Nighttime Is My Time: A Novel

Book Description

From the "Queen of Suspense," Mary Higgins Clark, comes a riveting tale of suspense, secrets and revenge.

Historian Jean Sheridan returns to Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, excited about her twenty-year high-school reunion at Stonecroft Academy. But a dear friend of hers soon becomes the fifth woman in the class to meet a sudden, mysterious end. Then Jean receives a taunting fax about a child she gave up for adoption, whose existence she had kept a secret but whose life may now be in danger. For present at the reunion is The Owl, a murderer on a mission of vengeance against women who once humiliated him...and Jean is his final intended victim.

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"The definition of an owl had always pleased him: a night bird of prey...sharp talons and soft plumage which permits noiseless flight...applied figuratively to a person of nocturnal habits. 'I am The Owl,' he would whisper to himself after he had selected his prey, 'and nighttime is my time.'"

Customer Reviews:

No mystery to this novel.......2007-05-16

My, my, the Queen of Suspense certainly is slipping. I had the opportunity to read two of Ms. Clark's novels within a span of 15 days - "Two little girls in Blue" and "Nighttime is my time". Both of them were huge disappointments, although they helped me pass the time during my flights.

Ms. Clark had built her reputation and earned my interest in her earlier books by creating in each novel, a strong and slightly unique plot, characters who all subtly hint at sinister motives, a smart and strong-willed leading woman whose strength of character shines through out the story, a romance gradually made to progress through the plot twists and turns, the goings-on narrated from the unknown perpetrator's point of view and a grand finale where the evil is revealed and the good once and for all vanquishes the evil.

Now for "Nighttime is My Time":
1. It has what passes for a plot - a former tormented student killing off his/ her tormentors one by one at a high school reunion. Wow, never in a million years would I have imagined that plot for a mystery novel.
2. In an effort to keep us guessing, Ms. Clark has all characters at the reunion hint, nay, shout their sinister motives from roof-tops throughout the pages of the novel. The reason for this, I can't help but think, is because Ms. Clark hadn't decided until the last chapter whom the killer was going to be and to cover her bases built up everyone to be one... you know, just in case.
3. All that Ms. Clark lets the readers know of the leading lady is that she comes from a broken home, had given up a baby for adoption after high school, and now is a successful writer who is very very sad and always sad, never happy, in tears at times... in fact, I can't remember a single page where she was happy and smiling and sure about herself and her success except perhaps in the last two pages. Really Ms. Clark, you can't think of one single reason why this woman should be happy now - she made the toughest decision any woman can make at the most difficult point in her life and has succeeded despite or because of it, and all she can feel is sadness?
4. The premise for romance is very feeble and is limited to two cups of tea, two club sandwiches and some 5 minutes of soul-baring amid swirling doubts of "is he or isn't he" ...the killer, that is.
5. Now the narration from the owl's point of view is what dominates the novel and gets pretty tiresome pretty fast. A lot of pages devoted to convey absolutely nothing. I recommend skipping these pages. Another confirmation of my nagging suspicion that Ms. Clark hadn't decided on the identity of the killer yet.
6. The grand finale is over in a rush and the only information I was eager to get to was whom had Ms. Clark decided to be the killer, in that instant she started writing the paragraph that reveals him.

All in all, I would say the re-runs of "Murder, She Wrote" and "Matlock" easily trump the last two novels I read of Ms. Clark's.

