The Lost Years

By Mary Higgins Clark

The brand new spine-tingling thriller from the world's favorite thriller writer

A fantastically page-turning new thriller from the world's favourite thriller writer, featuring all the twists, turns and chillingly close-to-the-bone storylines that her millions of fans know and love.

Praise for Mary Higgins Clark:

'I adore Mary Higgins Clark' Karin Slaughter

'Teeming with tantalizing twists, Clark's crackling tale of identity theft, revenge, and murder is a tempting and thought-provoking thriller' Booklist

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: May 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781849837149

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 The Lost Years

[wellreadcatlady · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

What a terrible book. The Lost Years is a short read but not worth the time. A professor finds a letter that might of been written by Jesus and he ends up dead. Half of his friends and family become detectives who think they are better detectives than the professionals and then the other half of his friends and family are suspects of killing him. Eventually no one really gives a damn how the dad/professor died and only care about finding the letter. The murderer/stealer becomes really obvious half way through the book without any kind of twist or sense.

[bons_11 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I can't say why I finished this book, it was very predictable. I just like Mary Higgins Clark. I did not enjoy this book.

[joannemonck · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It has been a long time since I read one of her books and now I know why. She writes well and simply but her books lack the "meat" of the new writers. The book is a quick read.

[maryevelynls · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Thought this book was going to be about one thing and it turned out it wasn't. Don't be fooled by the jacket review. It's just a way to sell this story. It is NOT about a letter written by Christ to Joseph of Arimathea. It's about the murder of a man who may or may not have possessed the letter and it merely mentions the letter that may or may not exist. I don't even want to waste another second on this one. If you want a good murder mystery, move on. This is NOT it.

[carments-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Typical MHC fare. Quick and easy read. Nothing groundbreaking but enjoyable all the same.

[Jasmine Leyshon · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very formulaic and clichéd. Not the best book I’ve read recently.

[nwieme-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Too many characters (perhaps to try and confuse us... WELL IT WORKED! I couldn't even follow the story I was so confused)...and why the oddball next door neighbors??? people who didn't seem to fit in... always the north jersey connection, but we're here.. we're there.. into NY... back to NJ... warehouse... mahwah... nursing home... marriage? too many gaps... too many little descriptions when they weren't needed. ugh. just didn't work for me!

[Pradnya Tanksale · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A very very interesting book! Exciting and thrilling
Love all books of Mary Higgins Clark

[decaturmamaof2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Meh... This one was kind of a waste of time. I found much of the dialogue and characters very stilted and 'stock'.

[readingover50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought this was a good book. It was fun to read, interesting, and it kept me entertained all the way through. Sure it is formulaic, but I went into the book expecting that. Mary Higgins Clark has found a formula that works for her and she keeps using it. And people keep buying her books.

I liked the character Mariah. Her relationship with her parents is complicated, especially now that her father is dead and her mother is accused of murdering him. There are four of her father's colleagues that figure prominently in the story. I kept mixing them up and having to go back to figure out who was who. There is also her father's mistress to deal with. And Alvirah and Willy make a comeback. This was a very pleasant read.

[grlintrrptdrdng · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

What a terrible book. The Lost Years is a short read but not worth the time. A professor finds a letter that might of been written by Jesus and he ends up dead. Half of his friends and family become detectives who think they are better detectives than the professionals and then the other half of his friends and family are suspects of killing him. Eventually no one really gives a damn how the dad/professor died and only care about finding the letter. The murderer/stealer becomes really obvious half way through the book without any kind of twist or sense.

[lauren2013_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The Lost Years
2 Stars

Biblical scholar Jonathan Lyons is murdered in his home after consulting several experts on a rare parchment supposedly authored by Jesus Christ. His wife, Kathleen Lyons, an Alzheimer sufferer, is accused of the crime, but his daughter, Mariah is convinced of her mother’s innocence and sets out to prove that her father’s death is related to the missing document.

Mary Higgins Clark was once a must buy author for me, but I appear to have outgrown her writing style. The narrative is ostensibly in the 3rd person, however, it often diverges into the internal musings and recollections of the characters, which appear in 1st person format. This alternating perspective is not only distracting, but results in the characters coming across as self-absorbed and unsympathetic.

