SummaryIn a novel that reaffirms her reputation as "America's
Queen of Suspense," Mary Higgins Clark delivers a gripping
tale of deception and tantalizing suspense. Nicholas Spencer, charismatic head of the medical research
company Gen-stone, involved in the development of an
anticancer vaccine, suddenly disappears. His private plane
crashes en route to Puerto Rico, but his body is not found. Early results of the vaccine seemed highly promising. Yet,
coinciding with Nicholas Spencer's disappearance comes news
that the FDA is denying approval. Then follows the shocking
revelation that Spencer had looted Gen-stone of huge sums
of money -- including the lifetime savings of people who
had risked every penny they had. Marcia "Carley" DeCarlo, the thirty-two-year-old columnist
for the Wall Street Weekly, is assigned to cover the story.
Carley is the stepsister of Spencer's wife, Lynn, an
aggressive PR woman and socialite, whom she dislikes and
distrusts. The day after news of her husband's disappearance rocks the
financial and medical world, Lynn attends a meeting of the
stockholders of Gen-stone, flaunting expensive clothing and
jewelry. Accused of having participated in the scam, she
appears indifferent to the anger and despair of the people
attending, among them a man whose child has cancer and who
is now about to lose his home. That night, she narrowly
escapes death when her mansion in Bedford, New York, is set
on fire. She turns to Carley, begging her to use her
investigative skills to prove that she was not her
husband's accomplice. As Carley proceeds with her investigation, she is
confronted by seemingly impenetrable questions: Is Nicholas
Spencer dead or in hiding? Was he guilty or set up? Why the
sudden reversal in medical opinion of the vaccine from
recognition to condemnation? And as the facts begin to
unfold, she becomes the target of a dangerous group
involved in a sinister and fraudulent scheme. The Second Time Around is Mary Higgins Clark at her best,
telling a story that intertwines fiction with the stuff of
real-life headlines in a novel of breathtaking suspense and
surprises.
| 
