Where Are the Children by Mary Higgins Clark

Title: Where Are the Children?

Author: Mary Higgins Clark

Read by:  January LaVoy

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Length: Approximately 6 hours and 5minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster.  Thank-you!

I first read this classic masterpiece of suspense when I was in high school and was hooked on Mary Higgins Clark’s books.  I’ve read several in the years since I read this book and had a chance to listen to Clark speak in Milwaukee about fifteen years ago.  I was excited to be able to read it in a new format, audiobook, and revisit it.  It’s been so long since I’ve read it, it was almost like reading a new book again.

Nancy Elderage has a loving husband Ray, and two young children, Missy and Michael.  As her birthday approaches, Nancy grows fearful as she does every year.  Years before, she was known as Nancy Harmon and was married to professor and had two small children, Peter and Lisa.  On her birthday Peter and Lisa went missing and were later found washed up on shore.  Nancy has moved cross country with a new name, dyed hair and has started a new life after her acquittal for the murder of her children. Ray knows of her past but has a moment of doubt when Missy and Michael go missing on Nancy’s birthday.  Where are Missy and Michael?  Could Nancy be a killer after all?

I enjoyed listening to this audiobook.  January LaVoy was a fabulous narrator who gave a voice to each character.  The plot was tight and intense.  The book was written and set in the 1970’s and it was interesting to see how much has changed since that time when it comes to crime, sadly.  It was very nail biting at the end and I was on the edge of my seat.  I felt that way as a teenager reading it, but even more now so as a mother.

Overall, Where are the Children is a classic mystery and makes a wonderful audiobook to keep you on the edge of your seat.