This novel is one of the Mary Higgins Clark’s best sellers suspense novel. The story is inspired by the startled fact of how popular the personal ads is now days. Long time ago, people meet each other through the reliable circle of friends and family. People do not easily share their personal information to the strangers, let alone dating one. However, today people become more flexible about how they want to start a relationship. Putting personal ads in the newspaper is one of the popular cultures today.
The story begins when a TV producer Nona Robert attempts on researching the phenomenon. In doing so, she asked most of her friends to voluntarily answering and putting the personal ads in the newspapers, and personally meet the person by some particular means – lunch, dinner, etc- and subsequently reports their experiences to Nona as the input for her research. Darcy Scott and Erin Kelley are Nona’s best friends and they were happily joined the project. Everything went smoothly until one day Erin’s body was found on an abandoned Manhattan pier. She was strangled to death, but the frozen eyelashes indicated that she was death at least 2 days earlier. The most stranger thing is, she was wearing her own high heel boots on right foot, while her left foot wearing a high heeled dancing slipper.
Police department – and the media – starts to assuming the possibility that Erin’s killer is the same suspect from Nan Sheridan’s unsolved murder 15 years ago. Nan Sheridan was found death in the wood while she was out for jogging in the morning with one foot wearing a beautiful high heeled dancing slipper while her right foot still in her running shoes. The missing pairs were never found, so as her murder. One thing for sure, Erin disappeared the night she was having a date with somebody she met through the personal ads. Driven with grieve and guilt as she was the one who forced Erin to join the research, Darcy determined to find out who is responsible for her best friend’s death. Fortunately, they’d both agreed to answers the same personal ads form the same people, hence there is a huge possibility that Darcy will meet Erin’s killer, which had actually targeted Darcy as his next victim!!
Like most of her famous suspense novel, this novel is full of surprise. The first chapter of this novel describing the point where the serial killer is most likely suffered a multiple personality disorder. Ones who responsible for the death of the other 8 women, while the other who lives an ordinary life as a normal person. Furthermore, the fact that most people does not put their real personal information in their personal ads makes everybody looks like a possible suspect. It keeps us wonders and anxious. The amazing plot and surprising new fact that emerged every now and then, makes it impossible to pause the reading. Finally, this novel will be a great and enjoyable companion either for your afternoon tea or your lunch break from your stressful workload.
