I’ve Got You Under My Skin (Under Suspicion #1) by Mary Higgins Clark

Synopsis

“When Laurie Moran’s husband was brutally murdered, only three-year-old Timmy saw the face of his father’s killer. Five years later his piercing blue eyes still haunt Timmy’s dreams. Laurie is haunted by more: the killer’s threat to her son as he fled the scene: Tell your mother she’s next, then it’s your turn . .

Now Laurie is dealing with murder again, this time as the producer of a true-crime, cold-case television show. The series will launch with the twenty-year-old unsolved murder of Betsy Powell. Betsy, a socialite, was found suffocated in her bed after a gala celebrating the graduation of her daughter and three friends. The sensational murder was news nationwide. Reopening the case in its lavish setting and with the cooperation of the surviving guests that night, Laurie is sure to have a hit on her hands. But when the estranged friends begin filming, it becomes clear each is hiding secrets . . . small and large.

And a pair of blue eyes is watching events unfold, too . . .”

-Synopsis from Goodreads

Review

I’ve Got You Under My Skin by Mary Higgins Clark is the first book in the Under Suspicion series. The subsequent books in the series are co-authored with none other than Alafair Burke, whose most recent book, The Better Sister, came out this past spring. They are both excellent storytellers and I’m going to predict they make a fantastic duo going forward with this series.

There is a wide net of suspects in I’ve Got You Under My Skin, and they all have a motive for wanting Betsy Powell dead. The primary suspects are her daughter and her three friends. Laurie Moran contacts each of the women and asks them to participate on the show, while Betsy’s widow, Robert Powell, persuades them with quite a bit of money. None of the women are in a position to turn down such a significant financial offer, so they reluctantly travel home and gather back at the house where everything happened twenty years ago.

As the show begins filming, Laurie and her assistants pay close attention to how the women interact with one another both on and off camera. They interview them individually to try to get a sense of their relationship with Betsy, and what their motive might have been, if any, to have her gone. Meanwhile, Laurie’s father, a retired police officer, is doing detective work of his own behind Laurie’s back. He has a hunch that the infamous Blue Eyes from their past is going to do something while she is away filming and her son is at camp. He enlists the help of the local police in the town where Laurie is filming to set up as much security as possible. The only problem is, they have no way of knowing who Blue Eyes will try to attack first: Laurie or her son.

A couple years ago I read a book of short stories by Mary Higgins Clark and one in particular called Definitely, A Crime of Passion went through my mind while I was reading this book. I ended up being able to guess “who did it” based on this short story alone. That certainly didn’t ruin anything for me, as there was plenty of other action happening at the end to make for a few surprises. As with all of Mary Higgins Clark’s other books, there was plenty of suspense throughout, and the ending was tied up nicely with a satisfying epilogue afterward.

I will definitely be reading the rest of the books in this series!