Before I Say Good-bye

Mary Higgins Clark

1/9/2002

Nell McDermott is shocked and bereft when her husband's boat explodes in the New York harbor, killing all passengers. Then she learns that the explosion was no accident. Someone placed a bomb on the boat. Was someone targeting her husband, architect Adam Cauliff? Or were one of the other passengers the target? What about Peter Logan, the partner who missed the meeting on the boat due to a car accident?

Nell soon hears worrying rumors about her husband. Was Adam involved in building payoffs? Was the falling facade of a downtown building his fault for allowing sub-standard marterials to be used and money pocketed? What about his secretary? She was on the boat when it exploded as well.

When a psychic contacts Nell about Adam, she quickly responds. She knows that consulting someone like Bonnie Wilson could hurt her political career, yet she has to talk with Adam one more time before she can let go and get on with life. The problem is, even dead, will Adam release Nell?

I have read enough of Clark's work to usually have a good idea where her plot is leading. This one, though, is closer than the others I have read. Before the final face off we, the readers, know who is responsible for the different catastrophes involved - a burnt down building, an honest building contractor paid off then killed, the death of a homeless lady, the boat explosion, and more. Yet this is still gripping as we follow Nell until she discovers the truth. In true Clark fashion, the end is a close call for the "good guys". I enjoyed this, and was involved as she weaves the characters together and pulls loose threads into a final piece of fabric that satisfies the reader.

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