Although the murder victim is well-respected and loved by many characters in the book, to me he was nothing short of a selfish and ego-centric adulterer unworthy of the affections bestowed upon him. As a result, it is difficult to care one way or the other whether his murder is solved. The investigation is tedious with detectives leaping to unfounded conclusions and the TSTL heroine’s attempts to uncover the truth are annoying. There isn’t even a good romance to compensate for this fiasco.

The incorporation of the letter to Joseph of Arimathea has potential. Unfortunately, it amounts to little more than a mcguffin intended to lure readers into reading the book with hopes of a compelling story revolving around the missing years of Christ’s life. As it turns out, this plot element is underdeveloped and has virtually no importance in the overall scheme of things.

All in all, MHC has written much better works and this book is unworthy of her repertoire.

[quiltinfun06 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Time for Mary Higgins Clark to stop writing. Her once unputadownable mysteries are nothing special. I feel like she has a formula and just plugs in some new details and creates a new novel. The Lost Years is a bit of this and a bit of that which amounts to zip, zero, nadda.My once guilty pleasure read of a Mary Higgins Clark mystery has come to an end. I am certainly glad that I borrowed the past 2 from the library and next time I'll pass on that idea too.

[thehistorychic · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Read from March 30 to April 09, 2012Received for ReviewChallenges: AudiobookOverall Rating: 3.75Story Rating: 4.00Character Rating: 3.50Audio Rating: 4.00 (Not part of the overall rating)First Thought when Finished: The epilogue really helped tie everything together!What I Loved: I will admit that this is my first Mary Higgins Clark book and it won't be my last. I really enjoyed MHC's story telling ability. I loved how she took what seemed like an open/shut case and had enough twists/turns to make it interesting. Not a single character was just good or bad but full of shades of grey. That is always fun to read in a mystery. My favorite part was the lottery winning couple! They cracked me up at times!What I Liked: Mary Higgins Clark did a good job of weaving everyone's stories together in a way that made them connected but not necessarily friends. While there were times I questioned the motivation behind certain characters thoughts by the end I was convinced that they acted accordingly. The mystery itself was interesting enough but don't think it is like a wide sweeping DaVinci Code. This mystery is about a murder and I think you will enjoy it more if you remember that!What made me go huh?: I loved the lottery winning couple but I was amazed at often the police let them interfere. In the real world, I have a feeling the police would have put the hammer down on that pretty quickly.Audio Review: Jan Maxwell did an excellent job with the rhythm and pace of the story. I would listen to a book read by her again.Final Thoughts: This was a good murder mystery that was perfect for a weekend listen while working!

[briandrewz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a pretty good tale spun by a veteran storyteller. The book starts out slow but quickly picks up in pace. It's nice to see old favorites like Alvirah and Willy Meehan. Clark does a good job keeping everyone's plates spinning and tying up all the loose ends.

[susiesharp_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As usually Mary Higgins Clark keeps you guessing, she really is the queen of suspense. From the description I was afraid it would be different than her usual works (or too Dan Brown-y) but it wasn’t it was another great mystery/suspense and with the bonus of Alvirah who was not even mentioned in the synopsis which I don’t understand, I am a fan of Alvirah so was happy when her and Willie showed up!Yes there is a supposed letter/parchment written by Jesus but as I said it doesn’t go into a big church cover-up type story. When biblical scholar Jonathan is murdered, police think his wife, who has Alzheimer’s, is the culprit but where is this parchment and why are all Jonathan’s friends lying about it? Also Jonathan had a mistress what is her part in all this?This one had me guessing and second guessing all the way through, but that’s the beauty of MHC’s writing. As always she writes a good mystery. These are hard to review because you don’t want to spoil it for anyone and the way MCH always makes everyone a suspect I don’t want to say too much and give it way! Suffice it to say if you’re a fan of Mary Higgins Clark you’ll like it if you’ve never given her a chance she has a great selection of stand-alone books pick one you won’t be disappointed. I also highly recommend her books on audio with the majority of them read by Jan Maxwell.Jan Maxwell always does a great job on MCH’s books her narrations never get stale no matter how many Mary Higgins Clark’s books I’ve heard her narrate. I also just recently found out that Jan Maxwell and I went to the same high school so that was a little small world fun fact!4 Stars