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Summary
Summary
Millions of people are watching-- one wants to kill her... What she found was her worst nightmare...
She thought she'd found safety.
In front of the camera, as anchorwoman for KEY Evening Headlines, she savvy, sexy, and sophisticated. But when she steps out of the spotlight, Eliza Blake is far more vulnerable than her devoted viewers would ever imagine. Single-handedly raising a young daughter, she's finally found a safe haven: a dream house in the suburbs, where nothing can ever threaten her again...
It begins with a venomous letter. No stranger to the occasional hate mail that mingles with glowing correspondence from adoring fans, Eliza is at first unaware that this time, the writer isn't a harmless nutcase. Then come the menacing phone calls. Now that her serene suburban life is shattered by fear, Eliza must face the chilling realization that the stalker is closer, and more lethal, than anyone ever suspected-- perhaps even concealed behind a trusted, familiar face...
Author Notes
Mary Jane Clark spent three decades at CBS News' New York City headquarters where she began her career as a desk assistant after graduating with degrees in journalism and political science from the University of Rhode Island. She worked her way through the ranks to become a producer and writer. she is the author of the successful series: Key News and Piper Donovan.
Her novels include: Do You Want to Know a Secret? Do You Promise Not to Tell? Let Me Whisper in Your Ear, Close to You, Nobody Knows, Nowhere to Run, Hide Yourself Away, Dancing in the Dark, Lights Out Tonight, When Day Breaks, It Only Takes a Moment, Dying for Mercy, To Have and to Kill, The Look of Love and Footprints in the Sand. (Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Smooth is the word for this expert thriller by CBS producer and writer Clark (Let Me Whisper in Your Ear, etc.). Moving along effortlessly and unhurriedly, acquiring characters and subplots as it goes, and always focusing on the climax the reader knows will come when the killer finally makes his move, Clark's tale delivers the goods. Eliza Blake, anchor for the KEY Evening Headlines, is a 30-something celebrity, beautiful, smart and good at her job; she is also a single mother determined to be a good parent. As the novel begins, she has just vacated her New York apartment for a house in the suburbs, intent on escaping memories of her husband's death by cancer. Unfortunately, just after she moves, she begins to receive a fresh crop of threatening phone calls and letters. Hate mail is an occupational hazard for a new anchor, it seems, not to be taken too seriously unless, as in this case, the ante gets raised. Eliza finds herself threatened by several obsessives, two of whom may be dangerous, one of whom has killed before. These people are clever, not easy to detect or to catch. Clark's depiction of the stalkers who plague celebrities disturbs and convinces, and her characters come alive on the page: criminal, sick, genuinely evil, or simply flawed and very human. This is an excellent psychological thriller that will keep readers pleasantly bound to the page. Author tour. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
More low-impact peril among the felony-prone denizens of New York's KEY News network (Let Me Whisper in Your Ear, 2000, etc.), the victim this time the most thoroughly stalked news anchor in fiction. Eliza Blake is 30 years younger and prettier than Rather, Jennings, and Brokaw, so it's no surprise that everybody loves her. Bartender Cornelius ("Meat") Bacon shows his love by writing letters criticizing her outfits as too revealing or sluttish. Jerry Walinski shows his by leaving messages on her voice mail at work announcing that he loves her and can't live without her. KEY producer Keith Chapel shows his love by fantasizing about her as he lies next to his pregnant, uninterested wife, and frustrated lesbian Abigail Snow in the KEY promotion department shows hers by leaving a gift box of Victoria's Secret lingerie outside her office door with an insinuating note. Even widowed mom Eliza, at first lulled into a sense of security by the house she's bought in toney HoHoKus, New Jersey, eventually notices that she's being stalked, perhaps by the very same man responsible for Garden State Network anchor Linda Anderson's mysterious disappearance five years ago this Halloween. She'd be even better off if she realized that her mechanic has pinched her house key preparatory to robbing her, or that the man who sold her the house is hiding a dire secret about how such a desirable property ever came to be vacant. As Mary Higgins Clark's ex-daughter-in-law counts down the breathless hours to Halloween, readers can marvel at a suspect pool so deep that some nuts end up protecting Eliza from even nuttier nuts who are trying to elbow their way to the front of the queue. Eliza finally identifies the biggest nut in the final chapter. Shame on you if it takes you even half as long.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Close to You August Chapter 1 "Eliza! I've found it! But you've got to come out here and look at it right away. It isn't going to last." Eliza Blake listened to Louise Kendall's breathless voice and felt her own heart beat faster. She glanced at her watch as she swiveled around in her high-backed leather chair and looked out the windowed wall of her office down to the studio on the floor below. She could see the stagehands readying the set for the news segment she was scheduled to pretape for this evening's broadcast. "God, Louise," Eliza pleaded. "There's no way I can leave now." "You have to." Louise was adamant. "This is your house, Eliza. I'm sure of it. My office just signed the listing agreement and it's going into multiple tomorrow. Everyone and his cousin will be looking at it in the morning and, I swear to you, Eliza, in this crazy market, the house will be gone by this time tomorrow." If the house were as special as Louise promised it was, Eliza knew the Realtor was probably right. During the few short weeks Eliza had begun her house-hunting in earnest, she had been stunned by the dizzying speed with which prime real estate moved in Bergen County. Eliza was desperateto find somewhere peaceful she and Janie could live, out of New York City and away from all the recent unhappy memories. Their apartment was beautiful and it was certainly big enough for just the two of them. But Eliza wanted to get her little girl in a new environment, out of the city, cultural capital of the world or not. Louise was not giving up. "And, Eliza, I almost forgot to tell you. It's an estate sale. The house is vacant, so you could close as soon as you wanted. Janie could even be enrolled in her new school by the first day of kindergarten." It was little wonder that Louise Kendall was a consistent member of the Realtors' Million Dollar Sales Club, thought Eliza. She was an expert at enticing her customers. "Look, Louise, here's the best I can do. Right after the broadcast, I'll pick up Janie and we'll drive out there. I should be able to meet you by eight." "Great!" exclaimed Louise triumphantly. "We'll still have some light then. We can walk around the outside property first while we can still see and then we'll go inside. I know you are going to fall in love with this house, Eliza. I'm bringing a contract with me. Make sure to bring your checkbook." Copyright © 2001 by Mary Jane Clark. Excerpted from Close to You by Mary Jane Clark All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
