Sonderbooks     Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund


Buy from Amazon.com

Rate this Book


Sonderbooks 89
    Previous Book
    Next Book

Nonfiction
Fiction
    Christmas
        Previous Book
        Next Book
Young Adult Fiction
Children's Nonfiction
Children's Fiction
Picture Books

2003 Stand-outs
2002 Stand-outs
2001 Stand-outs

Five-Star Books
Four-Star Books
Old Favorites
Back Issues
List of Reviews by Title
List of Reviews by Author

Why Read?
Links For Book Lovers

About Me
Contact Me
Subscribe
Post on Bulletin Board
View Bulletin Board


I don't review books I don't like!

*****= An all-time favorite
****  = Outstanding
***    = Above average
**      = Enjoyable
*        = Good, with reservations

cover

***Silent Night

by Mary Higgins Clark

Reviewed December 20, 2004.
Simon & Schuster, New York, 1995.  154 pages.
Available at Sembach Library (F CLA).

I decided to try reading a Christmas story to put me in the mood for the holidays.  Silent Night filled the bill perfectly.  My only complaint was that I hadn’t meant to stay up late reading.  I should have known that an author known for writing suspense isn’t the best choice if I wanted to stop after a few chapters.

Catherine Dornan’s husband has just had an operation for leukemia.  She wants to distract herself and her sons, so she takes them to Rockefeller Center to look at the tree.  While she is there, she drops her wallet, and a lady down on her luck picks it up.  Her seven-year-old son Michael sees this happen.  No one notices when he tries to explain what happened, so he follows the woman, desperate to get back the St. Christopher medal that his Grandma told him would make his Dad get better.

Michael ends up taken hostage by a fugitive who’s broken out of jail.  He says he’ll kill the boy if the police come after him.  They’re on their way to Canada, snow is falling, and it’s Christmas Eve.

The beginning set-up of this novel was perhaps a little forced, but once it got going, I didn’t want to stop.  Mary Higgins Clark managed to make a heart-warming, lovely Christmas story out of thriller with a child in danger.  Not an easy feat!  We have two more of her Christmas books at the library.  If I don’t read them this year, I think I’ll remember to try them next year.

This is a nice quick read.  It’s a holiday story that’s heart-warming without being mushy.  A good yarn to put you in the mood for Christmas and remind you what really counts.

Reviews of other books by Mary Higgins Clark:
Deck the Halls
Santa Cruise



Copyright © 2004 Sondra Eklund.  All rights reserved.


-top of page-