Author's faith shows up in her novels

"Queen of suspense" Mary Higgins Clark can't help it that her books are about nice Irish Catholic women. It's what she knows.

When asked by The Evangelist how she would like people to think of her, she said: "A nice Irish Catholic girl from the Bronx who is a good story-teller."

Ms. Clark drew more than 400 people to Saratoga's Reading Room last week for the third annual Saratoga Gala to benefit Albany's Teresian House, a nursing home run by the Carmelite Sisters of the Aged and Infirm. She received the first annual Carmelite Lifetime Achievement Award for her work at a Carmelite nursing home in New York City. Bishop Howard J. Hubbard was also recognized for his 20 years as bishop of Albany at the event.

Shaped by faith

Ms. Clark explained that since Catholicism is a part of her life, it also is a part of her work.

"We are shaped by our education and the way we are raised," she said. "I was raised in a Catholic house, attended Catholic school and grew up with Catholic traditions. Surely, I'm shaped by the Catholic Christian perspective."

The best-selling author of mystery and suspense books said she cannot separate her faith from the rest of her life. "I am a devout Catholic," she said. "I think faith is so connected to my work."

Indeed, it is common for her characters to attend Mass, and there is never any profanity or sex in her plots. Her latest heroine, in the recently released "Pretend You Don't See Her," faces inner conflict because she is forced to lie while in the Witness Protection Program.

Commitment to Church

Ms. Clark's received the Carmelite Lifetime Achievement Award for her involvement with St. Patrick's Home, a Carmelite nursing home in New York City. Her other Church commitments include serving on the board of Catholic Community Services of the Archdiocese of Newark, the Board of Trustees for Fordham University, the board of St. Peter's College, and the Archdiocese of New York's Christmas Angel Appeal.

"I speak for a number of hospitals as well," she said. "I can't help every charity; but if my appearing helps, I try."

Ms. Clark is also a Dame of St. Gregory the Great, a papal honor; a Dame of Malta; and a Dame of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem.

Lifelong writer

Writing is what Ms. Clark has always wanted to do. "I've been writing ever since I could hold a pen," she said.

While she met with rejection in the beginning of her career -- it took six years and 40 rejection slips before she sold her first story -- she took comfort in encouragement she received as a child.

"I'm a product of Catholic education," she reported. "I was encouraged by the nuns. They'd say `You're a good writer.' I remember them saying, `You're a good story-teller.'"

Going to work

Ms. Clark was widowed and left alone to raise her five children when her husband Warren Clark died from a heart attack in 1964. To support her family, she wrote radio scripts but also decided to write books. She awoke at 5 a.m. to work at the kitchen table before getting her children ready for school.

While she has frightened many a reader, she has also scared herself.

"When the children were little and were sleeping upstairs, I made the dog come down and sit with me," she said of one time when she was frightened by her own work. "The happiest moment of life is when I scare myself. Then I know I'm doing a good job."

Faith in work

While she is known for her mystery writing, Ms. Clark has written other stories as well. Her first two published stories appeared in Extension Magazine (published by the Catholic Church Extension Society), and she has had stories published in St. Anthony's Messenger.

In a time when sex and profanity sell in the media, Ms. Clark's work has shown that Christian values can sell as well. On the best-seller list since 1975 when her first novel, "Where are the Children?" was released, she has had 18 best sellers. She recently signed a three-book contract for $12 million a book with Simon & Schuster.

"My books are always moral," she told the Evangelist. "I write about nice people -- people you'd want your daughters to be friends with."

Making a difference

When asked what role her faith has played in her life and work, Ms. Clark said, "It has made all of the difference. It played a very strong role."

She explained that a series of tragedies early in her life and her mother's example taught her to rely on her faith. Her father died when she was ten, leaving her mother to struggle financially to raise Ms. Clark and her two brothers. When her older brother died at 18, Ms. Clark reported her mother said, "God wanted him even more than I did."

Of her Catholic upbringing, the author said, "We were taught compassion. We were taught there would be sorrow and then joy."

(Mary Higgins Clark's latest book, "Pretend You Don't See Her" is available through Simon & Schuster for $25. For more information visit Simon & Schuster on the web at http://www.SimonSays.com. Proceeds from the Saratoga fundraiser will go toward Teresian House's $1.5 million capital campaign to offset the costs of the current building project. The nursing home is adding a 102-room wing and renovating the existing 300-bed facility. For more information on Teresian House, call 456-2000.)

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