I'll Walk Alone

Zusatztext Praise for Mary Higgins Clark's I'll Walk Alone: Fans will bite their nails to the quick. Kirkus Reviews A gripping plot! a likable female lead! and a wonderfully eclectic cast of supporting characters. Library Journal Express Teeming with tantalizing twists! Clark's crackling tale of identity theft! revenge! and murder is a tempting and thought-provoking thriller. Booklist Hang on to your hats for this latest page turner. . . . Scary. Fresh Fiction One of Mary Higgins Clark's most suspenseful books. Fans and newcomers alike will find themselves staying up all night to find out what happens next. Bookreporter Informationen zum Autor The #1 New York Times bestselling author Mary Higgins Clark wrote 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 ! and You Don't Own Me . With her daughter Carol Higgins Clark! she coauthored five more suspense novels. More than one hundred million copies of her books are in print in the United States alone. Her books are international bestsellers. I'll Walk Alone 1 Father Aiden O'Brien was hearing confessions in the lower church of St. Francis of Assisi on West Thirty-first Street in Manhattan. The seventy-eight-year-old Franciscan friar approved of the alternate way of administering the sacrament, that of having the penitent sit in the Reconciliation Room with him, rather than kneeling on the hard wood of the confessional with a screen hiding his or her identity. The one time he felt the new way did not work was when, sitting face-to-face, he sensed that the penitents might not be able to allow themselves to say what might have been confided in darkness. This was happening now on this chilly, windswept afternoon in March. In the first hour he had sat in the room, only two women had shown up, regular parishioners, both in their mideighties, whose sins, if any had ever existed, were long behind them. Today one of them had confessed that when she was eight years old she remembered telling a lie to her mother. She had eaten two cupcakes and blamed her brother for the missing one. As Fr. Aiden was praying his rosary until he was scheduled to leave the room, the door opened and a slender woman who looked to be in her early thirties came in. Her expression tentative, she moved slowly toward the chair facing him and hesitantly sat down on it. Her auburn hair was loose on her shoulders. Her fur-collared suit was clearly expensive, as were her high-heeled leather boots. Her only jewelry was silver earrings. His expression serene, Fr. Aiden waited. Then when the young woman did not speak, he asked encouragingly, How can I help you? I don't know how to begin. The woman's voice was low and pleasant, with no hint of a geographical accent. There's nothing you can tell me that I haven't already heard, Fr. Aiden said mildly. I . . . The woman paused, then the words came rushing out. I know about a murder that someone is planning to commit and I can't stop it. Her expression horrified, she clasped her hand over her mouth and abruptly stood up. I should never have come here, she whispered. Then, her voice trembling with emotion, she said, Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. I confess that I am an accessory to a crime that is ongoing and to a murder ...

Praise for Mary Higgins Clark's I'll Walk Alone:

“Fans will bite their nails to the quick.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“A gripping plot, a likable female lead, and a wonderfully eclectic cast of supporting characters.”
—Library Journal Express

“Teeming with tantalizing twists, Clark’s crackling tale of identity theft, revenge, and murder is a tempting and thought-provoking thriller.”
—Booklist

“Hang on to your hats for this latest page turner. . . . Scary.”
—Fresh Fiction

“One of Mary Higgins Clark’s most suspenseful books. Fans and newcomers alike will find themselves staying up all night to find out what happens next.”
—Bookreporter

Autorentext

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.

Klappentext

"Suspense devotees will rejoice" ("Library Journal Express") as bestselling author Clark tackles a most up-to-date crime: identity theft.

Zusammenfassung
Now in mass market, Mary Higgins Clark’s thirtieth and most spine-chilling novel—“so good that it might as well have come with a soundtrack” (The Columbus Dispatch)—involves the newest and most up-to-date of crimes: identity theft.

Alexandra “Zan” Moreland, a gifted, beautiful interior designer on the verge of a successful Manhattan career, is terrified to discover that somebody is not only using her credit cards, but may also be impersonating her in a scheme that involves the much more brutal crimes of kidnapping and murder. Already haunted by the disappearance of her own son, Matthew, kidnapped in broad daylight two years ago in Central Park, Zan has been left torn between hope and despair. Now, on what would be Matthew's fifth birthday, photos surface that seem to show Zan kidnapping her own child, followed by a chain of events that suggests somebody has stolen her identity.

Hounded by the press, under investigation by the police, attacked by both her angry ex-husband and a vindictive business rival, Zan, wracked by fear and pain and sustained only by her belief that Matthew is still alive, sets out to discover who is behind this cruel hoax. What she does not realize is that with every step she takes toward the truth, she is putting herself—and those she loves most—in mortal danger from the person who has ingeniously plotted out her destruction.

Leseprobe
I’ll Walk Alone

1

Father Aiden O’Brien was hearing confessions in the lower church of St. Francis of Assisi on West Thirty-first Street in Manhattan. The seventy-eight-year-old Franciscan friar approved of the alternate way of administering the sacrament, that of having the penitent sit in the Reconciliation Room with him, rather than kneeling on the hard wood of the confessional with a screen hiding his or her identity.

The one time he felt the new way did not work was when, sitting face-to-face, he sensed that the penitents might not be able to allow themselves to say what might have been confided in darkness.

This was happening now on this chilly, windswept afternoon in March.

In the first hour he had sat in the room, only two women had shown up, regular parishioners, both in their mideighties, whose sins, if any had ever existed, were long behind them. Today one of them had confessed that when she was eight years old she remembered telling a lie to her mother. She had eaten two cupcakes and blamed her brother for the missing one.

As Fr. Aiden was praying his rosary until he was scheduled to leave the room, the door opened and a slender woman who looked to be in her early thirties came in. Her expression tentative, she moved slowly toward…