It was great! It had the perfecct balance of the two most important things: mystery, and suspence. You may like this book, or you may LOVE it, I happen to be one that loves it, it was cunning, and abouve all, smartly written. As a college student, I was scared to receive sleep that nite! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):) HI dad!

I like this author- but she jumps around with her charaters too much and it is easliy confusing.

This murder mystery is a fast paced and cleverly disguised journey. I was wrong in each instance along the way when, in my mind, I labeled one of the characters the likely perp and I just about covered them all.

In all honesty, before this I was not familiar with Clark's other titles or her name. I can guarantee you that will now change. She's my kind of author.

Mary Jane Clark's best suspense so far. I've never cared more about the people in a thriller. My heart was racing and aching for the boys. Loved, loved, loved this book.

While I enjoyed reading this book, all I could think of was the similarity in writing compared to Mary Higgins Clark novels. The herione, living in New York City, successful yet single. The characters were interesting and well developed and the story managed to captiavate my attention throughout the entire story. While this is the first novel I've read by MJC, I plan on reading her others as well. This book is definetly worth a read.

Mary Jane Clark has the gift to bring her characters to life. This is a story of a TV producer, Farrell Slater who is on her last leg of her career. Either she gets the story of a lifetime or she'll be at the unemployment line. She is sent on assignment to an auction house that is selling the famous Faberge egg "The Moon Egg'. The egg sells for a record 6 million dollars. Farrell soon discovers that the egg is a fake and she knows who has the real one. Soon people who are aware of this egg are dying. This could be the story Farrell needs to get her career back or it could be the story to end her life. I had fun trying to figure out who the "bad guy" was. Read this book and have fun with it.

DO YOU PROMISE NOT TO TELL is the second Mary Jane Clark novel that I've read in the past year or so and I have to tell you that I can't wait to read her next. I read a lot of mystery novels and what I enjoy about Clark's books is her ability to transend the usual mystery novel formula b.s. and tell a story of characters, who although they solve a mystery, are people with real life feelings and challenges. Clark draws us into the competitive workaday world of KEY NEWS with the story of Farrell Slater, who has a career that is actually going nowhere fast as we arrive on the scene. Not only does the plot pick up, but so does Farrell's insight and depth as a character as she explores the rareified air of the New York art world of Sotheby's and Christie's and the Russian enclave in Brooklyn as she overcomes numerous personal and professional obstacles. I won't give away the ending, but I will tell you that this book is a great read for anyone who enjoys intelligent, suspense fiction. I hope Clark keeps them coming!

By now y'all know Mary Higgins Clark is the ex-mother-in-law of our author here, Mary Jane Clark. Many speak to the similarities of style -- a dashing (and gorgeous wholesome single mom, young widow, and accomplished professional) leading lady who overcomes all odds; enough violence and suspense to entertain and befuddle; and a nice clean ending we can all feel good about. Well hopefully that could be said about many a good book. The differences I see are more interesting. First the venue -- set mostly in the surrounds of a major news network, midst the tribulations of the early morning shows and anchor broadcasts at night, we certainly get (ala the movie "Network News") plenty of up close looks at the pressured lives on the news set. In the best tradition of write about what you know about, MJ speaks from personal experience as a producer and writer for CBS News. Indeed, Dan Rather gets a cameo mention in the story, as he does in the acknowledgments up front for his encouragement to the author. I just hope the romances reported among many co-workers aren't quite that prevalent, although as we know, propinquity is a powerful force (said Zelda to Dobie...).

Second, we get a pretty good story line. The first shocker is the apparent suicide of a famous anchor, followed thereafter (but paced well) by the murders of his doctor and his secretary. Even the most dense of us realize the connections, though the trained newshounds seemed to miss it. A big surprise at the end serves up a murderer I dare say few suspected more than a page or two before the unveiling, so high marks for suspense.

Third, and of course not as welcome, we do get an awful lot of characters, relationships, AIDS pleas, disease causes, snippets of events, changes in scenery, etc.; to me, all that clutter gets a little tiresome. Certain loose ends never do get wrapped up, and I'm not even sure that a major subplot, the campaign machinations of a presidential candidate, really advanced the basic story line that well. I also personally disliked chopping the book up into 141 (!) chapters - do the math, they span 302 pages, so that's like two pages each. And the last 35 span only 25 pages, so we're down to barely more than the "sound bites" so lovingly quoted throughout.

So - for her first outing (of four to date), not bad. Clean things up, simplify a little, give us a little longer reading stretch with out raising and lowering the curtain a hundred times, and we might have something here. I'll at least move on to number 2 - "Do you promise not to tell?". And you?

Eliza Blake, tv anchorwoman , is grieving over the death of her husband when her news partner, Bill Kendall, is found dead, apparently a suicide..........or was it???? Everyone has secrets to hide in this book, and the author knows how to play with our emotions..........I found this to be a realistic and exciting read, packed with twists and surprises....reminiscent of her (ex) mother-in-law, the great Mary Higgins Clark! Enjoy yourself with this one....she's an author to watch for!!

