Domestic Thriller Ages Poorly

A Cry In The Night by Mary Higgins Clark

More than 20 years ago, Mary Higgins Clark wrote a thriller called A Cry In the Night. At the time, The New York Times Book Review referred to it as "a harrowing tale by a master of horror."

Certainly the book is written in an intensely suspenseful style with highly memorable characters. Jenny MacPartland is a struggling single mom who works in an art gallery. Artist Erich Krueger comes and sweeps her off her feet, appearing to be an absolute dream of a husband. She marries him within a month and moves to his mansion of a home.

That's when things start to go wrong. She is isolated from her neighbors and Erich begins to insinuate that she is going mad. A Cry In the Night almost becomes the '80s version of the play Angel Street.

Like Angel Street, though, we're not entirely certain whether Jenny is going mad or whether there are very real and terrifying threats to her life. Mary Higgins Clark manages to keep us wondering throughout most of the book.

However, this is not a book that ages well. Modern women reading this book can have a difficult time relating to Jenny and her total dependence upon Erich. It's easy to forget from a modern perspective that women didn't have the same resources in 1982 that they have today. It's a difficult hurdle to overcome when attempting to be sympathetic to the main character as she can come across as weak to most modern readers.

That said, it truly is a terrifying tale when the reader is able to keep the time period in perspective. It's easy to see how this is one of the books that launched Mary Higgins Clark into a permanent place on the shelves of her readers and has continued to bolster her fame. If you're a quick reader and you enjoy suspense, Mary Higgins Clark's A Cry in the Night worth spending a few hours with.

--B. Redman