Author Mary Higgins Clark, ‘Queen of Suspense,’ dead at 92

Mary Higgins Clark, whose tales of women beating the odds made her one of the world’s most popular writers, died Friday at age 92.

Her stories specialized in women triumphing over danger, such as the besieged young prosecutor in “Just Take My Heart” or the mother of two and art gallery worker whose second husband is a madman in “A Cry in the Night.”  She, herself, was an example of triumph over adversity.

Widowed in her late 30s with five children, she became a perennial bestseller over the second half of her life, writing or co-writing “A Stranger Is Watching,” “Daddy’s Little Girl” and more than 50 other favorites

She was born Mary Higgins in 1927 in New York City, the second of three children. She would later take the last name Clark after marriage.

Clark’s goal as an author was simple, if rarely easy: Keep the readers reading. “You want to turn the page,” she told The Associated Press in 2013. “There are wonderful sagas you can thoroughly enjoy a section and put it down. But if you’re reading my book, I want you stuck with reading the next paragraph. The greatest compliment I can receive is, ‘I read your darned book ’til 4 in the morning, and now I’m tired.’ I say, ‘Then you get your money’s worth.'”

Mary, you read lifes’ book until 4 in the morning. Now it is time to get some rest, you deserve it.