Book Review: The Cradle Will Fall by Mary Higgins Clark

Publication: 1980
Length: 320 pages
My Rating: ****--4 Stars
Amazon Description: When a minor road accident lands county prosecutor Katie DeMaio in hospital, she is forced to stay in overnight. Looking out of the hospital window in her half-conscious state, she thinks she glimpses a man loading a woman's body into the boot of a car. Or is it just a pill-induced nightmare? At work the next day, Katie begins investigating a suicide that looks more like murder. Initial evidence points elsewhere, but medical examiner Richard Carroll spots a trail leading to Dr Edgar Highley. He begins to suspect that the famous doctor's pioneering work 'curing' infertile women might in fact violate every principle of modern medicine. But before he can tell Katie his fears, he learns she has already left the office for an appointment for routine surgery - in Dr Highley's operating room...

My Review: It's no secret. Mary Higgins Clark is one of my favorite mystery and suspense authors. I started reading her books in high school. I love the way she weaves a story and introduces new characters. There always seems to be a romantic angle that isn't the main focus of the story, yet it's there and it does play a part. The mysteries always have me guessing who the bad guy is. I change my mind about who it is more times than I can count and it always seems that I'm wrong, even when I try to guess who it would least likely by. Some of her books put the mystery right out there for the reader, but the characters are trying to figure it out. That is the typical formula in her shorter books (collections). I always love the main characters because even though they've been through so much, they're still amazingly strong and capable.

I've read this particular book three times now. It's usual for me (because I read so much) to forget things in a book over time. I can read one of her mysteries and then 3-4 years later, pick it up again and not remember anything. But this is one that was so strange, fascinating, and just so wrong, that I can't forget it.

Content: her books always contain some swearing, some more than others, but it's not the most offensive kind; there always seem to be murders, but they're not graphic and gruesome; there are typically moments of peril.