Creepy Killer Thriller.......2007-02-23

One by one the once large group of girls began to die in the order of the way they had always sat at lunch. He had killed the first five but had yet to kill the two now adult women, Laura and Jean. An author and history professor, Dr. Jean Sheridan, received an invitation to attend her twentieth year high school reunion and receive a special honoree degree for her success. When her friend disappeared during their visit at the reunion Jean became worried. Meanwhile someone had been faxing her messages threatening her daughter Lilly that she had given up for adoption. Jean and her boyfriend were to be married when he died a few days before his graduation leaving her pregnant with their unborn child. After Laura had been missing for several days another honoree disappeared. The Owl, as the serial called himself, captured Laura and kidnapped Meredith, which was the name the adoptive parents gave Lilly, and then Jean disappeared. A school journalist had been covering the reunion discovered where they were being held and who "The Owl" really was. When the cops arrived Gordon Amory, the Owl and one of the honorees, shot himself in the head. He had killed the other missing honoree because he had caught on to his plan. The deaths of the five women occurred because they had once picked on him. I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who likes horror and thriller stories.
The main reason I enjoyed the story was the author had written the book so that along with Jean's point of view you saw the story through the serial killer and other honorees eyes. While you heard the serial killer describe himself you would never be told which of the five male honorees the killer was. I found it interesting when at one point "The Owl" was watching a woman he was planning to kill while he was in her home. He watched her every day and began to remember her schedule and then one day killed her because she had picked on him once in school. Every few chapters you would see through Laura's eyes and once she described her captor. Laura would complain how uncomfortable she was tied down in a room so that she couldn't move her arms or legs. Her captor would not allow her to use his name and left her in a room alone all day with little food. The boy who was covering the story for his paper would also tell his part. He would sneak around and listen in on the honorees conversations and on his own was able to solve where everyone was and who the threat was.
I found that the characters were very realistic. As the author introduced the successful honoree she would describe how they had been in high school. I found it realistic because no one acts like a teenager twenty years after graduation. Jean had been a quiet girl who wasn't a cheerleader and had parents that would often argue in public. Even after the humiliation of her parents' arguments Jean held her head high and was able to develop from a shy teenager into a beautiful author and history professor. Gordon Amory had been very nerdy and disliked but Jean had sympathized with him. As an adult he owned several television channels and ran the shows but spent his money on a plastic surgeon to make him a handsome man. Mark, an honoree and her future husband, had been a quiet kid who was disliked by his own parents. His mother had always preferred his brother, Dennis, and along with blaming Mark for Dennis's death she had wished that he had died instead. Mark was able to live through the pain of longing for his parents love and become a psychiatrist with his own show that helped adolescents with their problems.
The author was often twisting the story by describing something about the killer and then comparing it to an honoree. I found it interesting when the killer said that he had to rent a car because he had used his own in one of his killings so he rented a black sedan. Later the author described how Mark had rented a car for his stay in town. Once the killer who had kidnapped Laura had a call made to Jean in Laura's voice that told her that she was okay but then the author said that one of the honorees, a comedian, specialized in mimicking people. Once the killer described how he once had asked Laura to a dance and she had turned him down. When the honorees were trying to find who would kidnap Laura the comedian honoree mentioned that Jack Emerson, an honoree, had a framed picture of Laura in his office.
I found the book very interesting and consider it one of Mary Higgins Clark's best novels. The authors unique formatting of the chapters was very unique and caught my eye. The characters were totally realistic and original and the puzzling hints to the identity of the killer were only a few of the reasons I enjoyed this novel. I would recommend this book to mainly teenage or adult women because I think they would find it more interesting.
M.Becouvarakis

Poor writing, formulaic, insults reader's intelligence.......2006-12-22

This was my first MH Clark book. I read a lot and enjoy most genres, including suspense. There are so many excellent writers today that I can't imagine reading another of hers. I imagine this as the kind of novel an artificial-intelligence computer program could generate when fed a standard formula. Dialogue was stiff, wordy and unnatural; even the teenagers speak careful, precise sentences. The story and characters were highly contrived, implausible and irritating. There's no attempt at thoughtful pacing: page after page spent on dull events while the most climatic events, including the ending, get a few sentences. There's so much better out there, folks; break out of the rut of buying the same hack author over and over and give a new writer, and yourself, a chance.

A Real Winner!.......2006-08-06

I enjoyed Night Time is My Time by Mary Higgins Clark
tremendously.It's the best mystery I've ever read.

Stonecroft is having it's twentieth year reunion. The
trouble is there's a murderer on the loose, and everyone is a suspect.

I love this book and gave it 5 stars:)

Be Careful Who You Pick On; Can Be Dangerous........2006-08-01

This fast-moving story is a classic case of revenge for past hurts. It revolves around a 20th reunion of the Stonecraft Academy in New York. An owl is a bird of prey; a night owl is a person of nocturnal habits, not all are dangerous. This Owl, however, has an agenda for murder and won't quit until he tops it off with a mother/daughter pair which he felt should have been his family.

Some of the honorees arrived feeling uneasy, none were happy to be there except for the Owl. "I am the Owl and nighttime is my time." Five female classmates, all prominent in their careers, had already been killed; the Hollywood agent recently. From different towns, they came -- a glamorous t.v. personality, a playwright who had been the class nerd, a talk-show celebrity, a media mogul, a historian/college teacher, and a bitter comedian. He had raged inside for twenty years about his childhood of rejection. One of them is a serial killer.

