Moonlight becomes you A novel

Pretty photographer Maggie Holloway begins Clark's latest (after Silent Night) lying in a coffin buried in a grave, pulling desperately at a string that leads to a bell with no clapper. How she got there is the essence of a convoluted tale of a ritzy Newport, R.I., retirement home whose well-heeled residents seem to die with alarming frequency, leading to high-profit turnover of their apartments there. Latest to shed her mortal coil was Maggie's much-loved stepmother, a fact that led intrepid Maggie to take an unwise amount of interest in the deaths-and also to question why several of the graves seemed to have little funerary bells on them. As usual with Clark, there is a stalwart admirer whose love does not immediately speak its name, and a surfeit of suspicious characters, including a scholarly funeral nut, a shady investment broker, a venal lawyer, a drunken, inept doctor and a nosy nurse. There's some fun in the sprightly Newport oldsters, and the many scenes and characters are shifted around smoothly and with a practiced hand. The bells gimmick seems no more than that, however, and the book is light on thrills-though there's nothing to put off Clark's myriad fans. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild main selection; Reader's Digest Condensed Books selection; paperback rights to Pocket Books; author tour. (May). Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information.

This murder-thriller set in Newport, R.I., spent 14 weeks on PW's bestseller list. (May) Copyright 1998 Publishers Weekly Reviews

More scary stuff from one of America's best-known suspense writers. Copyright 1998 Library Journal Reviews

During a visit to her former stepmother's home in Newport, Rhode Island, Maggie Holloway, a young photographer and amateur sculptor, seeks the truth about the mysterious murder of her stepmother, an investigation that leads to a nursing home plagued by a series of sudden deaths

Horrified when her long-lost stepmother turns up murdered, fashion photographer Maggie begins to suspect that she, too, is being targeted by the killer and uncovers a diabolical plot. Reprint.

From Queen of Suspense Mary Higgins Clark, a thriller &;that grabs you with the first paragraph and never lets go&; (USA TODAY) about a woman desperate to uncover the truth behind her beloved stepmother&;s death.At a party in Manhattan, Maggie Holloway&;one of the fashion world&;s most successful photographers&;is thrilled to be reunited with her beloved stepmother. A widow now, Nuala Moore is equally delighted to see her long-lost stepdaughter, and she invites Maggie to spend a few weeks at her home in Newport, Rhode Island. But when Maggie arrives, she finds Nuala murdered, apparently by a burglar. Heartbroken, Maggie is stunned to learn she had inherited Nuala&;s stunning Victorian home...and horrified when she begins to suspect that Nuala&;s death was not random, but part of a diabolical plot conceived by a twisted mind. When Nuala&;s dear old friend, Greta Shipley, dies suddenly of supposedly natural causes, Maggie is convinced that there is a link between these two and other recent deaths among the older women of Newport. What she doesn&;t realize is that she has now become a target for the killer as well, and that each clue she uncovers brings her closer to an unimaginable fate.