‘Queen of Suspense’ Mary Higgins Clark dead at 92
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com/ Reuters) – Mary Higgins Clark, the prolific author known as the “Queen of Suspense” for her dozens of best-selling suspenseful novels, died Friday in Naples, Florida. She was 92. Publisher Simon & Schuster said Higgins Clark died peacefully and surrounded by family.
The writer spent more than four decades as a staple on best-seller lists, and her books sold more than 100 million copies in the US alone.
Many of Higgins Clark’s novels in her lengthy portfolio were developed into TV films, including The Cradle Will Fall in 1983, Moonlight Becomes You in 1998, and most recently Let Me Call You Sweetheart, which was adapted into the French production Ce que vivent les roses. Higgins Clark was extremely popular in France, where she was honored with the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.
Her first suspense novel, Where Are the Children? now in its 75th printing, ignited her writing success, and she sold her second novel to Simon & Schuster for $1.5 million. Other novels of Higgins Clark include A Stranger Is Watching, Daddy’s Gone a Hunting, While My Pretty One
Sleeps, We’ll Meet Again and I’ve Got My Eyes on You.
Born December 24, 1927, in the Bronx, New York, she recorded most of her childhood memories in her diaries and journals. The death of her father, which pushed her mother into the role of provider for the family of four, became the inspiration behind her portrayal of women as strong and resilient.
In 1949, she became a flight attendant for Pan American World Airways, where she boarded the final flight to Czechoslovakia before access was cut off by the Iron Curtain. The experience served as inspiration for her first published short story, “Stowaway.” She moved into writing radio plays before launching her career as a novelist.
The author was awarded numerous honors throughout her career, including the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 1980 and induction as a Grand Master of the Edgar Allen Poe Awards by the Mystery Writers of America. She was granted membership in the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans in 1997. Known as a devout Roman Catholic, she received the papal honor of being named Dame of the Order of Saint Gregory the
Great. Additionally, in 2001, Simon & Schuster began to sponsor an annual award for suspense-fiction writers in Higgins Clark’s name.