Remember Me - Mary Higgins Clark > Reviews > REMEMBER WHEN...

Author's product rating:   

Would you listen to it again?	Probably not
Story	Satisfactory
Characters	Satisfactory
Listenability	A good listen when you've got the time
How does it compare to audio works by the same author?	Not applicable

Advantages:	Short  -  Good Plot
Disadvantages:	Predictable

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Remember when you rang me up and I got on my knees and begged you not to go because I'd go berserk? Well. You left me anyhow and then the days got worse and worse and now I've gone completely mad. AND… (All together now) They're coming to take me away ha, ha. They're coming to take me away ho ho, he he, ha ha…

Menley Nichols and her husband Adam arrive on Cape Cod with their young daughter Hannah. What is supposed to be a holiday for them soon turns into an ever increasing nightmare.

Some years previously Menley was involved in the accident which tragically claimed the life of her young son. Consequently her marriage nearly collapsed and she suffered Post Traumatic Stress.

Upon finding out she was pregnant with baby Hannah both Menley and Adam realised they still loved one another and had been granted a second chance together.

However The Cape is not as idyllic as it seems. The beautiful Remember House carries a tragic past that seems to be trying to breathe again through it's new inhabitants. Menley hears her baby boy calling to her and relives the moment of his death time and again till she fears she is headed for total breakdown. Is she putting her new baby and her whole family in danger?

Can Adam save his wife or will the tragedy of his past and the ghosts of Remember House claim some new victims?

This was my first Mary Higgins Clark novel and it was with some reluctance that I started to read. My mother is an avid fan and thrust this book upon me in a bid to convert I think.

However I did find this book very readable. I'm not usually a huge fan of crime fiction but this had a paranormal thread running through it that makes you question whether it's actually there or not.
I kept expecting ghosties to appear on several occasions only to then wonder if everything was actually in Menleys mind - was she going through some sort of mental crisis?

There are a couple of plots going on - the state of the Nichols marriage and what they have suffered, the suspected murder that occurs at The Cape in which Adam represents the prime suspect, and the relationships of the people that are affected by both The Nichols and the death.

I didn't particularly like any of the characters personality wise and in the back of my mind would have happily let Menley have her breakdown with some glee. I don't know what that says about me - I wonder if it was a deliberate thing on M.H Clark's part - the characters, although well described and easy to picture were not all that likable to me. Maybe that was the point.

This book was just about the right length for me at 306 pages long. I don't have the time anymore to sit and read whole novels in a night. (I wish!) So I did like the way that the book was written with very short chapters. Some being as little as a paragraph long and others only being at most two pages. This made it very easy for me to read quick snatches in the bath or in the car whilst waiting for the girls to come out of school and not losing my place. I don't know if this is usual with M.H Clark books or not but it made things a bit easier.

I did suss where we were going about half way through although I did get a bit of a surprise at the end - I had almost, *almost* solved the whole thing but for one part. So a little predictable but not totally.

All in all I would rate this as a very readable book, easy to put down but not so as you don't want to carry on reading. Ideal for commuters and the like.

I got my copy free but Remember Me can be found for as little as 1p plus P&P on both eBay and Amazon.

Am I converted? Well I came back from Mum's yesterday with six more Mary Higgins Clark novels so, a grudging yes. (But don't tell her I said so!)

ISBN 0-671-85345-7
Thanks for reading :o)

p.s The song at the beginning has nowt to do with book apart from the fact I have had it stuck in my head ever since I finished reading a week ago! Aaaaargh!