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    The Lost Years: A Novel
    The Lost Years: A Novel
    The Lost Years: A Novel
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Lost Years: A Novel

    Written by Mary Higgins Clark

    Narrated by Jan Maxwell

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Now in mass market, the latest suspense from #1 New York Times bestselling author and Queen of Suspense Mary Higgins Clark, where a biblical scholar is found murdered shortly after discovering the most revered and holy document in human history, which has now gone missing...

    Dr. Jonathan Lyons, a seventy-year-old biblical scholar, believes he has found the rarest of parchments—a letter that may have been written by Jesus Christ. Stolen from the Vatican library in the fifteenth century, it was assumed to be lost forever. Under the promise of secrecy, Jonathan attempts to confirm his findings with several other biblical experts. But on the eve before his own murder, he confides to Father Aiden O’Brien, a family friend, that one of those whom he trusted most is determined to keep it from being returned to the Vatican.

    The next evening Jonathan Lyons is found shot to death in his New Jersey home. His daughter, twenty-seven year old Mariah, finds her father’s body sprawled over his desk in his study, a fatal bullet wound in the back of his neck, and her mother, Kathleen, an Alzheimer’s victim, hiding in the study closet, incoherent and clutching the murder weapon. The police suspect that Kathleen, who in her lucid moments knows that Jonathan was involved with a much younger woman Lily Stewart, has committed the murder.

    But Mariah believes that the key to her father’s death is tied to another question: Where is the missing parchment? Whom, among his close circle of friends, might he have consulted? And did one of them kill to keep possession of the letter?

    With all the elements that have made her a worldwide bestseller, Mary Higgins Clark’s The Lost Years is at once a breathless murder mystery and a hunt for what may be the most precious religious and archaeological treasure of all time.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateApr 3, 2012
    ISBN9781442348356
    The Lost Years: A Novel
    Author

    Mary Higgins Clark

    The #1 New York Times bestselling author Mary Higgins Clark wrote over forty suspense novels, four collections of short stories, a his­torical novel, a memoir, and two children’s books. With bestselling author Alafair Burke she wrote the Under Suspicion series including The Cinderella Murder, All Dressed in White, The Sleeping Beauty Killer, Every Breath You Take, You Don’t Own Me, and Piece of My Heart. With her daughter Carol Higgins Clark, she coauthored five suspense novels. More than one hundred million copies of her books are in print in the United States alone. Her books are international bestsellers.

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    Reviews for The Lost Years

    4/5

    220 ratings16 reviews

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    • 1/5
      DO NOT LISTEN TO IT!! Audio skips sections of the story!! The story is nice though but you have to guess the skipped sections which is annoying. After so many hours of patiently listening to the skipping story, it jump about 2hrs of the end of the book and finished without me realising how the story ends!! Aaargh

