Helpful Score: 2
It was an OK mystery. Not one of her best, but it was still a nice and fast read.
Helpful Score: 2
This is very touching and suspenseful and will keep you interested from page 1. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one very much.
Helpful Score: 1
A young unmarried woman leaves her newborn baby on the rectory doorstep of a church on Manhattan's Upper West Side. At that same moment, inside the church, a young man is in the process of stealing a treasured artifact - a chalice adorned with a single star-shaped diamond. Both the infant and the chalice subsequently disappear.
Seven years later, a few weeks before Christmas - lottery winner turned amateur sleuth - Alvirah Meehan and her husband Willy, are busy helping Willy's sister Cordelia - a nun who runs a thrift store that doubles as an after-school shelter for the neighborhood kids - prepare for the upcoming Christmas pageant. However, the shelter's future is threatened when the city condemns the building for that use. Then it is further jeopardized when the nearby brownstone to which the shelter was to be moved turns out to have been willed to a young couple who were already tenants in the building.
Convinced that something suspicious is going on, Alvirah refuses to believe that the will is genuine. She sets out to prove the couple are con artists. Soon she is involved with the mystery of the stolen chalice and child.
While this was certainly a good story and I enjoyed reading it; I'm not entirely sure what grade to give it. In my opinion, the mystery was perhaps a little simplistic, and the plot seemed slightly hurried - at least to me. I would have preferred it if this story had been slightly longer, so that the plot could be better developed and the characters better drawn and more believable. Overall, I give this book a B+!
Seven years later, a few weeks before Christmas - lottery winner turned amateur sleuth - Alvirah Meehan and her husband Willy, are busy helping Willy's sister Cordelia - a nun who runs a thrift store that doubles as an after-school shelter for the neighborhood kids - prepare for the upcoming Christmas pageant. However, the shelter's future is threatened when the city condemns the building for that use. Then it is further jeopardized when the nearby brownstone to which the shelter was to be moved turns out to have been willed to a young couple who were already tenants in the building.
Convinced that something suspicious is going on, Alvirah refuses to believe that the will is genuine. She sets out to prove the couple are con artists. Soon she is involved with the mystery of the stolen chalice and child.
While this was certainly a good story and I enjoyed reading it; I'm not entirely sure what grade to give it. In my opinion, the mystery was perhaps a little simplistic, and the plot seemed slightly hurried - at least to me. I would have preferred it if this story had been slightly longer, so that the plot could be better developed and the characters better drawn and more believable. Overall, I give this book a B+!
Helpful Score: 1
This book is very touching and appropriate for this time of year. It contains the delightful characters, Alvira and Willy. They are recipients of of 40,000,000.00 lottery and Alvira is quite a character as a sleuth. Sweet, fast read, just the book to read on a cold winter night when you need to feel good. It has a Christmas theme and a happy ending.
Helpful Score: 1
I liked this tale better than most of Alvirah's tales.
A great Christmas suspense story - classic Mary Higgins Clark!
Absolutely loved this diamond of a Christmas book. Ive read this one twice, with many years between both reads and reading it the second time felt familiar but completely new. A good book can do that.
This book had two situations going on throughout. One a forged will and two an infant left in a paper bag outside of a Rectory.
I really enjoyed this and it added lots of joy to my already full heart of Christmas spirit.
This book had two situations going on throughout. One a forged will and two an infant left in a paper bag outside of a Rectory.
I really enjoyed this and it added lots of joy to my already full heart of Christmas spirit.
love this author.. and the story was very good. entertaining..
This was a bit of a disappointment, since I usually love her books. It was actually a short story with one dimensional characters and it was all too predictable. Can be read in one sitting.
Another page turner from a great mystery writer. What I like about Mary Higgings Clark is her ability to tell the tale of a mystery without being too medically graphic. You can even read her books at bedtime without having nightmares. She is consistently a quality author.
ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT
All of Alvirah's deductive powers and Willy's world-class common sense are called upon as the two stumble into a Christmas mystery. A woman abandons her newborn at a Manhattan church. Simultaneously, a thief is absconding with a treasured artifact, a chalice adorned with a star-shaped diamond. To elude police, he grabs the stroller and disappears. Seven years later, the mother returns to the scene and finds Alvirah and Willy helping neighborhood kids prepare for a Christmas pageant at an after-school shelter. Soon the savvy sleuths set out to solve the puzzle of the missing child and chalice -- and to unmask scam artists threatening to shut down the shelter.
All of Alvirah's deductive powers and Willy's world-class common sense are called upon as the two stumble into a Christmas mystery. A woman abandons her newborn at a Manhattan church. Simultaneously, a thief is absconding with a treasured artifact, a chalice adorned with a star-shaped diamond. To elude police, he grabs the stroller and disappears. Seven years later, the mother returns to the scene and finds Alvirah and Willy helping neighborhood kids prepare for a Christmas pageant at an after-school shelter. Soon the savvy sleuths set out to solve the puzzle of the missing child and chalice -- and to unmask scam artists threatening to shut down the shelter.
Good story fast read another great book
Another great MHC classic!
Two of Clark's most beloved characters, Alvirah and her husband, Willy, get caught up in a Christmas mysery. A young, unmarried woman leaves her newborn child on the doorstep of a church. At the same moment, inside the church, a young man is stealinga treasured artifact, a chalice adorned with a single star-shaped diamond. Both the infant and the chalice disappear. Soon Alvirah and Willy are involved in solving both of these mysteries,
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 story begins when a young unmarried woman leaves her newborn child on the rectory doorstep at a church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. At the same moment, inside the church, a young man is stealing a treasured artifact, a chalice adorned with a singe star-shaped diamond. Both the infant and the chalice disappear.
Two of Mary Higgins Clark's most beloved characters, Alvirah, the lottery winner turned amateur sleuth, and her husband, Willy, both of them caught up in a Christmas mystery that calls on all of Alvirah's deductive powers, as well as Willy's world-class common sense.
Another good book.
Alvirah and Willy, the semi-retired lottery winners turned crime solvers, are called upon once again in this Christmas tale of a mother who yearns to be reunited with the child she abandoned seven years ago.
This was one of my first books gotten from this site. I am done with it and wish to pass it along. It was good!
used but in good shape
