Just Take My Heart [Kindle Edition]

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Just Take My Heart [Kindle Edition]

By : Mary Higgins Clark
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Customer Reviews

Mary Higgins Clark knows how to enthrall, that's for sure!
The book starts off fairly standard- Gregg is indicted for murdering his estranged wife Natalie Raines, a successful actress. We get a brief glimpse of Natalie through her mother's eyes. She describes her daughter as having stardust clinging to her. The book follows the preparations of Emily Wallace, the assistant prosecutor who is on the case.
A side plot grabbed me in the beginning- Emily's neighbor offers to care for her dog with the intent of gaining access to her house with the nefarious intent of 'touching everything she wore'. It's not long before Emily realizes there is something creepy about Zach.
The book continues on, following the trial, which reveals the details of the crime little by little. Emily is 'young and beautiful' but also smart and leveraging a strong case against the defendant.
About a quarter of the way into the book we get a big twist- Emily, the tough assistant prosecutor, has had a heart transplant after losing her husband in Iraq. The rest of the book unfolds in a very interesting way (which you'll just have to read to find out)centering around the idea of certain 'memories' from the original donor being brought along with a transplanted organ. Just whose heart does Emily have?
I have been reading Mary Higgins Clark for years and she delivers a great murder mystery, yet again, just this time with a very interesting twist.
This is not a difficult read or perhaps 'great literature' but it is highly entertaining. It is a quick and easy read, very enjoyable once you get into into it (took me a couple of chapters to build momentum simply because of the character view point switches). As the plot narrows in on Emily, I felt more drawn in- reading quickly through the other viewpoints to get back to the parts about her.
Definately one you should pick up in hardback/kindle if you are a Mary Higgins Clark fan or into this genre. Otherwise, you mightt want to wait for it to come out in paperback as it is a quick read.

In my opinion, this author usually does much better. Ms.Clark obviously is defaulting to a previously used template, a "recipe" for literary success from past novels.
In regards to the plot, the phrase "what are the odds of this really happening" came to mind many times during my reading. She wasted most of my reading time letting her characters wander through the disjointed plot, going here and there but not seeming to tell a fluid story. And in the end, she seemed to realize she had a deadline and tried to bring the entire plot together, solve the mystery and tie up the loose ends in the last 15 pages with a mass confessional of both villains and hero's. If you want to read a really good book, read "Garden Spells" by Sarah Addison Allen. It was an excellent surprise to find a new author with such fresh and inspired writing talent.