Before I Say Goodbye

Before I Say Goodbye by Mary Higgins Clark

Several years ago, I worked in the entertainment business and was able to accumulate a ton of free books. My garage is filled with them. Back then, Mary Higgins Clark was usually on the ‘A’ list as far as authors go, but I hadn’t really read much by her.  Since my ginormous stack contains a lot of books by Clark, I decided to dust one off and give it a try.  I’m very glad I did. This was a very satisfying read.

Nell MacDermott is the granddaughter of one of the most influential members of congress in the history of the country. He’s ready to retire and wants Nell to run in his spot. She’s keen to the idea, but her real estate developer husband is less than thrilled. He seems to think this dream is really Gramps’ dream, not necessarily hers.  Husband and wife quarrel.  He storms off and is shortly killed in a boating accident with three other people. Because her husband has worked with shady characters before in his business, foul play is suspected in the accident. Meanwhile Nell is obviously racked with guilt since she and her husband never had the chance to make up after their fight.

Well, it turns out that Nell has a whiff of a ‘psychic’ power about her. She’s can read auras around people and swears that her parents ‘came to say goodbye’ to her when she was young just before they were killed. Apparently, this trait is hereditary, and Nell has a family member and friends that share her gift. She’s anxious for a message from her husband from ‘the other side’ and whereas she can’t channel anything, her Aunt has a psychic friend that can. So Nell visits her Aunt’s friend and gets a message from her husband!  Apparently the message is quite long and it seems to be focused around the boating accident. It’s at this point where I was worried that this story was going to take a turn for the worse.   Personally, I’m somewhat agnostic about such phenomena. I’m willing to accept there are things that may exist that are unseen and unexplained but, sorry, I don’t believe the dead can help the living solve crimes.

Since Nell’s husband was possibly involved in some slightly shady real estate deals, an investigation occurs, and Nell, along with other people close to the tragedy start to uncover clues that bring them closer to uncovering the cause of the boating accident.  Fortunately, my fear of the ‘dead solving the crime’ doesn’t materialize as I was worried it might, and the whole psychic element ends up playing a minor role in the overall story.

I really enjoyed most, if not all of the elements of this book. The story moved rather quickly, with a lot of different characters in and out of the pages. Clark does a great job of not getting bogged down in the weeds with characters and/or descriptions. She knows how to set up each scene well and she keeps things interesting. In fact, I thought the story could have been fleshed out a bit longer. There were a few loose ends that I would have liked to have seen get wrapped up a bit better at the end, but overall, this was a very quick, enjoyable read.  

I’m definitely looking forward to reading some of the other works by Clark that are on my book shelf in the garage.