Daddy's Little Girl

When Ellie Cavanaugh's fifteen-year-old sister, Andrea, was killed close to their Westchester County, New York, home in the sleepy town of Oldham-on-the-Hudson, she was only seven years old. Three people were suspected: Will Nebels, a forty-year-old neighborhood handyman; Rob Westerfield, a nineteen-year-old scion of a rich, distinguished family, whom Andrea had been secretly courting; and Paul Stroebel, a sixteen-year-old schoolmate.

Ellie was the one who had taken her parents to the hidden hideout where Andrea's corpse was discovered and where she had also met her pals. And Ellie's parents held her accountable for her sister's death since she failed to alert them to this location on the evening that Andrea vanished. Ellie's evidence also contributed to the conviction of the guy she was certain was the murderer. He was imprisoned for the next twenty-two years while adamantly rejecting any culpability.

Ellie, an investigative writer for an Atlanta daily, objects to his release when it comes time for him to be considered for parole. However, the murderer who was found guilty gets freed and goes back to Oldham. Ellie goes to Oldham as well, determined to stop him from trying to clear his name by building a website and writing a book that would unquestionably demonstrate his guilt. But as she digs more into her investigation, she finds shocking previously undiscovered information that throws fresh light on her sister's death. She is getting closer to confronting a desperate murderer with every revelation.

Mary Higgins Clark's depiction of a family torn by murder in Daddy's Little Girl is gripping and unrelentingly intriguing. It is another example of her remarkable insight into the warped mind of a killer, and it further demonstrates why she is America's favorite mystery writer.