The Lost Years

The Queen of Suspense is back with a tale of religious intrigue...

When Mariah Lyons calls upon Dr. Richard Callahan, a world-respected biblical scholar, to show him a letter left to her by her late father, a distinguished professor of ancient history, containing a translation from a 2,000-year-old papyrus scroll, he is astonished by the text, then awestruck when she shows him a dusty clay jar and a fragile fragment of papyrus on which he recognizes the name of Jesus, son of Joseph, of the House of David. Mariah has placed in his hands a fragment of a letter in Christ's own writing, and more than that, a pivotal letter in Christ’s life.

But the rest of the scroll has vanished, and Mariah is aware that somebody else out there has heard of its existence, and is searching for it. Hoping to find some answers to her questions, she visits her father’s his ex-mistress Jennie Griffin, who is in prison for having murdered him. Unrepentant and coming up for a parole hearing, Griffin refuses to help her.

Then her family’s summer home is broken into and savagely trashed by someone who is clearly searching for something – obviously, the missing letter.

Step by step, Mariah’s quest for the papyrus scroll her father brought home from Egypt, a scroll he should never have taken in the first place, takes her deeper and deeper into danger. Does Griffin know the person who is hunting down this invaluable object? Do any of the others who accompanied her father and Griffin to Egypt have a clue to its whereabouts?

Mariah, with Dr. Callahan’s help, is drawn into the search for the scroll, the very existence of which might change the world – and for which somebody close to her would kill to possess.

With all the elements that have made her a worldwide bestseller, Mary Higgins Clark’s THE LOST YEARS is unputdownable reading, a thriller that is at once a breathless mystery and a hunt for the most precious religious and archeological treasure of all time.

About The Author:

The Queen of Suspense, Bronx-born and -bred Mary Higgins Clark has achieved international success against heavy odds. Her father died when she was 11, and her mother struggled to raise and provide for Mary and her two brothers. Clark attended secretarial school after high school and worked for three years in an advertising agency before leaving to become a stewardess for Pan American Airlines. Throughout 1949, she flew international flights to Europe, Africa, and Asia. " I was in a revolution in Syria and on the last flight into Czechoslovakia before the Iron Curtain went down," she recalls. In 1950, she quit her job to marry Warren Clark, a neighbor nine years her senior whom she had known and admired since she was 16.

In the early years of her marriage, Clark began writing short stories, making her first sale in 1956 to Extension Magazine. Between writing and raising a family, the decade flew by. Then, in 1964, Warren Clark suffered a fatal heart attack, leaving his young...

Name:Mary Higgins Clark

Current Home:Saddle River, New Jersey and New York, New York

Date of Birth:December 24, 1929

Place of Birth:New York, New York

Education:New York University; B.A., Fordham University, 1979

* Mary Higgins Clark's official web site

Biography

The Queen of Suspense, Bronx-born and -bred Mary Higgins Clark has achieved international success against heavy odds. Her father died when she was 11, and her mother struggled to raise and provide for Mary and her two brothers. Clark attended secretarial school after high school and worked for three years in an advertising agency before leaving to become a stewardess for Pan American Airlines. Throughout 1949, she flew international flights to Europe, Africa, and Asia. " I was in a revolution in Syria and on the last flight into Czechoslovakia before the Iron Curtain went down," she recalls. In 1950, she quit her job to marry Warren Clark, a neighbor nine years her senior whom she had known and admired since she was 16.

In the early years of her marriage, Clark began writing short stories, making her first sale in 1956 to Extension Magazine. Between writing and raising a family, the decade flew by. Then, in 1964, Warren Clark suffered a fatal heart attack, leaving his young widow with five children to support. She went to work writing radio scripts; and, around this time, she decided to try her hand at writing books. Inspired by a radio series she was working on, she drafted a biographical novel about George Washington. It was published in 1969 under the title Aspire to the Heavens. (In 2002, it was re-issued as Mount Vernon Love Story.) Her first suspense novel, Where Are the Children?, appeared in print in 1975. It was a huge hit and marked a turning point in her life. Since then, she has developed a loyal fan base, and each of her novels has hit the bestseller lists. She has also co-written stories and novels with her daughter Carol, a successful author in her own right.

In the 1970s, Clark enrolled in Fordham University at Lincoln Center, graduating summa cum laude in 1979. A great supporter of education, she has served as a trustee of her alma mater and Providence College and holds numerous honorary degrees. She remains active in Catholic affairs and has been honored with many awards. Her publisher, Simon & Schuster, funds an annual award in her name to be given to authors of suspense fiction writing in the Mary Higgins Clark tradition.