As Time Goes By by Mary Higgins Clark, FCLC ’79 (Simon & Schuster)
The latest novel by the “Queen of Suspense” follows budding young New York City TV reporter Delaney Wright as she covers the trial of a wealthy New Jersey widow accused of murdering her husband. While the trial progresses toward a seemingly inevitable guilty verdict, Delaney is preoccupied by her own search for her birth mother as well as her new relationship with Jon, a newspaper reporter investigating a local drug ring. As their individual searches escalate, Delaney’s world seems to shrink. Clark’s latest whodunit weaves together multiple narratives to bring her readers toward a suspenseful and satisfying ending.
The Steel Kiss by Jeffery Deaver, LAW ’82 (Grand Central Publishing)
Jeffery Deaver’s law training and deep knowledge of New York City are on display in his 37th novel, the 12th featuring two of his most popular characters. Former fashion model turned NYPD detective Amelia Sachs is hunting a killer. But her usual partner, Lincoln Rhyme, a famed quadriplegic consulting forensic detective, has retired. As Sachs’ case becomes more and more complicated, Rhyme finds he can’t avoid getting pulled into her investigation, and the two must work together to unravel a web of mysterious connections. The characters’ internal witty asides add a lightness to this psychological thriller that takes readers into the terrifying mind of a killer long before learning his identity and his motives.
Zero K by Don DeLillo, FCRH ’58 (Scribner)
Don DeLillo’s haunting 16th novel begins as the narrator, Jeffrey Lockhart, a mid-30s New Yorker who spends his “days in middling drift,” approaches the Convergence—a mysterious facility in the steppes of southern Kazakhstan, where the dead and dying are cryogenically preserved in anticipation of a time when their minds and bodies can be “restored, returned to life.” Videos of natural and man-made disasters are shown in the facility’s hallways, reminders of what the techno faithful are leaving behind. Jeffrey’s father, Ross, a billionaire financier, is deeply invested in the utopian project. He’s brought his son to the remote facility to say goodbye to Artis, Ross’ terminally ill second wife, before she makes the “transition to the next level.” When Ross informs a skeptical, increasingly angry Jeffrey that he intends to join his wife on the journey, father and son move toward their own fateful convergence—and readers are moved toward a sense of wonder at the fragile beauty of our daily lives amid the “intimate touch of earth and sun.”
