A review by leighannsherwin
Weep No More, My Lady by Mary Higgins Clark

4.0

Despite my ever growing to be read pile, with the passing of my old favourite author Mary Higgins Clark earlier this year I decided to revisit my favourite books of hers. As I looked through my shelf the pile of favourites grew until it came out to about 2-3 books a month for the rest of the year. Since I have her 9 of her books bound into 3 volumes of 3 books I started with those. Now into the second month of my rereading I come to volume two which I remember loving as a teen. At least this book and the last one A Cry in the Night, the middle boom Stillwatch I'll soon find out. But I read them over and over, and yet somehow I still forgot who the killer was in this book. Go figure. So onto the book. Weep No More My Lady revolves around two sisters. Big sister Leila who mothered and protected much younger sister Elizabeth. They grew up in a broken home, their mother was often drunk and had poor taste in men. When one of those men tries to get too close to 8 year old Elizabeth, Leila packs them both up and heads for New York where she will rise to stardom on stage and screen. Then Leila's career begins a downward spiral. She's getting older, she accepts a role in a play with disastrous results, plus she's started to drink like her mother. Then Leila is found dead shoved off a balcony, and her recently rejected fiance Ted, is charged with her murder, with Elizabeth set to be the star witness against him. Despite warnings from the District Attorney Elizabeth accepts an invitation from family friend Minna and her husband Helmut to stay at their spa. Unknown to her Min has also invited Ted and many other friends and acquaintances of her and her late sister, one of whom is planning to end Elizabeth's life. It's still a good book. It didn't hold up as well as I remember but I still enjoyed it. This is the introduction to Alvirah the lottery winner and her infamous sunburst pin. She was fun in this story and not nearly as annoying as she got in later books and stories about her. The spa is described as relaxing and luxurious but sounded like a nightmare to me. You're on vacation, but you have to follow a strict schedule of exercise and treatments? You get lectured for being caught reading or simply lounging by the pool? Everyone up at 7-8 in the morning? Aw hell no I don't care how wonderful it is. If I wanted exercise and schedules I would've skipped the vacation and kept working. Aside from that this is the classic Mary Higgins Clark mystery. Lots of characters with shady secret motives that at first don't seem connected but come together in the end, a body count that begins to rise the closer we get to figuring out who did it and that same element of suspense as always. I did forget who the killer was so that helped add to the suspense as who I thought I remembered being the killer was not even close. Oh well. Now to try and remember what Stillwatch is all about.