While My Pretty One Sleeps

While My Pretty One Sleeps by Mary Higgins Clark
Review by Gerti

"While My Pretty One Sleeps" is another winner by Mary Higgins Clark. The protagonist is Neeve Kearny, the only daughter of a former Police Commissioner of NYC. You would think that connection would keep her safe in the city. Instead, it means that Neeve has been exposed to lots of famous people, and some of them are even dangerous! After her mother Renata is murdered, a mobster is put into prison for 17 years, but now he's set to be released, and Neeve's dad is worried that she will be his next victim.

Besides being a potential victim, however, Neeve has a full life. Although she still lives with dad, she runs a very successful clothing store, which caters to the rich lives of New York who have no fashion sense of their own. One of her clients is a hard-to-love, hard-as-nails writer named Ethel Lambston. When the lady goes missing on the eve of a large delivery of clothes, Neeve makes it her business to fin out what happened to the old bird. In the process, she runs into Ethel's mooching nephew, Donald, who has moved into the lady's apartment just as she has done her disappearing act. Also on the suspect list is Lambston's ex-husband, Seamus, whom she's been bleeding dry financially for over 20 years. That man and his second wife, Ruth, are at wit's end and the pressure is on to stop paying alimony, with their 2 kids in college and his liquor business no longer as profitable as it was. He admits they had a big fight. But did he kill her?

Unlike so many mystery books, Clark keeps the reader guessing until the end, and even when the killer is revealed, it is a hug surprise, as there is another suspect who I haven't bothered to name here who is just as likely to have iced the old girl, as he's involved in running seat shops and guilty of tax evasion. He's so openly evil that Neeve has refused to carry his clothes in her shop anymore, so he could have put a hit out on her as well. This book is a thrilling whodunit with only a few sour notes, including the romance of Neeve's father with the widow who found Lambston's body. The book was well written, and the ending very satisfying, as it tied up several loose ends. I would recommend "While My Pretty One Sleeps" to anyone older than their teens.