Seven years ago, Nancy Harmon fled the west coast and landed in a small Cape Cod town. She wanted to live a solitary life anonymously after having been convicted of killing her two children and later having that conviction overturned on a technicality. She’s now remarried with two children and it’s her birthday, which she doesn’t normally celebrate. Her son and daughter are outside playing when she discovers something that threatens to shatter her world. But, when Nancy goes to bring her childre...

Absolutely terrifying and brilliant. Can't believe I haven't read this author before but I'll be fixing that right away with the rest of her books.

Haven't read any of Mary Higgins Clark's books in quiet a while. After reading this one I realized again why I love her writing. Throughout the whole book I was trying to figure out who the kidnapper/murderer was and what happened to Mack. Every time I thought I was right I was proven wrong. Her books are so easy to read and flow nicely through the chapters.

This is a book for you that like mysteries, if you like them, you will be out of breath while reading this book. Nancy Harmon had fled her first marriage and the terrible and evil death of her two children. After going through an entire lawsuit, she changes her name and dyes her hair. She moves to the Cape Cod where she gets married again. There, she gives birth to a boy and a girl, and a few years later she checks her backyard and notices that a nightmare was beginning again.Where are the Child...

I’m ashamed to say this is my first book by MHC, but certainly won’t be my last. I read it all in one sitting with lots of coffee. Suspenseful all the way through, well done.

4 STARS!!!I think Mary Higgins Clark might be one of my favorite new-to-me writers. I've read three of her many thrillers so far and I've enjoyed them all so much. This one was so good and for the time it came out I can only imagine how much of a hit this was back then. I'm really interested in seeing the movie now, so I might go ahead and figure out a way to watch it, though I've heard Clark didn't really like it much at all. I've also been seeing a lot of recent reviews of this book talking ab...

Exciting and suspenseful. I need to read more from this author.

Not my thing but very well done. Fast-paced, hard to put down. Not a deep character study. Not a mystery. But a...domestic thriller? I'm not sure what to call it. It moves as fast as a Patterson (and I suspect he studied some of the author's techniques at some point) but stays grounded in home and family. What I don't like about it is that it's a button-pusher, not so much focused on telling a story as provoking the reader. It does that sort of thing very well--but again, not my thing.

If you look at this book in the context of its time, it's actually sort of shocking. The plot is really tightly wrought and the characters are strong and likable in a way that seems natural today, but was very bold back in the day.I see Mary a lot at crime writing functions and she is always the best dressed, most glamorous author in the room. (Granted, this is not a high bar, but still)

Mary Higgins Clark based her first suspense novel on the real life case of Alice Crimmins. Alice was a beautiful young mother who dominated the news in 1965 when she was accused of murdering her two young children. Mary Higgins Clark read about the case and as she explained in the forward of the book she based Where are the Children? on her suppositions of Alice's life after she was finally paroled. In this story Alice is reimagined as Nancy Elderage a young woman who was tried for the murder of...

A very gripping story that you won't want to put down. I found it to be very unsettling as any child endangerment will make me queasy. I would be inclined to try some of her other novels as I enjoyed her writing style.

I think I've gotten pickier as I've gotten older. I devoured Mary Higgins Clark's novels when I was in junior high and high school. I loved being a little scared and trying to figure out who the killer was. (I think that may have been a carryover from my elementary-aged love of Agatha Christie novels.) I didn't have as much fun with this one.I picked up this book at the library because I hadn't read a novel like this in ages. And now I kind of remember why. As enjoyable as the story was (who doe...

Mary Higgins Clark is a best seller for a reason - and that is she is predictable, not necessarily in plot or style but in that her books are readable and enjoyable - yes there may be a formula you quickly get the feel for and the characters may sometimes feel like they have been lifted right out of one story in to the next - but still they are well written and fun reads. I didnt realise how much I had been drawn in to the story until I realised how few pages there were left in the book. And eve...

Where Are the Children is a lamentable novel. Mary Higgins Clark shows off an almost staggering propensity for telling instead of showing, generalizing instead of offering specificity, and sloshing on the melodrama at every turn. The plot is clumsy, fraught with implausible coincidence despite being prosaically simple, and so littered with red herring, unnecessary clues, all of which would have comfortably led the characters toward the solution of the mystery, that I actually found myself pityin...

The story involves an innocent woman, Nancy Harmon, who was at one point convicted of the murder of her two young children and sentenced to the gas chamber in California. Released on a technicality, the key witness had disappeared so she couldn't be retried. She dyed and cut her hair, changed her name, moved to Cape Cod and married and had two more children. And now, the secret of her true identity has come to light in her new community and her five-year-old son Michael and three-year-old daught...

I came across this book when I was in high school. I borrowed it, read it and returned it the next day...I was horrified, chilled and appalled at the way the main female character was treated, but equally amazed and thrilled at the ending which allowed her to twist the dirty deeds of her tormenter back on himself.One of the reasons this subgenre became so popular was that until the 1970s (and the movie "The Burning Bed") very few people were willing to admit that a man could hurt his wife. In th...

It's been too long since I read a book that I rated a 5 star rating. The plot thickens from the second chapter onward. The book is about plotting and characterization. There weren't too many 'big' words in the book. Consider, that even popular thriller writers, say, like David Baldacci, often throw in a difficult word or two. Mary Higgins Clark doesn't waste any words. They came piling in, one after another, until I felt sure, each sentence will make me understand a new thing about the Cape (the...

Very dated, and not in a classic or vintage way, kind of like those mile high, teased- up bangs in the eighties. Not a good look on anyone. Filled with annoying tropes and beyond kitschy dialogue. If you’re looking for classic, atmospheric suspense, read Daphne DuMaurier, not this. My book club read it because the author recently passed away, and the setting for this novel is local for us.

I'm not much of a thriller reader, I prefer mysteries that I have to puzzle out. But this book is a makes me reexamine that bias. I was sure (view spoiler)[that Rob Legler (hide spoiler)] was the person who killed (view spoiler)[Nancy's children then kidnapped her new kids but I was completely wrong and it was revealed until 80% into the book. (hide spoiler)] The book was very well written and had me turning the pages as fast as I could. This 45 year old book also made me realize I'm never goin...

This book is a real page turner and kept me reading all night. The plots and subplots weave a fascinating story and the characters are so real as the net closes in on the perpetrator and only at the end is his surprising identity revealed. This book has apparently been reprinted 75 times. It is as real today as when it was first published as a debut novel in 1975. One of the best thrillers I have read.