It Had To Be You: The thrilling new novel from the bestselling Queens of Suspense

I'm not sure if Clark and Burke had started this before her passing, but this had all the earmarks of Clark's best work. As has been my custom for decades in April, I have read her newest release(usually in April) from front to back almost without stopping. This one was no exception. I can't say I didn't have a clue whodunit because I had too many clues to make multiple suspects viable! Unlike her other books before this series with Burke, we didn't get multiple perspectives as a pattern, but following mainly Laura's viewpoint, we got our info in real time so we were solving the mystery with Laura. I was so sad when MHC passed - she has been my favorite author since Where are the Children? But I think Burke is ready to have the torch passed on to him. Now I just hope to see Carol Higgins Clark write again as she truly is her mother's daughter and every bit as delightful to read!

"It Had To Be You," is the eighth installment in the "Under Suspicion" Series by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke. (MHC wrote the first book in 2014 before she was joined later that year by Alafair Burke.) I feel quite fortunate as a reader that whatever legal arrangements necessary were made for Alafair Burke to keep writing this series under both their names after MHC died in 2020.

I've found that reading a series in order works best for me, but MHC and Alafair Burke have mastered the art of referring to characters from previous books in a way that explains their relationship to the people in the current action without giving away the plot of the older books. Indeed, such references always made me want to go back and find the previous book if I had not already read it. My point is that no reader should be deterred from starting this series with Book Number 8, but I'll be surprised if it doesn't make them want to go back to the previous books to see how the important relationships developed over time.

That said, "It Had To Be You," was another thriller. Protagonist Laurie Moran headed up the production team of the television series, "Under Suspicion," which tackled cold cases that were never solved, leaving one or more possibly innocent people convicted in the court of popular opinion and in the minds of friends, family, potential employers and the community as a whole. Ms. Moran sought out those who might like to have their names cleared by the show's investigators. In this book, twin brothers were suspected of having killed their parents, either together or separately. Both brothers claimed the other did it, and the only person close to being an eyewitness couldn't be sure which brother he saw in the vicinity close to the time of the crime. The brothers would have nothing to do with each other and neither really wanted to examine the ten-year-old case for fear of opening old wounds. Their younger sister talked them into it, anyway. She, of course, was firmly convinced that both brothers were innocent and was relying on Laurie to prove it.

Laurie and her team followed all old leads and discovered ones that had been ignored once the original investigators settled on the twins as the only people who knew the codes to the security gate and to the family home, who knew the security cameras weren't working, who drove a very recognizable vehicle, and whose presence wouldn't have invoked the wrath of the family's dog. As Laurie and her team challenged the accuracy of the key eyewitness, other possibilities emerged, but none stronger than the case against the brothers. The ending couldn't have been a bigger surprise or more satisfying. I am hopeful that the Under Suspicion Series will continue!

The two identical brothers seemed perfect in every way—handsome, intelligent, popular—until a shocking summer night when one brother killed his parents in cold blood while the other brother had an iron-clad alibi. But which twin was where during the murders? And is it possible the two of them planned the perfect crime together?

Years later, the twins are long estranged, each of them claiming to be convinced that the other is responsible for the death of their parents. Married now with children of their own, they may finally be ready to clear one name at the expense of the other and turn to Laurie Moran and her team to reinvestigate their parents’ murder. But as the Under Suspicion crew gets closer to the truth, the danger that was assumed to be left in the past finds its way into the present.

My Thoughts:

In another great tale from the Under Suspicion team, It Had To Be You opens with Laurie Moran planning how to dig into the suspense of an unsolved murder.

Can she follow the clues untapped in the decade before to solve the case? Will the twins be cleared of the murder?

I enjoyed following Laurie’s search into still another great mystery. 5 stars.