Product Description

Mary Higgins Clark, the Queen of Suspense, celebrates the season with this Christmas classic featuring two of her most beloved characters.

ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT

All of Alvirah's deductive powers and Willy's world-class common sense are called upon as the two stumble into a Christmas mystery. A woman abandons her newborn at a Manhattan church. Simultaneously, a thief is absconding with a treasured artifact, a chalice adorned with a star-shaped diamond. To elude police, he grabs the stroller and disappears. Seven years later, the mother returns to the scene and finds Alvirah and Willy helping neighborhood kids prepare for a Christmas pageant at an after-school shelter. Soon the savvy sleuths set out to solve the puzzle of the missing child and chalice -- and to unmask scam artists threatening to shut down the shelter.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53787 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780671027124
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Fans of Mary Higgins Clark and cozy mysteries will relish this Christmas confection. Unlike her previous holiday novel, Silent Night, All Through the Night is virtually free of life-and-death crime. Rather, it is a Dickensian tale of good deeds rewarded and crimes punished.

The wintry story begins on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with 18-year-old Sondra Lewis, an aspiring violinist, tearfully leaving her baby on the steps of St. Clement's Church. Unbeknownst to her, Lenny Centino is robbing that same church on the same night, with his attention particularly on the Church's diamond inlaid chalice. He finds a buggy outside the church and uses it for cover as he flees. Only later does he realize that his take for the night includes the infant Stellina (Italian for star). The narrative then abruptly moves ahead seven years. Clark's lottery-winning protagonists, Alvirah and her husband Willy (introduced in Weep No More, My Lady) return for some amateur sleuthing. Sister Cordelia's thrift shop doubles as an after-school recreation place for neighborhood children (including a shy little girl named Star), but the building has been condemned. Bessie Maher had vowed she was leaving the house to the nun and her children. Now that she is gone, the will indicates that the tenants of the house, Vic and Linda Baker, are the true heirs. As December rushes on towards Christmas, Alvirah struggles to put things right before the children are left in the cold.

Like the best holiday stories, All Through the Night steers toward sentimentality, but it veers back on course with narrative wit and Alvirah's charm. Clark's prose is lean and her plotting is brisk. This is a mystery that would be a pleasure to share aloud with a family gathered at the fireplace for some holiday cheer. --Patrick O'Kelley

From Library Journal
Clark's popular lottery winners, amateur sleuth Alvirah and her husband, Willy, are getting ready for Christmas. When the local after-school center is threatened and a friend's will is contested, Alvirah goes on the job. Before long, she also finds herself trying to locate a child abandoned seven years earlier by a young mother and trying to solve the mystery of a stolen chalice. Normally known for her suspenseful stories, Clark (You Belong to Me, Audio Reviews, LJ 6/1/98) doesn't quite deliver. The listener isn't all that surprised at any of the revelations at the end of the program. The reading, by the author's daughter, best-selling writer and actor Carol Higgins Clark, is lively. However, numerous characters and little voice differentiation make the narrative difficult to follow. The author is always popular, but this is not an essential purchase. Recommended for larger collections.AAdrienne Furness, Lockport P.L., NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Best-seller Clark has written another Christmas seasonal mystery, and like Silent Night (1995), it's a lighthearted suspense tale that her readers are sure to enjoy. Clark brings back two of her most popular characters, Alvirah, the former cleaning woman, now lottery winner turned amateur detective, and Alvirah's stoic husband, Willy. The story opens with a young, unmarried woman who abandons her newborn child on the steps of a church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan; at the same time, inside the church, a thief is stealing a diamond-embedded chalice. While making his escape, the thief notices the baby in the stroller and takes off with the infant, disappearing into the night. Seven years later, during the Christmas season, Alvirah, caught in the thick of another mystery, becomes involved in the matter of the missing chalice and the child stolen from the rectory steps, and as usual, she soon has the whole business sorted out very neatly. A short, easy read that Clark's many fans will be asking for. Kathleen Hughes

Customer Reviews

A nice Christmas story
"All through the Night" is a nice Christmas story with a happy ending. It is easy to read and entertaining. If you like Alvirah and Willy, go for it. If you prefer murder and breathtaking suspense, read one of Mary Higgins Clark's earlier novels.

A Feel Good Story
If you are looking for guts, gore and grit, look elsewhere. This is a mystery without a dead body. It pulls at the heart strings, and brings back my favourite Clark characters, Willy and Alvirah, who I can't get enough of. This is one of the fastest reads I have experienced, but it was heart-warming and perfect for the holiday season

NOT ENOUGH
I am a big fan of Mary Higgins Clark and I look forward to each novel she writes. I was very disappointed this time. We knew what was happening from the beginning not her usual twisting plot, page turning, keep you up all night suspense novel. I love Willie and Elvirah but it's time for something new. Are we getting lazy since the marriage??