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This was sort of a “cozy”. Not gory or anything.
    • 3/5
      Best from my side thanks to the makers thanks again
    • 3/5
      Totally agree with the comments here is the best book I have
    • 1/5
      Predictable, repetitive and childish writing. Couldn’t engage at all but listened to the end. Reminded me of a poorly put together Father Brown, Midsummer’s Murders or Murder She Wrote.
    • 5/5
      A gripping Story of mystery and intrigue. So many twists and turns, never knowing what event will unfold next till the final pages.
      Loveable charactors feeling more familiar each step of the way.
      Who will be your favourite?
      A lovely lengthy book which has you turning the pages quickly whilst trying to figure out what lays beneath.
      I loved it.
      BREATHTAKING AND SPELLBINDING.
    • 3/5
      This wasn’t my favorite of MHC mysteries. I figured it out far quicker than usual. I found the main character a tad whiny when they are usually so brave in their tragedies.
    • 3/5
      The story was very thin and much of it pointless. Loved the narrator though please no more “irish” accents, I live in Ireland and have never heard one like that, it just sounded weird
    • 1/5
      Book's great, audio's terrible. Keeps skipping bits. Something wrong with the file. Fix please.
    • 5/5
      Excellent mystery! I loved be the characters in this suspenseful novel.
    • 4/5
      This was a pretty good tale spun by a veteran storyteller. The book starts out slow but quickly picks up in pace. It's nice to see old favorites like Alvirah and Willy Meehan. Clark does a good job keeping everyone's plates spinning and tying up all the loose ends.
    • 5/5
      Somehow I never read this gem by any Higgins Clark. Perhaps I skipped over it because one of the “ characters” is a religious parchment,. The story resolves around the mystery of missing said parchment, I thoroughly enjoyed it and wish there were more of her books that I hadn’t read. She was pretty much the creator of the modern mystery/suspense story with a shaker of romance on the top! Thank you MaryHiggins Clark for entertaining two generations of my family!
    • 4/5
      As usually Mary Higgins Clark keeps you guessing, she really is the queen of suspense. From the description I was afraid it would be different than her usual works (or too Dan Brown-y) but it wasn’t it was another great mystery/suspense and with the bonus of Alvirah who was not even mentioned in the synopsis which I don’t understand, I am a fan of Alvirah so was happy when her and Willie showed up!Yes there is a supposed letter/parchment written by Jesus but as I said it doesn’t go into a big church cover-up type story. When biblical scholar Jonathan is murdered, police think his wife, who has Alzheimer’s, is the culprit but where is this parchment and why are all Jonathan’s friends lying about it? Also Jonathan had a mistress what is her part in all this?This one had me guessing and second guessing all the way through, but that’s the beauty of MHC’s writing. As always she writes a good mystery. These are hard to review because you don’t want to spoil it for anyone and the way MCH always makes everyone a suspect I don’t want to say too much and give it way! Suffice it to say if you’re a fan of Mary Higgins Clark you’ll like it if you’ve never given her a chance she has a great selection of stand-alone books pick one you won’t be disappointed. I also highly recommend her books on audio with the majority of them read by Jan Maxwell.Jan Maxwell always does a great job on MCH’s books her narrations never get stale no matter how many Mary Higgins Clark’s books I’ve heard her narrate. I also just recently found out that Jan Maxwell and I went to the same high school so that was a little small world fun fact!4 Stars
    • 3/5
      Time for Mary Higgins Clark to stop writing. Her once unputadownable mysteries are nothing special. I feel like she has a formula and just plugs in some new details and creates a new novel. The Lost Years is a bit of this and a bit of that which amounts to zip, zero, nadda.My once guilty pleasure read of a Mary Higgins Clark mystery has come to an end. I am certainly glad that I borrowed the past 2 from the library and next time I'll pass on that idea too.
    • 4/5
      Read from March 30 to April 09, 2012Received for ReviewChallenges: AudiobookOverall Rating: 3.75Story Rating: 4.00Character Rating: 3.50Audio Rating: 4.00 (Not part of the overall rating)First Thought when Finished: The epilogue really helped tie everything together!What I Loved: I will admit that this is my first Mary Higgins Clark book and it won't be my last. I really enjoyed MHC's story telling ability. I loved how she took what seemed like an open/shut case and had enough twists/turns to make it interesting. Not a single character was just good or bad but full of shades of grey. That is always fun to read in a mystery. My favorite part was the lottery winning couple! They cracked me up at times!What I Liked: Mary Higgins Clark did a good job of weaving everyone's stories together in a way that made them connected but not necessarily friends. While there were times I questioned the motivation behind certain characters thoughts by the end I was convinced that they acted accordingly. The mystery itself was interesting enough but don't think it is like a wide sweeping DaVinci Code. This mystery is about a murder and I think you will enjoy it more if you remember that!What made me go huh?: I loved the lottery winning couple but I was amazed at often the police let them interfere. In the real world, I have a feeling the police would have put the hammer down on that pretty quickly.Audio Review: Jan Maxwell did an excellent job with the rhythm and pace of the story. I would listen to a book read by her again.Final Thoughts: This was a good murder mystery that was perfect for a weekend listen while working!
    • 1/5
      I hate to say this. Truly I do. But I really think that this is a terrible story. It truly breaks my heart because I love Ms. Higgins' but this was just not her best work. Sorry.