At the school, they'd endured four bitter unhappy years and took their frustrations out on this one in particular. He fought back directly and through the years. He would complete his mission when they gathered for the class reunion. The playwright got his repressed revenge by basing his characters on these old classmates who he regarded as his tormentors. He didn't need to go beyond that.

Jean Sheridan had kept a secret for all these years which gnawed at her integrity, as she could not face the shame of being an unwed mother -- now called 'single mom' (birth notices in the local papers lists them now, without prejudice or propriety). She had received an anonymous fax with an implied threat about the adoption of her daughter, now grown. I have yet to attend a class reunion (high school or college), as we all change mostly for the better as we excel at maturing and various aspects of life. We're not the adolescents who had been picked on, rejected, or ignored by the class favorites. We learn to put on a public face and not let strangers get too close.

School friends drift apart and no longer have the same interests. At public gatherings, we put on a facade of status; even killers fool their prey into thinking they are normal. One of these had a complete facial makeover, like a serial killer in Nashville. He looked good, but he was bad through and through. Not withstanding the facts, Jean is unaware that one of the distinguished men present is the Owl, on a mission of vengeance against those 'girls' who had mocked and humiliated him. He planned another kind of reunion between Jean and her West Point cadet daughter, before he killed them. He was not able to leave his usual calling card, pewter owls, as this time his murderous rage was not successful and he had to terminate himself with a mask on. Adverse circumstances can sometimes turn into good fortune and future happiness in novels of Ms. Clark. This turned out to be another 'first love' left unfulfilled; well, partially. He'll always be in my heart, forever and a day.

Average customer rating:

The Best Mystery I've Ever Read!!!

Nighttime is My Time
Mary Higgins Clark
Manufacturer: Simon and Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

ASIN: 0739442023

Customer Reviews:

The Best Mystery I've Ever Read!!!.......2006-08-04

Nighttime is my Time by Mary Higgins Clark is an awesome book.
It sat around here for so long because the size scared me, but
then I remembered that it's large print. It didn't take me too
long to read.
This is the second book I've read by MHC, the first
being Mt. Vernon Love Story. I enjoyed that one, but I enjoyed this one much more.
The book focuses on a class reunion. It seems that the students from a certian lunch table have died in the same order in which they sat. Two still remain alive. Should they be
worried? Everyone is a suspect! Nighttime is My Time kept me
in awe until I finished it. And the first thing I did when I finished was to go purchase another MHC book.
I give this book 5 stars.I think it is my favorite book of all time. I recommend it to anyone who can read:
I loved it that much:)

Escondido en las sombras/ Nighttime is my Time (Best Seller)

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Escondido en las sombras/ Nighttime is my Time (Best Seller)
Mary Higgins Clark
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 8497939174

La Nuit Est Mon Royaume (French translation of Nighttime Is My Time) : Book and 10 Audio Compact Discs in French (12-1/2 hours playing time)

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La Nuit Est Mon Royaume (French translation of Nighttime Is My Time) : Book and 10 Audio Compact Discs in French (12-1/2 hours playing time)
Mary Higgins Clark , and J. Pouletti
Manufacturer: French & European Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 0828844216

Nighttime is My Time/Night Train to Lisbon (Reader's Digest Select Editions in Large Type, Volume 137: 2005)

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Nighttime is My Time/Night Train to Lisbon (Reader's Digest Select Editions in Large Type, Volume 137: 2005)
Mary Higgins Clark , and Emily Grayson
Manufacturer: Reader's Digest Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IIA3NS

6 Book Set By Mary Higgins Clark; While My Pretty One Sleeps; Nighttime Is My Time; Daddy's Little Girl; Two Little Girls in Blue; Before I Say Good-bye; No Place Like Home

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6 Book Set By Mary Higgins Clark; While My Pretty One Sleeps; Nighttime Is My Time; Daddy's Little Girl; Two Little Girls in Blue; Before I Say Good-bye; No Place Like Home
Mary Higgins Clark
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WKC024

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6 Book Set By Mary Higgins Clark; While My Pretty One Sleeps; Nighttime Is My Time; Daddy's Little Girl; Two Little Girls in Blue; Before I Say Good-bye; No Place Like Home.

