had rammed into his Jaguarwhile he was pulling out of the parking garage. Robin's face had been cut by flying glass. She'd been rushed to St. Luke's-Roosevelt, and a plastic surgeon had been called. Otherwise she seemed fine, although she was being examined for internal injuries.

Remembering that terrible evening, Kerry shook her head. She tried to push out of her mind the agony of the hurried drive into New York, dry sobs shaking her body, her lips forming only one word, "please," her mind racing with the rest of the prayer, Please God, don't let her die, she's all I have. Please, she's just a baby. Don't take her from me...

Robin was already in surgery when Kerry had arrived at the hospital, so she had sat in the waiting room, Bob next to her -- with him but not with him. He had a wife and two other children now. Kerry could still feel the overwhelming sensation of relief she had experienced when Dr. Smith had finally appeared, and in a formal and oddly condescending manner had said, "Fortunately the lacerations did not deeply penetrate the dermis. Robin will not be scarred. I want to see her in my office in one week."

The cuts proved to be her only injuries, and Robin had bounced back from the accident, missing only two days of school. She had seemed to be somewhat proud of her bandages. It was only today, on their way into New York for the appointment, that she'd sounded frightened when she asked, "I will be okay, won't I, Mom? I mean my face won't be all messed up?"

With her wide blue eyes, oval face, high forehead and sculpted features, Robin was a beautiful child and the image of her father. Kerry had reassured her with a heartiness she hoped was truthful. Now, to distract herself, Kerry looked around the waiting room. It was tastefully furnished with several couches and chairs covered in a small floral print design. The lights were soft, the carpeting luxurious.

A woman who appeared to be in her early forties, wearing a bandage across her nose, was among those waiting to be called inside. Another, who looked somewhat anxious, was confiding to her attractive companion: "Now that I'm here, I'm glad you made me come. You look fabulous."

She does, Kerry thought as she self-consciously reached into her bag for her compact. Snapping it open, she examined herself in the mirror, deciding that today she looked every minute of her thirty-six years. She was aware that many people found her attractive, but still she remained self-conscious about her looks. She brushed the powder puff over the bridge of her nose, trying to cover the spray of detested freckles, studied her eyes and decided that whenever she was tired, as she was today, their hazel color changed from green to muddy brown. She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, then with a sigh closed the compact and smoothed back the half bang that needed trimming.

Anxiously she fastened her gaze on the door that led to the examining rooms. Why was it taking so long to remove Robin's stitches? she wondered. Could there be complications?

A moment later the door opened. Kerry looked up expectantly. Instead of Robin, however, there emerged a young woman who seemed to be in her mid-twenties, a cloud of dark hair framing the petulant beauty of her face.

I wonder if she always looked like that, Kerry mused, as she studied the high cheekbones, straight nose, exquisitely shaped pouty lips, luminous eyes, arched brows.

Perhaps sensing her gaze, the young woman looked quizzically at Kerry as she passed her.

Kerry's throat tightened. I know you, she thought. But from where? She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. That face -- I've seen her before.

Once the woman had left, Kerry went over to the receptionist and explained that she thought she might know the lady who just came out of the doctor's office. Who was she?

The name Barbara Tompkins, however, meant nothing to her. She must have been mistaken. Still, when she sat down again, an overwhelming sense of déjà vu filled her mind. The effect was so chilling, she actually shivered.

Copyright © 1995 by Mary Higgins Clark