Mary Jane Clark When Day Breaks

When Day Breaks

Mary Jane Clark

Morrow, June 2007, $24.95, 336 pp.

ISBN 0061286079

Constance Young, the hostess of Key to America, is leaving for a better position at a rival network and almost everyone is glad to see her go. She has alienated everyone at work with her demands and petulant behavior and is worse to those in her personal life. Her sister resents her as the multimillionaire Constance refuses to help pay for the care of their mother rationalizing that mom lives in Faith's house instead of a nursing home. Her lover millionaire Stuart Whitaker stole an artifact from the Cloisters museum for her and when he asks for it back she refuses to give it to him.

When she arrives at her Westchester home, Constance goes swimming not realizing someone rigged her pool to electrocute her when a toaster is thrown into the water. The killer perfected this technique by practicing on a dog gotten from the pound. An arrest is made when the artifact which she was wearing on the day of the murder is found in her assistant Boyd's coat pocket; planted there by the clever killer. The man who gave the dog that was electrocuted to the killer is also murdered as is Constance's housekeeper who saw the killer. Eliza Blake, the anchor of Key's headline news, investigates the story and finds she is next on the murder's row.

Even though the victim comes across as a person with many enemies who had reasons to want her dead, the author makes it clear that nobody has the right to be judge, jury and executioner. She gets that point across through the actions and verbal asides of her characters. Mary Jane Clark provides an excellent gripping mystery that leaves readers wondering throughout who killed the odious Constance as suspects are everywhere.

Harriet Klausner