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Nighttime Is My Time
Mary Higgins Clark
Manufacturer: SIMON & SCHUSTER @ AUDIO
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VAX1WI

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Nighttime Is My Time (SIGNED)
Mary Higgins Clark
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000G7KPJ8

Nighttime is my time, Blood is the sky, Maximum Security, Some Dander involved

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Nighttime is my time, Blood is the sky, Maximum Security, Some Dander involved
Reader's Digest
Manufacturer: Readers Digest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WYVJ72

Nighttime is My Time, Night Train to Lisbon (Large type-Selections from Reader's Digest Condensed Books)

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Nighttime is My Time, Night Train to Lisbon (Large type-Selections from Reader's Digest Condensed Books)

Manufacturer: Reader's Digest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GSLK8C

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Labour/Le Travail, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2006. The length of the article is 1261 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Ileen A. DeVault, United Apart. Gender and the Rise of Craft Unionism.(Book review)
Author: Linda Kealey
Publication: Labour/Le Travail (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 57 Page: 218(3)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

United Apart: Gender and the Rise of Craft Unionism

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United Apart: Gender and the Rise of Craft Unionism
Ileen A. Devault
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0801489261

Book Description

In the late nineteenth century, most jobs were strictly segregated by sex. And yet, despite their separation at work, male and female employees regularly banded together when they or their unions considered striking. In her groundbreaking book, Ileen A. DeVault explores how gender helped to shape the outcome of job actions—and how gender bias became central to unionism in America.

Covering the period from the formation of the American Federation of Labor in 1886 to the establishment of the Women's Trade Union League in 1903, DeVault analyzes forty strikes from across the nation in the tobacco, textile, clothing, and boot and shoe industries. She draws extensively on her research in local newspapers as she traces the daily encounters among male and female coworkers in workplaces, homes, and union halls. Jobs considered appropriate for men and those for women were, she finds, sufficiently interdependent that the success of the action depended on both sexes cooperating. At the same time, with their livelihoods at stake, tensions between women and men often appeared.

The AFL entered the twentieth century as the country's primary vehicle for unionized workers, and its attitude toward women formed the basis for virtually all later attempts at their organization. United Apart transforms conventional wisdom on the rise of the AFL by showing how its member unions developed their central beliefs about female workers and how those beliefs affected male workers as well.

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United Apart: Gender and the Rise of Craft Unionism.(Book review): An article from: Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations
Anne Forrest
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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ASIN: B000MV9GSE
Release Date: 2007-01-25

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2006. The length of the article is 1401 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: United Apart: Gender and the Rise of Craft Unionism.(Book review)
Author: Anne Forrest
Publication: Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 61 Issue: 3 Page: 547(4)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Perfect for any highland vacation, The Best Tastes in Scotland 2003 is a quaint and colorful guide to locating the best places to eat and stay across Scotland. Updated to include the widest coverage ever find amazing little places for lunch, tea, and coffee stops. Enjoy memorable dinners, try fresh local produce, and learn recipes from leading restaurants.

Customer Reviews:

Oklahoma State University jealousy reaks!.......1999-06-27

Oklahoma State University offers a class called excuses 101, and this is to prepare graduates for a lifetime of being able to make excuses for playing second fiddle to the Oklahoma Sooners. It's really kind of sad that a graduate of OSU has nothing better to do with his degree than to write a book downing Oklahoma University (And it only sells for $4.95). The book is terrible, and a perfect example of a jealous aggie. Don't waste your change on this garbage. Go buy a National Enquirer instead, they are about as reputable!

BORING !.......1999-04-26

What a waste of time. No wonder it sells for under $5. Just another poor okie state aggie, who "CAN'T HANDLE BEING SECOND FIDDLE, LITTLE SISTER, AND SUFFERING FROM SOONER-ENVY". Don't waste your time and money.

Greatest book ever!.......1999-04-20

This is one of the best books in history! It's really cool how he describes how bad OU is! The only thing is, there are at least 303 reasons to hate the book which uses Oklahoma State in the name instead of Oklahoma. That's all I got to say about that. Oklahoma State Rules! Throobeck!

I Hate Oklahoma State: 303 Reasons Why You Should, Too (I Hate...)

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I Hate Oklahoma State: 303 Reasons Why You Should, Too (I Hate...)
Paul Finebaum
Manufacturer: Crane Hill Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1575870304

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