![]() Both her parents died, and it’s long been believed her father, a U S Congressman, murdered her mother before turning the gun on himself. Pat, whose birth name was Kerry, had a tragic past. Her first assignment is to do a story on Senator Abigail Jenkins who is a leading candidate to replace the ailing Vice-President. Pat Traymore is a successful reporter who has just landed a job with a major cable news network. Reading it again validated my thoughts and made me realize why she was one of my favorite authors. I first read it back in the 1980s and recall it being one of my favorites. StillwatchĪfter reading and being disappointed in one of Mary Higgins Clark’s later books, I decided to revisit Stillwatch. Writing style, I rate The Shadow of Your Smile a two, storywise a four, rounded to three for review purposes. No matter how small a reader might think of an incident is, there is a reason, and everything ultimately ties together. When she wrote this one, she hadn’t lost her skill at weaving a suspenseful story. That didn’t bother me as I’m accustomed to that in her books. ![]() To end on a positive note, there is a large cast of characters. Was the author going after omniscient POV? It takes skill to pull that off, and Higgins-Clark didn’t come through. There were also many instances of switching character points of view within a single scene. How in the world did editors from one of the largest publishing companies in the world allow this to happen? Was it because they believed a bestselling author could get away with anything and still sell books? Apparently, they were right. I tend to read with a more critical eye these days, but if Higgins-Clark did this in her earlier works, I don’t recall. There are countless uses of the words, “she thought,” or “he thought.” Those internal thoughts-going from third person to first person were distracting. There is too much telling with too many characters “thinking” about things, resulting in a ton of back story in almost every single chapter. The Shadow of Your Smile is not her best work. ![]() I lost touch with the books in the early 2000s, but now that they’re available through Kindle Unlimited, I decided to catch up on a few I’d missed. I’ve been a fan of Mary Higgins Clark since reading Where Are the Children, and eagerly awaited each new release. The Neon Shadow is available to watch on YouTube here. Some details get lost in the melee, not garnering the attention they deserve (a fleeting reference to Black Lives Matter being one) on the whole, however, Kneehigh has treated us to a gripping advent of theatre that plays on the paranoia of spending so much time with your own company. The Neon Shadow manages to pull a rabbit out of a hat with very little to work with, the end result is a show that plays out like a technophobic nightmare that teases its main character with the promises of sweet human connection. What the show manages to do so well is conjure an impressive level of depth for such a short show without sacrificing its unique sense of style. The internet, represented by the form of a Joker -style suited clown, takes on an incredibly insidious presence in his life, at one point lying underneath his bed like a full-on bogeyman. ![]() On the whole, Greaves commits himself with such energy and electricity that he captures a paling image of isolation. Greaves is a sight to behold, his all-white attire and wicked smile at times evoking A Clockwork Orange ’s Alex, but with a spiralling loss of control and willpower.Īs he slides further into a pit of despair, The Boy (as Greaves’ character is credited) is guilty of some perhaps cliche signposts of loneliness – drawing smiley faces on window condensation is more befitting of a child in the back of a car than a man forced to hold up indoors. As the creepy, clockwork soundtrack unwinds – accompanied by a theremin and synth – a heavy atmosphere of dystopian dread comes to fruition. They don’t go too overboard, but what they achieve nonetheless looks spectacular. The film medium gives Kneehigh the chance to experiment with visual tricks and cues that would otherwise be inaccessible. Though he believes he has found someone special, technology starts to consume him more than he could possibly have imagined.īetween the eerily clean setting and the way Tom Jackson Greaves convulses and floats around the room, this is a mind-warping experience. Imprisoned in his own home (with the padlock, curiously, on the inside of his bedroom door), the protagonist takes to the internet to connect with the outside world. A claustrophobic piece of physical theatre, Kneehigh‘s The Neon Shadow captures an incarcerating image of isolation.
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