The Shadow of Your Smile [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Thursday, March 22, 2012

The Shadow of Your Smile [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Product Details

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Simon ; Schuster; 1 edition (April 13, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1439172269
ASIN: B005DI7RD2
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

By : Mary Higgins Clark
List Price : ~~$25.99~~
Price : $10.40
You Save : $15.59 (60%)

Customer Reviews

The Shadow of Your Smile, the latest thriller from Mary Higgins Clark, is in almost every way typical of her previous books. I want to say right away that I enjoyed it, much more than her last book as a matter of fact. MHC raises some interesting points concerning the natural conflict between faith and science in this one.
Dr. Monica Farrell, a pediatrician with a successful practice in New York, doesn't know her father's birth mother was a woman who later took vows and is now being considered for sainthood. Miracles of healing have been attributed to Sister Catherine, her grandmother, including one involving a patient of Monica's with terminal brain cancer. Dr. Farrell is no longer a practicing Catholic and considers herself to be a scientist first and foremost. To her, miracles are simply events that will have a logical explanation some time in the future.
The man who fathered Catherine's child was an inventor whose patents provided an enormous income he willed to "any issue" of his, not knowing what had happened to the child Catherine bore in secret. The default heirs are two brothers whose greed and dishonest business practices have resulted in the necessity for multiple murder to keep their house of cards from collapsing. After the suspicious death of a close friend of Dr. Farrell's, one who was trying to help her find her father's parents, Monica is marked to be the next victim.
As with all other MHC books, there is no bad language, no descriptions of heavy sex or blood or violence, although obviously bodies do turn up - proof that a good thriller doesn't have to commit assault and battery on the senses. The female characters, whether eighteen or eighty-eight are all lady-like, dress conservatively, drink pots of tea and come from solid Catholic families. Come to think of it, the male characters are like that, too. But MHC is no lady when it comes to plotting. "Shadow" has some very ingenious twists and turns, and the steady pacing kept me turning the pages well past my bedtime.

I have always been a fan of Mary Higgins Clark so it pains me to write this review. The story was not as bad as others suggest, a little far fetched, but I dont mind suspending belief a bit if the story is good. Sadly it was not.
I had a hard time relating to the actions and thoughts/dialog of the characters. The young people, well they acted and talked like much older people. I dont mean wiser, I mean the dialog seemed to be from a much older generation. It completely removed me from the story.
The thought process of the characters was too simplistic. Plus so much of the the characters thoughts were completely irrelevent. The characters thought in a dialog of an older generation as well. Reading the characters workig out every thought in their head with outdated cliches was just too much for me.
And this might be a bit nitpicky but as a mother of young children, I was completely thrown from the story when the Doctor suggested baby aspirin for a toddler. What? You dont give aspiring to young children anymore. And also giving a bottle to a 19 month old toddler. Again, nitpicky but it is generally suggested to wear a child from a bottle by 12 months, yet this Doctor was feeding a toddler not just milk but other drinks like water from a bottle. Perhaps a bit more research would have been in order.
All in all, I cannot recommend this book, and I hate that, because I grew up reading MHC's books and loved to share them with others.