Sunday, May 29, 2016

Death Wears A Beauty Mask by Mary Higgins Clark





Sharon Long is here to review Death Wears a Beauty Mask, a collection of short stories by the prolific and fabulous Mary Higgins Clark. The publisher is Simon and Schuster. 

No one can doubt that Mary Higgins Clark's career has been long and esteemed. Her books have sold more than a 100 million copies in the United States alone. Being a big fan (I've read most all of her books), I was pleased to discover this short story collection which not only includes Mary’s first short story, Stowaway, but also nine other tasty morsels of bite-sized fiction.  

Higgins Clark began writing the story that lends its name to the book, Death Wears a Beauty Mask, as a novella in 1972. After she was 50 pages in, Mary put this story aside to write Where Are The Children. She discovered this story again in 2015 and finished it. The trick was being able to write as if she was still 1972, but she pulled it off. I'd loved the premise of the story -- it's about a model, her sister and how dangerous and deadly cosmetics can really be. And that was about dangerous cosmetics in 1972, imagine how dangerous they can be now. 

Another one of my favorite stories in the book is called, The Tell-Tale Purr. It's is a spin on the Tell-Tale Heart as only Mary could do.

Of course, no collection of short stories by Mary Higgins Clark would be complete without an Alvirah and Willy story. The Cape Cod Masquerade once again has Alvirah and her famous sunburst pin in the middle of trouble. Will she get her confession? You'll have to read the book to get the answer. 

I enjoy short stories and these are some of the best that I have read. I absolutely loved this collection, I mean it’s Mary Higgins Clark. 





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