You Don't Own Me

by Mary Higgins Clark, Alafair Burke Narrated by January LaVoy

Overview

The “Queen of Suspense” Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke are here with their fifth enthralling mystery in the New York Times bestselling Under Suspicion series as television producer Laurie Moran must solve the murder of a celebrity doctor-before a mysterious stalker plots his next move.

Television producer Laurie Moran recently became engaged to her investigative television show's former host, Alex Buckley, and since then, the two have been happily planning a summer wedding, preparing for Alex's confirmation to a federal judicial appointment, and searching for the perfect New York City home for their new life together.

But then Laurie is approached by Robert and Cynthia Bell, parents of Dr. Martin Bell, a physician who was shot dead as he pulled into the driveway of his Greenwich Village carriage house five years ago. The Bells are sure that Martin's disgraced and erratic wife, Kendra, carried out the murder. Determined to prove Kendra's guilt and win custody over their grandchildren, they plead with Laurie to feature their son's case on Under Suspicion, ensuring her that Kendra is willing to cooperate.

As Laurie dives into the case, she learns that Martin wasn't the picture-perfect husband, father, and doctor he appeared to be and was carrying secrets of his own. And what does the web of lies ensnaring the Bell family have to do with a dangerous stranger, who gazes at Laurie from afar and thinks, She is actually quite a lovely girl, I'm sure she's going to be missed...?

You Don't Own Me is the perfect, exhilarating follow up to the bestselling Every Breath You Take. The “Queen of Suspense” Mary Higgins Clark and her dazzling partner-in-crime Alafair Burke have devised another riveting page-turner.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

10/22/2018
In MWA Grand Master Clark and Burke’s formulaic fifth novel starring Laurie Moran (after 2017’s Every Breath You Take), Laurie, who works for a reality TV show, Under Suspicion, investigating cases that have stymied the police, is put in a difficult position by Robert and Cynthia Bell. Five years earlier, the Bells’ physician son, Martin, was gunned down in the driveway of his Manhattan townhouse. Though Martin’s wife, Kendra, reputed to be a substance abuser, became the main person of interest, she was never charged. The Bells beseech Laurie to revisit her initial refusal to look into Martin’s murder, in the hope of proving Kendra guilty. Despite some suspicious equivocation, Kendra consents to be interviewed, even as her kids’ lives are under threat from an unidentified man. Laurie comes to believe that there are other leads worth pursuing, and, predictably, she ends up in harm’s way. Character depth isn’t the series’ strong suit, and this entry is most likely to appeal to series fans who are invested in the lead character. Agent: Bob Barnett, Williams & Connolly. (Nov.)

Kirkus Reviews

2018-10-15

Under Suspicion producer Laurie Moran's fifth dive into crimes past has to overcome a major obstacle: the reluctance of the leading suspect to participate in the enterprise.

When hotshot New York neurologist Dr. Martin Bell was shot when he was about to enter his home five years ago, suspicion immediately fixed on his wife. It's not likely that Kendra Bell pulled the trigger since her children's nanny, Caroline Radcliffe, recalls that she was once again so zoned out from depression or drinking or drugs at the time that the police had to struggle to awaken her enough to tell her that she was now a very wealthy widow. But Kendra could surely have hired a hit on the husband who'd talked her out of her own medical career by insisting, along with his smothering parents, that she stay home with the children. Now Robert and Cynthia Bell, a hard couple to like despite having lost their only child, want Laurie to reopen the case for her TV audience. Kendra, who's never admitted to her in-laws that she refused from the beginning to cooperate with Under Suspicion, has told them instead that Laurie declined to reopen the case, and they plead stiffly with her to reconsider. Taking the interfering, normally unsympathetic Under Suspicion host Ryan Nichols with her, Laurie immediately calls on Kendra, threatens to tell the Bells the truth she's concealed from them, and pressures her into allowing Laurie and her staff to take the case. She doesn't know that Kendra's been paying off an unknown blackmailer for five years, wondering every day, "Will I ever know if I had my husband killed?"

Clark and Burke (Every Breath You Take, 2017, etc.) develop their suspects with so much more subtlety and conviction than usual that the climactic revelation, which is more and less surprising than you'd expect, feels especially disappointing. Sometimes it's better to travel hopefully than to arrest.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170810390
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	11/06/2018
Series:	Under Suspicion Series , #5
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

You Don’t Own Me



Five years later, Caroline was still working in that same carriage house, but so much had changed. Mindy and Bobby were no longer her little babies. They were nearly finished with the first and third grades. They rarely cried anymore, even when the subject of their father came up.

And Mrs. Bell—Kendra, as Caroline often called her now—well, she was an entirely different woman. She no longer slept away the days. She was a good mom. And she worked, which is why it would fall to Caroline to pick the children up from their twice weekly visit to their grandparents’ apartment on the Upper East Side. It was a task that neither of them enjoyed. Dr. Bell’s parents made their son look like a free spirit compared to them.

Caroline had made it out of the apartment and halfway to the elevator when she heard the children’s grandmother call out behind her. She turned to see both grandparents standing side by side outside their door. Dr. Bell was thin, almost to the point of being gaunt. His wispy hair was combed sideways across the dome of his head. As chief of vascular surgery at prestigious Mount Sinai Medical Center, he had grown accustomed to getting his own way. Nine years into retirement the scowl he had brought to the hospital every day had not diminished in the least.

Cynthia Bell, now in her eighties, showed little sign of the beauty that had once been hers. Her long hours in the sun had left her skin wrinkled and dry. Her lips were turned down at the corners, giving the impression of a permanent pout.

“Yes?” Caroline inquired.

“Did Kendra even try to get that television producer interested in Martin’s case?” Dr. Bell asked.

Caroline smiled politely. “It’s really not for me to say who Mrs. Bell speaks to—”

“You mean Kendra,” he said sternly. “My wife is the only Mrs. Bell. That woman is no longer married to my son, because my son was shot to death in his driveway.”

Caroline continued to force a pleasant expression. Oh, how she remembered the drama that had unfolded in the living room six months earlier over the subject of that television producer. Robert and Cynthia had asked to come to the house following Mindy’s after-school dance recital. They told Kendra all about Under Suspicion, a television show that reinvestigated cold cases. Without notifying Kendra, they had sent a letter to the studio asking them to look into Martin’s unsolved murder.

The official Mrs. Bell, Cynthia, interjected. “Kendra tells us that the producer, a woman named Laurie Moran, passed on the case.”

Caroline nodded. “That’s exactly what happened. Kendra was at least as upset about it as you are. Now, I need to get your grandchildren home before my shift ends,” she added, even though she was never one to watch a clock.

As the elevator made its way down from the Bells’ penthouse apartment to the lobby, she had a feeling that the couple wasn’t going to let this subject drop. She was going to hear the name Laurie Moran again.

Videos