I Heard That Song Before: A Novel

Written by Mary Higgins Clark

Narrated by Jan Maxwell

In a riveting psychological thriller, Mary Higgins Clark takes the reader deep into the mysteries of the human mind, where memories may be the most dangerous things of all.

Kay Lansing, who has grown up in Englewood, New Jersey, is the daughter of the landscaper to the wealthy and powerful Carrington family. Their mansion—a historic seventeenth-century manor house transported stone by stone from Wales in 1848—has a hidden chapel. One day, accompanying her father to work, six-year-old Kay succumbs to curiosity and sneaks into the chapel. There, she overhears a quarrel between a man and a woman who is demanding money from him. When she says that this will be the last time, his caustic response is: "I heard that song before."

That same evening, the Carringtons hold a formal dinner dance after which Peter Carrington, a student at Princeton, drives home Susan Althorp, the eighteen-year-old daughter of neighbors. While her parents hear her come in, she is not in her room the next morning and is never seen or heard from again.

Throughout the years, a cloud of suspicion hangs over Peter Carrington. At age forty-two, head of the family business empire, he is still "a person of interest" in the eyes of the police, not only for Susan Althorp's disappearance but also for the subsequent drowning death of his own pregnant wife in their swimming pool.

Kay Lansing, now living in New York and working as a librarian in Englewood, goes to see Peter Carrington to ask for permission to hold a cocktail party on his estate to benefit a literacy program, which he later grants. Kay comes to see Peter as maligned and misunderstood, and when he begins to court her after the cocktail party, she falls in love with him. Over the objections of her beloved grandmother, who raised her after her parents' early deaths, she marries him. To her dismay, she soon finds that he is a sleepwalker whose nocturnal wanderings draw him to the spot at the pool where his wife met her end.

Kay develops gnawing doubts about her husband. She believes that the key to the truth about his guilt or innocence lies in the scene she witnessed as a child in the chapel and knows she must learn the identity of the man and woman who quarreled there that day. What Kay does not even remotely suspect is that uncovering what lies behind these memories may cost her her own life.

I Heard That Song Before once again dramatically reconfirms Mary Higgins Clark's worldwide reputation as a master storyteller.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Oct 1, 2008
• ISBN: 9780743582827

Mary Higgins Clark

The #1 New York Times bestselling author Mary Higgins Clark wrote over forty suspense novels, four collections of short stories, a his­torical novel, a memoir, and two children’s books. With bestselling author Alafair Burke she wrote the Under Suspicion series including The Cinderella Murder, All Dressed in White, The Sleeping Beauty Killer, Every Breath You Take, You Don’t Own Me, and Piece of My Heart. With her daughter Carol Higgins Clark, she coauthored five suspense novels. More than one hundred million copies of her books are in print in the United States alone. Her books are international bestsellers.

Reviews for I Heard That Song Before

[mrshillreads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This reads like a Danielle Steel book....rich guy in mansion marries poor young librarian, dead former wife/girlfriend, etc. The mystery part of it was pretty good--although the author tried too hard to point the reader in the wrong direction. This is not one of her better books.

[miyurose_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book had all the right ingredients for a good thriller ? love, money, murder, drugs, blackmail? Instead it was a hot mess. Very choppy, very hurried in parts, characters you can?t relate to because you don?t *know* anything about them. Kay and Peter?s entire meeting, courtship, wedding, and honeymoon is covered in 4 pages, which makes it very hard to buy their devotion to one another. I finished it to see what the ending twist would be, but it wasn?t very enjoyable.

[jonio_7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This reminds me of the traditional Mary Higgins Clark novel - lots of characters and an unsolved mystery...and of course the person that you are led to believe "did it," did not. However, the author leaves enough doubt in your mind for you to wonder....

[pam1960ca · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Haven't picked up a Mary Higgins Clark novel that I haven't liked. This one was no exception. Very good.

[cecilturtle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A great way to pass the time. Higgins Clark has not lost her touch for great plots even if the very end is rather corny.

[weeziesbooks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

?I Heard that Song? before is the story ofKathryn "Kay" Lansing, a librarian who is passionate about literacy, and whose husband is suspected of murdering both an ambassador's daughter years ago and his former wife. Additionally there is the question of whether her fathers death and was a possible suicide. She remembers a song from her childhood that she heard before the first murder and wonders if it is somehow a clue in any of the multiple deaths Kay plans a fundraiser to fund her literacy cause and enlists Peter Carrington's support in holding the fundraiser in his mansion. This is the same mansion where her father worked as a groundskeeper and she has memories of the mansion as a child. There is an immediate attraction between Peter Carrington and Kathryn and their relationship proceeds quickly. Peter is accused murder and Kay stands behind him and yet has moments of doubt or at least is concerned with the timing of her relationship and the coincidence of their relationship with the accusation of his involvement in the deaths. As usual Clark weaves a tale of mystery, romance and suspense. I have been reading her books for many years and her books continue to be of very high interest.

[frozenplums · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As always, Mary Higgins Clark knows how to deliver. My only complaint with this one is that the events stem from a childhood memory in which the main character seems to have experienced amnesia rather than simply have been young. The latter would have been more believable to me, but this is still a very good book.

[askum_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not a bad book to read.

[caneil_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A great read. Instead of this being so far-fetched that it could never come true, it has a story line that is believable.

[readabook66 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

it's been a while since I read a MHC. well-written, entertainingJuly 2007

[lisa875 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I haven't read Mary Higgins Clark in years but I really liked this. It was a good story and a fast read. Also, I live in NJ so it's neat to be familiar with the locations.