All Around the Town

All Around the Town. Mary Higgins Clark. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. 302 pp.

Laurie Kenyon was abducted as a small child and then returned two years later not remembering anything that had happened. Now, years later, her parents have died in a car accident orphaning her and her sister Sarah. This causes a discovery about herself that not even she knew. During her abduction she had developed multiple personalities because of the abuse. With the death of her parents, they have returned. Laurie’s kidnappers, Bic and Opal, fear being revealed, so they have returned to make sure Laurie does not talk. When Laurie is blamed for killing her professor, it is up to her sister Sarah, with the help of Dr. Justin Donnelly, to prove her innocence. It will be difficult, since Laurie has been found with the murder weapon, and one of her personalities, Leona, has been obsessing over him giving her a motive. As Laurie reveals more about her abduction through her therapy, her sinister kidnappers become more and more anxious to destroy her once and for all. Laurie’s only hope is to remember what her personalities keep her from knowing before it is too late. The audience I would suggest for this book is high school and up.

All Around the Town will keep you wondering and wanting to know what will happen next. Will Laurie be able to escaper her fate? Did she kill Dr. Grant? Mary Higgins Clark does and amazing job at keeping the story suspenseful by focusing the story around several different conflicts all tied into one. The insight into Laurie’s multiple personalities, and what she has to go through, is very intriguing. Once again, the Queen of Suspense has written another promising book.

Reviewed by Emily B. Rating: 8.5