Sonderbooks Book Review of Deck the Halls

Reviewed January 10, 2005.
Simon & Schuster, New York, 2000. 202 pages.
Available at Sembach Library (F CLA).

I enjoyed Silent Night, by Mary Higgins Clark, so I decided to try another of her Christmas stories, this one written with her daughter.

I have to admit that the plot was basically the same. Someone’s being held hostage right before Christmas, with a family member ill, and the hostage’s life in danger. Others are trying to figure out where the hostage is and how to save him.

However, it was exactly what I was looking for—a quick, suspenseful read, with a touch of Christmastime. If a story about a kidnapping can be light-hearted, this book is that. There is danger, but we have a feeling that the good guys will win in the end—only it keeps us reading to see how that’s going to happen.

I definitely plan to make a Christmas tradition of reading a Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark Christmas novel each year as long as they keep writing them. There are three or four at the library I can catch up on in the meantime, though I think that two a year is plenty.

I do think I’m going to try a regular Mary Higgins Clark book. I’d never read her books before, but if the Christmas novels are any guide, I think I’ll like them. Some suspense novels are more gritty and gruesome than I really like to put in my mind, but these were simply good yarns that kept you turning pages.

Reviews of other books by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark:
Silent Night
Santa Cruise

Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

****Deck the Halls*

by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark