From Publishers Weekly
This collection of six mystery stories featuring Alvirah Meehan and her husband, Willy, spent 12 weeks on PW's bestseller list. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Clark's books are always megahits, and her fans love the nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat suspense that is her trademark. So it's a little surprising that this collection of six interrelated stories featuring Willy and Alvirah Meehan lacks Clark's usual energy and pizzazz. The Meehans, who first appeared in Clark's Weep No More, My Lady, have struck it rich in the lottery. No longer do they slave away at housecleaning (Alvirah) and plumbing (Willy). Their days are spent pursuing the hedonistic pleasures of the idle rich, although, to their credit, Alvirah and Willy haven't lost touch with their roots. Alvirah seems to have a "talent" for murder, both for being in the general vicinity when one occurs and for uncloaking the villain before anyone else. For readers who enjoy the nouveau riche approach to crime solving ({ }a la Jonathan and Jennifer Hart or Nick and Nora Charles), these stories may prove mildly entertaining, but because they're so short, there's little opportunity for any real development of motive, plot, or character. And while the Meehans are basically nice, easy-to-like folks, the stories about their escapades are flat, facile, and distinctly lacking in suspense. Still, the Clark name ensures demand, and with a 500,000-copy first printing, you can be sure Simon & Schuster plans a full-throttle promotional effort. Buy accordingly. Emily Melton


From Kirkus Reviews
Six clean-cut criminal adventures for Alvirah Meehan, the $40- million-lottery-winning cleaning lady from Weep No More, My Lady, and her husband, Willy, who no longer sends bills for his plumbing jobs. Their homecoming to New York City in the first story is eventful, since Willy's playwright nephew is arrested for killing an importunate actress in their own Central Park South apartment, with Alvirah discovering both ``The Body in the Closet'' and the telltale clue. ``Death on the Cape'' asks why, and on whose behalf, the witness who sent Cynthia Rogers to prison for murder 12 years ago perjured himself. In the most inventive tale, ``A Clean Sweep,'' Alvirah takes up arms for a recent divorc‚e who claims her ex-husband dumped her so that he could redeem the joint lottery ticket he ``lost'' with his new wife. The title story shows a diamond thief returning to Alvirah's beloved Cypress Point Spa in Pebble Beach, Calif., to kill the man who hired him to perform a fraudulent robbery. Clark's heart isn't really in the details of plotting whodunits like this, but the remaining two stories of kidnapping (a neighbor's baby is snatched in ``Bye, Baby Bunting,'' Willy himself in ``Plumbing for Willy''), which ought to be closer to her home turf, are even thinner. After all, what chance do kidnappers stand when Willy's already fixed their plumbing, and Sister Cordelia and Sister Maeve Marie--who also happen to be his biological sisters--are patrolling the streets inches away from their lair, a Hell's Kitchen flophouse where Alvirah can hire on as a room-service waitress? What lingers in the memory are Clark's paeans to the kind of high-end bourgeois consumerism satirized by Bret Easton Ellis: not just brand-name products and generic crime-fighting gadgets, but the wholesome attitudes her relentlessly upbeat couple has been packaged to sell. (First printing of 500,000; Literary Guild main selection) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
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Book Description
Alvirah Meehan, one of Mary Higgins Clark's most beloved characters, returns in these dazzling, intertwined tales of sleuthing and suspense. Alvirah, the former cleaning lady who struck it rich in the lottery, made her first appearance in Weep No More, My Lady. Now, with her devoted mate, Willy, the ever-resourceful Alvirah delves into crime-solving on a grand scale -- and with her own inimitable style.

Among their many adventures, Alvirah and Willy find a dead actress in their Central Park South condominium upon their return from London in "The Body in the Closet." Needing a break from the big city, they escape to Cape Cod -- only to meet a would-be heiress framed for murder in "Death on the Cape." When Alvirah and Willy seek the tranquillity of the Cypress Point Spa, it's the perfect getaway -- until a jewel thief turns up in "The Lottery Winner." Back in Manhattan, the search for a neighbor's missing newborn makes for a suspense-filled Christmas in "Bye, Baby Bunting."


Download Description
Alvirah Meehan, one of Mary Higgins Clark's most beloved characters, returns in these dazzling, intertwined tales of sleuthing and suspense. Alvirah, the former cleaning lady who struck it rich in the lottery, made her first appearance in Weep No More, My Lady. Now, with her devoted mate, Willy, the ever-resourceful Alvirah delves into crime-solving on a grand scale -- and with her own inimitable style. Among their many adventures, Alvirah and Willy find a dead actress in their Central Park South condominium upon their return from London in "The Body in the Closet." Needing a break from the big city, they escape to Cape Cod -- only to meet a would-be heiress framed for murder in "Death on the Cape." When Alvirah and Willy seek the tranquillity of the Cypress Point Spa, it's the perfect getaway -- until a jewel thief turns up in "The Lottery Winner." Back in Manhattan, the search for a neighbor's missing newborn makes for a suspense-filled Christmas in "Bye, Baby Bunting."

ANNOTATION

From the author of Remember Me and I'll Be Seeing You comes this brilliant collection of interconnected tales of sleuthing and suspense feature the return of Alvirah Meehan and her mate, Willis, who are back by popular demand. "No one knows better than Mary Higgins Clark how to turn fear into entertainment."--Associated Press.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Alvirah Meehan, the former cleaning lady from Flushing, New York, who struck it rich in the lottery, made her first appearance in Mary Higgins Clark's Weep No More, My Lady. After she narrowly survived a stalking killer in that best-selling novel, grateful fans clamored for her return. Mary Higgins Clark obliged with several splendid short stories starring the ever-resourceful Alvirah and her occasionally befuddled but always dependable mate, Willy. Here are Alvirah and Willy, ensconced in their spacious Central Park South condo, surrounded by the rich and famous, some of whom just can't go on living ("The Body in the Closet"). But then Alvirah has become something of a celebrity herself and even appears on the Donahue show, thereby giving unfortunate ideas to a bunch of kidnappers who demand a hefty ransom for her hapless hubby ("Plumbing for Willy"). When they're not solving dastardly crimes or extricating themselves from danger in Manhattan, Alvirah and Willy like to escape to Cape Cod. Even there, however, they find plenty to keep Alvirah's steel-trap mind occupied ("Death on the Cape"), not to mention solving the problems of a fellow lottery winner in distress ("A Clean Sweep"), or returning to the Cypress Point Spa to solve a brutal slaying among the rich and beautiful ("The Lottery Winner"), or - as a surprise - the unexpected bonus of a Willy and Alvirah Christmas tale of suspense ("Bye, Baby Bunting").

SYNOPSIS

Alvirah Meehan, one of Mary Higgins Clark's most beloved characters, returns in these dazzling, intertwined tales of sleuthing and suspense. Alvirah, the former cleaning lady who struck it rich in the lottery, made her first appearance in "Weep No More, My Lady".

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

This collection of six mystery stories featuring Alvirah Meehan and her husband, Willy, spent 12 weeks on PW's bestseller list. (Nov.)

Library Journal

When Clark found she had a winner in Alvirah Meehan, the former cleaning lady who made a mint off the lottery in Weep No More, My Lady (LJ 8/87), she began writing stories featuring Alvirah and her bumbling husband, Willy. Five previously published tales and two new surprises are collected here. (For details of Clark's sojourn at the American Library Association annual conference, see p. 45.)

BookList - Emily Melton