[.ca] All Through the Night (ISBN 0671027123)

From Amazon.com:
Fans of Mary Higgins Clark and cozy mysteries will relish this Christmas confection. Unlike her previous holiday novel, Silent Night, All Through the Night is virtually free of life-and-death crime. Rather, it is a Dickensian tale of good deeds rewarded and crimes punished. The wintry story begins on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with 18-year-old Sondra Lewis, an aspiring violinist, tearfully leaving her baby on the steps of St. Clement's Church. Unbeknownst to her, Lenny Centino is robbing that same church on the same night, with his attention particularly on the Church's diamond inlaid chalice. He finds a buggy outside the church and uses it for cover as he flees. Only later does he realize that his take for the night includes the infant Stellina (Italian for star). The narrative then abruptly moves ahead seven years. Clark's lottery-winning protagonists, Alvirah and her husband Willy (introduced in Weep No More, My Lady) return for some amateur sleuthing. Sister Cordelia's thrift shop doubles as an after-school recreation place for neighborhood children (including a shy little girl named Star), but the building has been condemned. Bessie Maher had vowed she was leaving the house to the nun and her children. Now that she is gone, the will indicates that the tenants of the house, Vic and Linda Baker, are the true heirs. As December rushes on towards Christmas, Alvirah struggles to put things right before the children are left in the cold. Like the best holiday stories, All Through the Night steers toward sentimentality, but it veers back on course with narrative wit and Alvirah's charm. Clark's prose is lean and her plotting is brisk. This is a mystery that would be a pleasure to share aloud with a family gathered at the fireplace for some holiday cheer. --Patrick O'Kelley

Queen of Suspense????:
I'm sure that Mary Higgins Clark no longer needs the money, but she could at least give her fans an unpredictable novel that doesn't insult our intelligence. I suspected how this book would end from page 1, but read the whole thing anyway in hopes that I might be surprised in some way. Not only was I disappointed, but I came away angry at the oversimplified plot, at the Meehans for being the most annoying crime solving couple in literary history, and at the idea that a woman who abandons her baby outdoors in the dead of winter has a right to come back and lay claim to that child seven years later. I expected better from this author and it'll be a long time before I read anything by her again.

Boring:
I found this story slow, boring, and very predictable; the ending is evident from the start. I occasionally read Miss Higgins books but this one I have to admit should have stayed at the book store.

All Through the Night-A Holiday Twist:
All Through the Night Mary Higgins Clark Rebekah Sexton Of the twelve Mary Higgins Clarks books I've had the privilege of reading, I've found All Through the Night to be among her best. Mary Higgins Clark ingeniously intertwines two plots through one little girl. Sondra's musical career and life hold a promising future for her as her dreams are slowly unfolding, until she becomes pregnant by mistake. She finds herself in a situation she doesn't know how to solve and determines that the only solution to her problem is to leave her newborn girl on the doorstep of a church in New York City. When Sondra returns seven years later in search of her daughter, she tragically finds that her daughter was never found and that the same night she left her, there was a burglary at the church. Left heartbroken, Sondra is left with questions that cannot be answered. When Kate tragically discovers that her recently deceased sister, Bessie, left the will for her house to go to a couple she wasn't fond of, she becomes tragically aware of her sister's deceitfulness, something her friends were also unaware of. Positive that the will must be fraud, Alvirah, a close friend to Kate and Bessie, sets out to prove that the will is a fraud and that the Bakers are con artists. As Alvirah unfolds the mysteries of the events that happened the night that Sondra left her daughter at the church and of Bessie's will, the story unfolds plots and mysteries that leads one on a ride full of twists and surprises. Clark has once again outdone herself in All Through the Night.

A great holiday mystery, uplifting but not saccharine:
This book kept me wondering how the mystery would unravel and had an uplifting holiday spirit, but it wasn't syrupy sweet. Another good read from the "queen of suspense."

A Christmas Story as Good as Silent Night:
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Alvirah and Willy make a great team, and since I am Catholic, I enjoy anything when somebody is trying to help the Catholic church. I was so angry when the theft was committed! No one should steal anything sacred from a church! This book is best read at Christmas time. I know that next Christmas, I am very likely to read them again!