I Heard That Song Before: A Novel

Mary Higgins Clark

Apr 2007 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

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.

Ratings and reviews

Buku pertama oleh Mary Higgins Clark yang saya baca. Saya mula tertarik untuk membaca tulisan Clark apabila pada suatu hari saya telah mendapat katalog buku oleh Reader's Digest. Di dalam kataloog tersebut ada dimuatkan satu naskhah tebal yang mengandungi tiga buah buku tulisan Clark. Sinopsisnya sangat menarik tetapi saya tidak memesan melalui katalog berkenaan kerana harganya yang mahal. Bermula daripada hari tersebut, saya berazam ingin membaca tulisan Clark. Buku ini berkenaan dengan seorang perempuan bernama Kay lansington, anak kepada juru lanskap yang bekerja untuk keluarga Carrington yang terkenal dengan kekayaan dan kekuasaannya. Semasa Kay berusia enam tahun, dia telah mengikut bapanya ke rumah agam keluarga Carrington yang di warisi sejak kurun ke 17. Pada hari itu, keluarga Carrington sedang mengadakan satu pesta. Semasa bapa Kay bekerja, Kay telah menyelinap masuk ke dalam sebuah gereja (chapel) kecil rumah agam tersebut. Dia kemudiannya mendengar perbualan di antara seorang wanita dan seorang lelaki. Mereka bergaduh berkenaan wang. Wanita tersebut telah meminta wang daripada lelaki tersebut dan berjanji itulah permintaannya yang terakhir. Bagaimanapun, lelaki tersebut tidak mempercayai wanita tersebut dan mengatakan "I've heard that song before". Tidak lama selepas wanita itu keluar, lelaki tersebut telah bersiul lagu "I Heard That Song Before" Pada malam yang sama, Peter Carrington, pewaris tunggal keluarga Carrington telah menghantar pulang Susan Althorp yang berusia 18 tahun pada ketika itu pulang ke rumahnya. Althorp merupakan jiran kepada Carrington. Ibu dan bapa Susan mendengar kepulangan anak mereka tetapi keesokan harinya Susan tidak dapat di kesan hinggalah kini. Sejak daripada itu, Peter Carrington masih menjadi "a person of interest" berkenaan kes tersebut apatah lagi bekas isterinya Grace Carrington juga telah mati lemas di kolam renang rumah agam berkenaan semasa sedang sarat mengandung 7 bulan. Kay Lansington kini telah pun berusia 28 tahun dan Peter Carrington pula 42 tahun. Kay bekerja sebagai Perpustakawan. Takdir telah menemukan mereka dan Kay kemudiannya mengahwini Peter Carrington. Ibu kepada Susan Althorp, Gladys Althorp percaya bahawa Peter lah yang telah membunuh anak perempuannya dan sekarang telah memfailkan semula kes berkenaan kepada polis supaya dia dapat mati dengan tenang. Polis kemudiannya menjalankkan penyisatan semula terhadap kes berkenaan. Bagaimana Kay menghadapi semua itu? Adakah benar Peter yang membununh Susan dan bekas isterinya? Kisah ini memang menarik walaubagaimanapun, pada penghujung kisah ini, saya dengan agak mudah dapat menjangkakan penghujung ceritanya. tidak dinafikan ianya bermula dengan suspens dan watak2 disekeliling Peter dan Kay jugak tidak mudah untuk di ramal. Cuma, pada pendapat saya penulis begitu cepat memberikan gambaran kepada pembaca siapakah Peter yang sebenarnya. Saya cuma berharap agar watak bapa Kay, iaitu John Lansington di perincikan dengan lebih mendalam, begitu juga abang tiri Peter, iaitu Richard Walker dan ibu tirinya, Elaine Carrington. Secara keseluruhan, buku ini menggunakan bahasa yang mudah untuk di fahami . It was a good read.

Suspence Queen Mary Higgans Clark as written another book that I loved. A book full of suspoence and plot twists it will keep you on your toes till the very end. She is the queen of suspence and a true writer. I can't wait to read another of her books. I would recomand this book to all my friends

Heard that song before loved the book always enjoy MHC

About the author

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.