My Gal Sunday

 

My Gal Sunday by Mary Higgins Clark

Review by Gerti

I’ve gotten used to Mary Higgins Clark writing books with titles based on the popular culture of her youth, but this title was a new one for me. Apparently back in the day, there was a radio soap opera called “My Gal Sunday,” so it makes sense (to Clark) for the characters here to reference that now obscure show and call the former president’s wife “Sunday” when her real name is Sandra. However, it seems an odd reference to the modern reader who has never heard of the original, but I guess it’s no more unusual than the Preppy Handbook from the ‘80s recommending women be nicknamed “Bunny” or “Buffy.”

The real meat of this collection of vignettes by Clark is that there is a mystery-solving couple comprised of a former president (with another impossible name – Henry Parker Britland IV) and his lovely young Congresswoman wife, Sandra “Sunday” O’Brien. As seemingly mismatched as Dashiell Hammet’s detective and socialite pairing, Nick and Nora Charles from the Thin Man series, the Britland’s first mystery is whether or not his friend and (former Secretary of State Thomas Shipman) murdered his young lover, Arabella. Strangely, Shipman doesn’t even remember her death, although it happened in his house, in his library, with his gun, right after their relationship broke up. The Britlands believe Shipman is being set up, but whodunit? This first mystery is so easy this reader solved it even before the evildoer is revealed.

In the second vignette, Sunday is kidnapped, which drives her husband and the secret service who still protect him crazy. They think an international terrorist is behind the act, but it turns out the terrorist is just using the situation to improve his living conditions in jail and knows nothing about the crime at all. The true criminal is the brother of someone Sunday couldn’t keep out of jail back when she was a public defender. But the good guys manage to rescue Sunday just in the nick of time, thanks to a canny media message she manages to send her husband, who we find out here also happens to be a pilot. Yes, sometimes these people are so talented it defies credulity, and that weakens the stories.

Speaking of which, the third story involves a little French-speaking boy who also gets kidnapped by a bad babysitter and escapes during the Christmas season. Luckily, Jacques finds the Britland’s home, and they treat him to a glorious holiday celebration (having no children of their own) until the mystery of his origin can be solved. Another case goes back to Britland’s own childhood and involves a murder on the presidential yacht. Sunday is determined to solve it, and so she does, bringing a foreign head of state to justice for the crime.

These four stories of Clark’s are fun to read in a “Movie of the Week” way, where you leave common sense behind and just enjoy the ride. No secrets of the universe are revealed, no Nobel prizes won or lost, but if you are looking for a bit of escapist fun to brighten your day, these stories provide just the right touch.