Anastasia Syndrome and Other Stories by Mary Higgins Clark
First published on January 1989 by Pocket Books
Genre: Suspense, Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 308
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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In the short novel The Anastasia Syndrome, prominent historical writer Judith Chase is living in London and preparing for her marriage to Sir Stephen Hallett, expected to become England’s next Prime Minister. Orphaned during World War II, Judith wants to trace her origins. In this quest, she goes to a renowned psychiatrist and becomes the victim of his experiments in regression. When a woman in a dark green cape sets off bombs in London, Sir Stephen and Judith are faced with an intangible, mysterious force threatening their very existence.
Obsessive love is the subject of Terror Stalks the Class Reunion; psychic contact with a dead twin sister is the only defense against a murder in Double Vision; Lucky Day, compared to O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi, begins premonition of imminent danger; in The Lost Angel, mother follows her intuition in a harrowing search for her missing child.
Review
I took a break from Suspense books, specifically MHC’s books for two months or maybe three? Hehehe, I’m not quite sure, but what I am really sure is that I’m now finally back! And what about this book? Well, it’s actually just a short read. But beware, for it contains FIVE short stories. I caps locked the five for emphasis 😉 Unbelievable eh? I just said it’s short read, so how come it contains five stories aight? Well, maybe it’s high time for you to read it and find out for yourself. 😛
I’m going to make my review one by one starting with the first short story for you to have an idea on why I only lit those three stars above.
ANASTASIA SYNDROME:
Actually, the main reason why it took me almost four days to finish this book is because of its starting story, which is the Anastasia Syndrome. You may be asking me why? It’s because it started really dull, that it took me a lot of courage to continue reading and setting aside my yawning. Sorry idol, but that’s what this book did to me. And also, I noticed that MHC used words that would actually require you to have a dictionary. Very unusual for most of her other books uses very easy to understand words.
This is really different from MHC’s other books that I have read. Why’s it different? It’s because of the setting. Mostly, her book’s setting is in America, but this one is in the UK. And also, the main character is not her typical character which is a young woman in her twenties, but this one features a forty-year old widow. And mind you, she’s a writer, a history writer to be exact. Actually, this is my first time to encounter such a character from MHC’s books. And speaking of character, I am really sure that Commander Sloane came out to her previous book, but couldn’t really remember what book it was.
The plot is really intriguing. But what’s most intriguing is the ending!
TERROR STALKS THE CLASS REUNION
This one’s different from the first story, for the thrill is already visible in its first chapter. It was also quite typical for me since it was all about kidnapping. This obsessive student kidnapped his former teacher and forced her to marry him. Very typical eh?
This story surprisingly uses very easy to understand terms unlike the first story. The ending is quite predictable. And I must say that there’s nothing really special in this short story.
LUCKY DAY
This is really my most unforgettable and also my favorite short story in this book. It involves trust and how you could do some unusual things because of love. The “who done it” part is present in this story though it’s not the same with her other books wherein it would really take you a lot of time and effort to pin-point the perpetrator. I am really shy to share that even if how short this story was, MHC still managed to make my guess wrong. Urgh!
The ending is really remarkable. Hahaha. I really laughed my heart out while at the same time felt dismayed and sorry for what the female main character did. You should really read it.
DOUBLE VISION
This one talks about revenge. The “who done it” part is not visible in this story. So there’s really no guessing involved. Though the story is really quite touching, for it involves sisterhood. I don’t have any complaints in this story. All the scenes stick up together.
THE LOST ANGEL
This story talks about a mother’s love for her child. I really think it’s somewhat similar to her other holiday stories for the setting is the white Christmas in New York. The story was quite ok, but the child’s character is really difficult to imagine. A four year old memorizes a phone number and their address, wandering to an unfamiliar place on her own, and the unbelievable good memory of the child. Damn! That’s really hard to picture out. But overall, the story still rendered a bit of suspense. So it wasn’t really that bad.
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