Mystery of murdered teenage girl is a compelling read
YOU GO off for an overnight stay and leave your 18-year-old daughter in charge. Kerry Dowling is like most teenagers and organises a party. But she’s also conscientious and makes sure all her friends leave before 11 pm and don’t make a noise to disturb the neighbours.
Before tidying up the party mess, she goes out to the pool after everyone is gone. An assailant beats her over the head and she falls in the pool. Stone dead.
You, her parents, call her on your way home, but she does not answer. No reason to worry. You pick up your older daughter, called Aline, from the airport. Aline wonders why her little sister didn’t clean up after the party. She has a sinking feeling all is not okay and goes outside to find her sister at the bottom of the pool.
Everyone who was at the party is a suspect. A jealous boyfriend. A brain-damaged neighbour who was not invited.
Mary Higgins Clark takes her readers on a roller-coaster ride through the emotions of the suspects and the parents.
Valerie, the shy lacrosse player, says quietly, so no one hears, “I’m so sorry.” The mother of Jamie, the brain-damaged boy, does her best to protect her son because she knows his memory is impaired and she is not sure how he will cope with the questions from detectives.
The police and detectives have to sift through the facts and fictions of all the people close to Kerry to find her killer.
“Kids who are barely 18 are incredibly insecure… They think they are adults but they’re not. When you confront them, they look for the easy way out, even if that means lying.”
There is Father Frank, who listens to confessions, and has to decide if the secrets he is privy to should be handed over to detectives or kept to himself. There is the inquisitive housekeeper who plants herself where she can hear conversations she has no right to listen to.
Higgins Clark’s writing is precise and concise. The chapters are short which makes for a quick, but compelling, read. She adds a bit of romance to throw the reader off the scent of the killer, briefly, then throws you back into lies and guilt. With at least 44 novels to her name, her skills as a crime writer are finely honed.
An excellent read – good for an evening by the fireside.