I'LL Walk Alone

Book Title – I’ ll Walk Alone

Author – Mary Higgins Clark

Genre – Fiction, Suspense

Year Published - 2011

My rating – 4/10

The Story

Alexandra “Zan” is a gifted interior designer who is very passionate about her work and finding her missing son. Kidnapped from the Central Park in broad daylight when he was 3 years old, Mathew’s whereabouts still dominate Zan’s life. Ted Carpenter, her ex-husband and Mathew’s father does not make it any easier, constantly accusing her of being careless although Mathew was with a baby sitter who fell asleep when he was taken away from his stroller. A budding entrepreneur, she is about to land on a project which might be her key to the much deserved success and recognition but tragedy revisits Zan on what could have been Mathew’s 5^th Birthday. Zan is shocked to discover that her finances have been operated without her knowledge and her identity stolen. She is accused of kidnapping her own son with evidence impossible to overlook. She suspects Bartley Longe, her ex-employer and a bitter rival who seems to be capable of stooping to any level to take his revenge. But Father Aiden O’ Brien has every reason to believe it was Zan who paid him a in the confession room about a crime yet to be committed. With every passing day the mystery deepens as Zan holds on to her faith of finding Mathew alive. An amateur detective and a lottery winner, Alvirah Meehan and her husband are Zan’s support system and want to help prove her innocence. As the plot unravels, crimes of abduction, impersonation and even a possible murder come to light and not only is Zan’s identity but even sanity is at stake.

The Review

I always pick up a Mary Higgins Clark book when in mood for suspense. She does a good job of holding my attention till the very end and in that respect, this book is a success. I couldn’t guess “Who done it”,the cause of which maybe either my poor detective skills or the author’s superior writing skills.

Keeping up with the modern day environment, we are presented with a crime thriller dealing with identity theft at the helm of affairs. There is the rest of the stuff too but a preview of the book said it was about identity theft. And that is where it disappointed me a little bit. The whole identity theft scenario has been put up and concluded in such a  simplistic way, it is almost amateurish. As you read through the pages, the Clark touch is there in other crimes like kidnapping that take place in the novel and they make for a gripping read but not the identity theft part. To me it wasn’t so effective; it didn’t scare the hell out of me thinking how terrible it can be if my account was hacked. But with the missing child part and the devastation it creates in a parent’s life, Higgins hit right on mark. It is every parent’s nightmare; losing a child and we empathize with Zan, so again central character portrayal – full marks. The reason I rate this book lower than 5 out of 10 is because of the final few pages and I don’t mean the suspense part. The suspense is good but very hastily disclosed at the very end.  The way the story builds up one would expect a lot more explanation than what actually is provided to summarize the book.  The author has thrown in lot of things in the concluding pages as a result of which clarity and motive of the crime look like they have been compromised.

I’ ll Walk Alone is a book I would pick of because of its Author and her previous works. It hasn’t been a boring read, I finished it at one go, but it wasn’t the biting nail or edge of the seat suspense either. An average read if you are not too picky about endings.

Significant Specifics

I’ll Walk Alone has been written by the Author at the age of 84.