Reviews

As Time Goes By by Mary Higgins Clark

celinacurry1's review against another edition

2.0

I received this as a gift. I haven't read Clark for over 20 years so I didn't really remember her style of her writing. Reading the synopsis, I was intrigued by how much was going on in this novel in only 276 pages. Easy reading. Not a lot of complicated story lines. In fact, the biggest reveal of all regarding Delaney's birth mother was painfully obvious even before I read half the book. It was ok storytelling. Don't think I will read her again but if you have a lot going on and you need an entertaining, easy read, pick it up...but for free at the library!

cbressler80's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

reytru1065's review against another edition

2.0

The plot of this story just never really panned out in entirety in my opinion. Betsy Grant is our main character who’s standing trial accused of killing her husband. At the same time we get the story of Delaney who is a news anchor pining for her birth parents. Which of course we learn about in a rushed sort of way, almost as an afterthought when I feel that plot line was quite important.

The true killer of Betsy’s husband is revealed within the last chapter and just willingly gives up incriminating information, it felt rushed and quite sloppy.

I wish I could have loved this story but it left me feeling like I needed more information and still had questions about the true killer.

whaney's review against another edition

5.0

I haven't read/listened to a Mary Higgins Clark book in a while. I have forgotten what an amazing job she does have so many things happening in a story and still keeps you wondering til almost the end.

Another great book! Was sure glad I had plenty of time to listen... Finished in 2 days!

lsvicente537's review against another edition

2.0

This book was... not great? It might just be because i love mysteries so much that i watch/read a ton of them but i was able to guess the ending from very early on in the book

andrearbooks's review against another edition

4.0

As Time Goes By by Mary Higgins Clark was a book I'd bought this summer because it'd been ages since I last read one of hers. I read a lot of MHC when I was in middle school, and she's one of the authors who made me fall in love with thrillers. With her death, I decided I had to move this one to the top of my list. Y'all, her writing was just as captivating as I remembered, and now I want to go back and read even more. This story focuses on Delaney, a TV journalist. In her professional life, she's covering the murder of a wealthy doctor. Accused of his murder is his wife who maintains her innocence. Delaney is determined to find the truth of this story. In her personal life, Delaney wants to find out the truth about her past. She was adopted, and she wants to find out the truth about her birth parents. As you might infer, there are some intersections in Delaney's personal and professional life as she searches for answers. This was a great way for me to remember a legend, and I hope to (re)read more of her "classics" down the road.

sagittariusreads_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

mary_r_m's review against another edition

3.0

It's been awhile since I've read a Mary Higgins Clark. This one is different from the others I read in the late 1990's. I liked it. I will need to read more.

deeclancy's review against another edition

2.0

Reading this book was one of my attempts at trying out crime writers at random that I haven't read before. I know that the author is a very well-known name in the genre, but I wasn't really wild about this book. Admittedly, I obviously haven't read any other books in the series about amateur sleuth Alvira and her husband, Willy. But it has an air of young adult fiction about it, in the way in which the loose ends are very neatly tied up. There's a very definite happy-ever-after for the good eggs and an equally long spell in prison for the bad eggs in the book that you really only get in fiction aimed at youth. Added to this, we pretty much know the identities of the goodies/baddies fairly early on in the book.

We know who Delaney's birth mother is likely to be within the first few chapters, really, so there's no suspense around that aspect of things (Delaney is a young investigative journalist and news anchor featured in the book).

I mean, we all like things to turn out well for the decent people in stories, but any accounts I have read of adopted people finding their biological relatives are usually a tad more emotionally complicated than portrayed in this book. And though written in recent years, neither the birth mother nor the daughter she adopted out think about going on one of the DNA websites to trace their relatives, which is what many people do these days. As both parties are described as harbouring a profound longing in this regard, it's hardly plausible that they wouldn't explore this avenue in the 27 years that they have been separated.

This is an old-fashioned book and it has its charms, but I wouldn't regard it as being particularly nuanced crime fiction.

mamax4j's review against another edition

emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5