Pretend You Don't See Her Section: Book Reports
Alice took the copy of her journal and sped away from Minneapolis to New York before Sandy could kill her. She didn't have time to tell Tom what was going on, but she could see the hurt in his eyes. Alice didn't know where she could stay without being caught, so she asked Tim Powers, the owner of the apartments, if he could stay in Heather's apartment. She knew that she would be safe there and she took time to look over the pages of the journal. Alice came across a name in the journal that she never saw before, Max Hoffman. Heather stated in her journal that she was having a lunch date with Max who was an old friend. Two days after Heather and Max had that meeting they were both killed. Alice decided she had to find out what was going on so she got into a cab and went to visit Max's widow. When Alice got there she was hoping that Mrs. Hoffman could help. What the two ladies didn't know was that Sandy Savarano was in the upstairs room waiting for the perfect moment to kill them both. He started down the stairs and the ladies became quiet. Alice could have sworn she heard something and she felt the presence of evil. She saw his figure coming down the stairs toward them and she threw a paperweight the size of a baseball at him. He dropped his gun and the ladies started out the door. Sandy picked up his gun, but before he could shoot the police came in and shot him in the leg. The police knew that he was a hit man payed to kill these people, but by who? Mrs. Hoffman saw the man that was with Heather on her vacation but she needed to see him to be able to identify him. Mrs. Hoffman, Alice, and the detective went over to Jimmy Landi's house to ask him about anyone that Heather might have been involved with. Jimmy asked Steve Abbott, his partner, to come in and join them. Mrs. Hoffman's mouth dropped open and said it was Steve who was with Heather. He had been a thief and was cheating Jimmy out of everything he owned. Heather had found out through Max what he was doing and was going to tell her father. So the only way Steve could save himself was to have them both killed. Isabelle was just getting too close to the real story and they had to get rid of her too. Right after this horrible ordeal Alice called Tom Lynch and told him the whole story. She then asked him if he could call her by her real name, Lacy Farrell. Lacy was happy to finally be able to use her real name and enjoy her house, her friends, and her family that she was without for so long. Evaluation This novel was very well written and had me wondering who was behind the killings until the very end.
Mary Higgins Clark was very good at keeping this novel interesting at all times so I wanted to keep reading it. The areas that I will be evaluating are development of character, the development of suspense, and the conclusion. The character, Sandy Savarano, was very complex and was described well. The beginning when he portrayed the potential buyer, Curtis Caldwell, was very clever. He was in no way suspected to be a threat or harmful in any way. He then turned out to be a very well known hit man. Mary Higgins Clark made this character very smart and made it so he could find anything or anyone he wanted to. Then, later in this novel he played the part of an elderly man who was supposed to be Alice's father. He received a lot of information about Lacy from unsuspecting friends and acquaintances. Overall, this character was one of my favorites because he was really interesting and you weren't sure what he was going to do next. The suspense development was very well done. In several different moments the suspense went on for several pages before something actually happened. For example, in the chapter where Lacy went to talk to Mrs. Hoffman and Sandy was in her house. Clark put so many descriptive words in her writing that you could actually imagine what was going on. She went from the ladies hearing the steps creak, then "they saw through the wooden rails in the stairs his one well-polished shoe."" Lacy's frail and trembling hand grasped a paperweight the size of a baseball. She stood up, swung her arm back, and, as the assassin she knew as Curtis Caldwell came into full view, threw the paperweight with all the strength she could muster, at his chest." He fell on the floor and dropped his gun and the police came in to arrest him before he could kill the women. This event was just one of the many suspenseful moments in this novel. The conclusion of this story was very unexpected. I had no idea that Steve Abbott, a trusted associate of Jimmy Landi's, was responsible for all of the killings and the horrible experience that Lacy Farrell went through. He was mentioned throughout the novel as a good businessman, a employee that everyone wanted, and an attractive man that was never suspected of any wrong-doing. This was a very good conclusion to a very well written novel. Overall, this novel was very interesting and unpredictable. It had all of the major elements to make a story great, murder, mystery, heartbreak, romance, and suspense.
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