The author of over two dozen bestsellers and counting, Mary Higgins Clark creates thrillers with something "special" about them, according to a reviewer for Publishers Weekly. "It's not just the gentleness with which the . . . writer approaches her often lurid subject matter," continued the same reviewer. "Special above all else is the compassion she extends to her characters." Such compassion encompasses villains and heroes alike, a winning element for this author who started literary life with a biographical novel about George Washington. "You can set your bestseller clock each spring for a new Mary Higgins Clark winner," observed Publishers Weekly contributor Dick Donahue in 2001. The prolific mystery author began her writing career as a newly widowed mother of five, and has instilled her passion for suspense stories in her children, including daughter Carol, also a bestselling novelist. Clark's stories have proven so popular that her publisher, Simon & Schuster, signed...