Review: The Lost Years

The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 296
Published: April 3, 2012
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Fiction, Suspense

My Rating: 4/5

Summary (from chapters.ca):

Biblical scholar Jonathan Lyons believes he has found the rarest of parchments-a letter that may have been written by Jesus Christ. Stolen from the Vatican Library in the 1500s, the letter was assumed to be lost forever.

Now, under the promise of secrecy, Jonathan is able to confirm his findings with several other experts. But he also confides in a family friend his suspicion that someone he once trusted wants to sell the parchment and cash in.

Within days Jonathan is found shot to death in his study. At the same time, his wife, Kathleen, who is suffering from Alzheimer's, is found hiding in the study closet, incoherent and clutching the murder weapon. Even in her dementia, Kathleen has known that her husband was carrying on a long-term affair. Did Kathleen kill her husband in a jealous rage, as the police contend? Or is his death tied to the larger question: Who has possession of the priceless parchment that has now gone missing?

It is up to their daughter, twenty-eight-year-old Mariah, to clear her mother of murder charges and unravel the real mystery behind her father's death.

Review:

Being a life-long fan of Mary Higgins Clark's work, I knew that I would enjoy The Lost Years.  It isn't very often that I am able to know that, without reading the synopsis of a novel, I will enjoy it but there is something in the simplicity of Mary Higgins Clark's writing style that allows me to become part of her story.

In The Lost Years, I was pleaseantly surprised to discover that Alvirah and Willy Meehan were, once again, taking a staring role in the story.  First introduced to Alvirah in The Lottery Winner, I have thoroughly enjoyed each of the stories in which her character has been part of.  However, most of those have been holiday novels and because of that, I was not expecting her to pop up in this one. 

As a suspense/mystery novel, The Lost Years has everything that you would expect;  A mysterious death, a cast of suspects and a bunch of amateur detectives.   It always amazes me that the actual police detectives are so behind the ball that the average joes generally solve all the mysteries and bring the story together... but, that is also part of the charm of Mary Higgins Clark's stories. 

Unlike most of the previous novels I have read, I was completely in the dark as to 'Who Done It'.  As always, I had my suspicions throughout but I was blown away in the end by who actually came out as the bad 'person'.  So, my hats off to Mary, she did an amazing job with her writing this go around because even I, a mystery novel aficionado, was not able to figure it out!

Overall, fans of Mary Higgins Clark will not be disappointed with The Lost Years.  If you enjoy a good mystery novel, this one is for you.