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| Carol Higgins Clark | |
Carol Higgins Clark, "who as a young woman retyped manuscripts by her mother, the famed mystery writer Mary Higgins Clark, before going on to become a bestselling suspense novelist herself," died June 12, the New York Times reported. She was 66. Clark wrote more than a dozen novels of her own and several others with Christmas themes in collaboration with her mother, who died in 2020.
Starting out as an aspiring actress, Carol Higgins Clark "eventually accumulated a handful of credits in movies, several of them based on her mother's books," the Times noted. In 1975, while home for the summer from Mount Holyoke College, another career opportunity appeared when she bailed her mother, who was just beginning her suspense-writing career, out of a jam.
"She had her first suspense novel coming out, and had to get her second one in to her agent," Clark told NPR in 2008. "It was before computers, and she didn't know how she was going to get it retyped in time, so I did it. And that's really what got me into it, because I had talked to her about the characters and the plot. And I did that for a number of her books, which was great for me to learn about how to write."
As her mother's books gained popularity, Higgins Clark "continued to act as a sounding board--doing research, helping her make dialogue for younger characters more authentic, and more" the Times wrote. In 1986, when Mary Higgins Clark's Where Are the Children? was adapted into a film, Carol Higgins Clark had a small role as a television reporter. Over the next 28 years she continued to appear in movies, many of them made for TV, based on her mother's books, including A Cry in the Night (1992), in which she played a leading role.
That same year marked her own debut as a novelist with Decked, which introduced private investigator Regan Reilly. Her other titles include Snagged (1993) and Twanged (1998). She and her mother first collaborated on Deck the Halls (2000), which brought together Regan Reilly and one of Mary Higgins Clark's characters, Alvirah Meehan--a character Carol essentially raised from the dead.
"I had murdered off Alvirah in my first book," Mary Higgins Clark told Newsday in 2000. "Carol insisted I get her out of the coma. She said: 'You have a great character here and you're killing her? That's really bad writing.' "
Carol Higgins Clark was often asked if her mother ever gave her any advice. She generally gave the same answer: "She said, 'If someone's mean to you, make them a victim in your next book.' "
Author Harlan Coben tweeted: "Devastated to hear that my dear friend and colleague Carol Higgins Clark died after bravely living with appendix cancer for the past three years. Here's hoping she and Mom (Mary Higgins Clark) are sharing a bottle of wine together."