Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins Clark Conheeney (née Higgins; born December 24, 1927 in the Bronx, New York), known professionally as Mary Higgins Clark, is an American author of suspense novels. Each of her forty-two books have been a bestseller in the United States and various European countries, and all of her novels remain in print as of 2007, with her debut suspense novel, Where Are The Children, in its seventy-fifth printing. She is a minority owner of the New Jersey Nets.
Higgins Clark began writing at an early age. After several years working as a secretary and copy editor, Higgins Clark spent a year as a stewardess for Pan-American Airlines before leaving her job to marry and start a family. She supplemented the family's income by writing short stories. After her husband died in 1964, Higgins Clark worked for many years writing four-minute radio scripts, until her agent convinced her to try writing novels. Her debut novel, a fictionalized account of the life of George Washington, did not sell well, and she decided to leverage her love of mystery/suspense novels. Her suspense novels became very popular, and as of 2007 her books have sold more than 80 million copies in the United States alone.
Her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark, is also a suspense writer.
Fiction
1968 Aspire To The Heavens (reissued in 2000 as Mount Vernon Love Story)
1975 Where Are The Children?
1977 A Stranger is Watching
1980 The Cradle Will Fall
1982 A Cry in the Night
1984 Stillwatch
1987 Weep No More, My Lady
1989 While My Pretty One Sleeps
1989 The Anastasia Syndrome and Other Stories
1990 Voices in the Coal Bin (short story, only available as an audio book with Carol Higgins Clark's That's the Ticket)
1991 Loves Music, Loves to Dance
1992 All Around the Town
1993 I'll Be Seeing You
1993 Death on the Cape and Other Stories
1993 Milk Run and Stowaway (Two stories. Like Voices in the Coal Bin, never officially published out of anthologies)
1994 Remember Me
1994 The Lottery Winner and Other Stories
1995 Let Me Call You Sweetheart
1995 Silent Night
1996 Moonlight Becomes You
1996 My Gal Sunday: Henry and Sunday Stories
1997 Pretend You Don't See Her
1998 You Belong to Me
1998 All Through The Night
1999 We'll Meet Again
2000 Before I Say Good-Bye
2000 Deck the Halls (with daughter Carol Higgins Clark)
2001 On The Street Where You Live
2001 He Sees You When You're Sleeping (with daughter Carol Higgins Clark)
2002 Daddy's Little Girl
2003 The Second Time Around
2004 Nighttime Is My Time
2004 The Christmas Thief (with daughter Carol Higgins Clark)
2004 You Belong to Me
2005 No Place Like Home
2006 Two Little Girls in Blue
2006 Santa Cruise (with daughter Carol Higgins Clark)
2007 Ghost Ship: A Cape Cod Story
2007 I Heard That Song Before
2008 Where Are You Now?
2008 Dashing Through the Snow (with daughter Carol Higgins Clark)
2009 Just Take My Heart
2010 The Shadow of Your Smile