The social concerns of Let Me Call You Sweetheart are familiar ones for Mary Higgins Clark, the corrupting qualities of money and power. Kerry's marriage was broken up by her husband's single-minded quest for money and prestige. He left her for the boss's daughter. The two, Kerry and Robert, are contrasted throughout the novel. Kerry has resisted tempting offers to go into private practice because of her commitment to justice—to prosecuting and winning convictions against evildoers, but Robert has eagerly dropped any commitment to justice and has given over most of his career to keeping mobsters such as Weeks out of prison. Kerry's commitment to justice is a sustaining force, an anchor that gives her life meaning outside the home and preventing her from wallowing in self-pity because of her divorce and the difficulty of raising a child alone.

On the other hand, all...