My Gal Sunday – Book Review

By Mary Higgins Clark

Recently I have been reading my way through books by the Queen of Suspense, Mary Higgins Clark. Although I seldom read short stories, preferring full-length novels, I came across My Gal Sunday, a collection of four stories about an irresistible sleuthing duo. The stories were delightful and I was left wishing Ms. Clark had written more novels featuring this duo. 

The Characters in My Gal Sunday

The book contains four short stories, each starring the same characters and continuing one to the next in order. By that, I mean that some of the other characters and situations in one story are mentioned in the next.... and the next.

The main characters are a dashing ex-president (Henry Parker Britland IV ~  wealthy, worldly and popular ~ and his new wife Sandra (Sandy) O'Brian ~ clever and lovely ~ a newly elected congresswoman from New Jersey. Sandy is the daughter of a motorman on the New Jersey railway and worked her way through school. The media loved it.  When they married, a newspaper ran the headline LORD HENRY BRINTHWHIP MARRIES OUR GAL SUNDAY, a reference to the once popular radio soap opera that for years, 5 days a week, asked the question:

Can a girl from a mining town in the West find happiness as the wife of England's richest and most handsome Lord Henry Brinthwhip.

Because of this, Sandra, new wife of Henry, became known to all as 'Sunday'. 

The Stories

The premise of stories in this book is that Henry & Sunday somehow become involved in solving baffling high-society crimes and make a formidable team. 

In A Crime of Passion, Henry's former Secretary-of-State, a close friend and political alley, is accused of murdering his lover Arabella Young.

In They All Ran After the President's Wife, Sunday is kidnapped and a frantic Henry works with the Secret Service and his friend and former Vice-President (who is the current U.S. President) to locate Sunday and bring her home safely.

In Hail Columbia! Sunday & Henry reconstruct a long-unsolved case aboard the presidential yacht.

And in Merry Christmas/Joyeau Noel, we find Henry & Sunday getting ready for Christmas at home when a 6-year-old boy turns up on their doorstep. They take him in and work with the police, but the boy never speaks or answers any questions, so finding out who he is and where he belongs becomes a difficult problem. A sweet tale about a Christmas Miracle.

Summary

Mary Higgins Clark tells us in the book acknowledgments that as a child she was a big fan of the radio show “My Gal Sunday” and had a huge crush on Lord Henry and thought he and Sunday made a perfect couple.  That's why, when she wanted to create a new husband-and-wife suspense team, she thought about Lord Henry & Sunday and asked herself “suppose Henry is a former American President, smart, nice, rich and handsome, and suppose Sunday is a stunning, savvy young congresswoman?” The stories in her book of short stories, My Gal Sunday are the  result!

This really is a delightful, lighthearted and fun series of stories. I hope you enjoy the short stories in My Gal Sunday as much as I did. 

Related Reviews:

• Two Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark

*My Gal Sunday Book Review written by Wednesday Elf

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Two Little Girls in Blue – Book Review

 by Mary Higgins Clark

Having been a fan of best-selling suspense writer, Mary Higgins Clark, in years past, I recently realized there were several of her books I had not read.  Two Little Girls in Blue was one of them and I consider it one of her best. 

Synopsis of Two Little Girls in Blue

Kelly and Kathy, twin daughters of Margaret and Steve Frawley of Ridgefield, Connecticut, celebrate the girls' third birthday with an afternoon party at their new, fixer-upper, home. That evening, Steve & Margaret are obligated to attend a black-tie dinner in New York City for Steve's company. When they return home, they discover the police there and learn that the babysitter has been found unconscious and that the children are gone.  A note demanding eight-million-dollars in ransom was left in the twins bedroom.

The Frawleys do not have that kind of money, but Steve's firm, a global investment company, agrees to pay the ransom. One board member of the firm disagrees with paying the ransom, stating it could become a precedent for other kidnappers to target company employees, but he is overruled. 

The FBI and the local town and state police are all involved. When the kidnapper, who calls himself the “Pied Piper”, makes his terms known, the family and the FBI are told that 'on delivery of the money' a call will come revealing the girls' whereabouts. The “Pied Piper” used two men to do the actual kidnapping, and a woman (girlfriend of one of the men) to take care of the twins until the ransom is paid. The kidnappers never know who the 'boss' is; only communicating with him via burner cell phones. 

The ransom is paid in a rather convoluted manner that, despite FBI agents undercover all around the 'drop' area, the kidnappers get away without being caught.  The promised call does come, but only Kelly is in the car parked behind a deserted restaurant. The driver of the car is dead from a gunshot wound and a suicide note states that he inadvertently killed Kathy and dumped her body in the ocean. 

The heart-broken parents have a private memorial Mass for Kathy, but Kelly speaks up saying “Mommy, Kathy is very scared of that lady and she wants to  come home right now.”  

At first, only the mother believes that the twins are communicating in their special 'twin-talk' and that Kathy is still alive.  But as Kelly becomes more specific with her warnings, the FBI is finally convinced and set out on a search for Kathy. The climax of this suspenseful novel is breathtaking.

Summary

This story describes the well-documented, though unexplained, phenomenon of twin telepathy and the special 'twin-talk' that identical twins often engage in. A fascinating and exciting story I thoroughly enjoyed. 

*Two Little Girls in Blue book review written by Wednesday Elf.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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