Mary Jane Clark's intelligent mystery novel gives the reader the inside scoop on the on the high stakes network news game. This was a book that I couldn't put down. Her heroes and villains alike are both believable and compelling. Certainly one of my best new mystery purchases, I couldn't stop reading until I had finished this book.

La protagonista de este misterio es una abogada de la fiscalía, recién enviudada, y bien simpática. Ella tiene que enfrentar su "sueño" de una mujer muerta, la pérdida de una conocida dulce, y problemas de la salud, mientras intenta resolver una investigación. La marcha acelerada de esta novela mantiene el interés. Los caracteres son bien desarrollados y distintos. Hay de todo - los atentos, los rectos, los prepotentes, y los verdaderos peligrosos. ¡Una historia magnifica y un libro bien escrito!

Naked Came The Phoenix was a book selection for two of my local reading groups because we were intrigued by its unusual format. Twelve bestselling mystery and suspense author joined together to contribute a chapter to this murder-mystery, soap-opera. The catch? Each other must pick up where the last left off and continue the story using the same cast of characters, all of who get zanier as the story progresses.

The opening chapter written by Nevada Barr sets up the story and, in my opinion, was the driest, dullest entry in the entire book. It's here that the lifeless main characters are introduced (luckily they don't stay that way!). After the recent death of her father, Caroline, wife of a big shot Congressman, agrees to spend some quality bonding time with her difficult mother at a high-end health spa. Caroline's fellow guests at the spa include an aging rock legend, a quirky psychic, a starving model and loads of other oddballs and Hollywood "it" types.

After the sloooow start, JD Robb picks up the tempo in chapter two. She breaths life into Caroline's character by bringing her down to earth in a funny little adventure brought about by hunger. She also adds a hunky pool-boy to the ever growing list of characters and kicks things into high gear by killing off the snooty spa owner!

Things get silly as each character seems to harbor some dirty secret and the murder count becomes ridiculously high as each author adds their own little twists and turns to the story and attempts to pick up where the previous author left off. A friend of mine described the characters as "manic depressives" and she was right on. Each character switches moods and personalities from chapter to chapter which only added to the sense of fun. Eventually, all dangling threads and over-the-top plot twists were neatly brought together by author Laurie King.

I'd read another book like Naked Came The Phoenix for the fun factor alone. But would I read this one again? Umm, probably not.

"Naked Came the Phoenix" is a serial novel written by 13 top female mystery writers and it is a whole lot of fun! I was impressed at how well the chapters flowed together, and became totally absorbed in this soap opera-like mystery. "Naked Came the Phoenix" is not a serious murder mystery, and it's not supposed to be. What it is, is an immensely enjoyable tale filled with twists and turns and outlandish characters that was created for a very good cause.

The story revolves around Caroline Blessing, a congressman's wife and cellist, who has taken a trip with her very difficult and newly widowed mother, Hilda Finch, to the exclusive Phoenix Spa in Virginia. Caroline hopes that their time at Phoenix Spa will give her mother and herself a chance to heal after her father's death, and maybe even a chance to bond. Unfortunately, Caroline's dreams of a relaxing and healing vacation go up in smoke when the spa's owner, Claudia De Vries, is found murdered in one of her own mud baths!

Caroline realizes that everyone at the spa is a potential suspect and a potential victim. The spa's guests include a model-waif and her manager, an aging rock star, a short and stout grey-haired psychic, a dried-up Hollywood producer, and a beautiful and successful actress. They all have their own hidden connections to Claudia and secrets aplenty. Not to mention Claudia's own husband, the half-naked pool-boy, and the rest of the spa's staff. Everyone has something to hide, and these 13 talented authors take us along on a fast-paced and thrilling mystery filled with strange clues, red herrings, blackmail, and incest.

And when more people start turning up dead, the very likable police detective, Vince Toscana, goes into overdrive trying to find the culprit. Not only is Caroline overwhelmed by what's going on around her, but she also must deal with some crushing news about her supposedly devoted husband Douglas. Caroline resolves to take her life back into her own hands and find out what's really going on, but there is nothing that can prepare her for the staggering truth behind the murders!

"Naked Came the Phoenix" is an outrageous and exciting murder mystery that is sure to entertain. I found the first chapter, by Nevada Barr, a bit tough to wade through, but after that every other author was great. This book is just good clean fun, and if you read it with that in mind, I have no doubt that you will enjoy it enormously.

Naked Came the Phoenix is a riot from beginning to end! When Caroline and her mother visit the Phoenix Spa in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, they expect rest and relaxation, but soon after their arrival, the spa's owner is found dead in the mud baths and the "fun" begins! Thirteen popular mystery writers take the reader on a roller-coaster ride of murder, mayhem and mirth. What fun to watch one author plant a clue then lean back, rub her hands together and wait to see what the next author does with it! Kudos to Nevada Barr for introducing us to the cast of supporting characters -- King David, the aged rocker; Ondine, the wrath-like model; Howie Fondulac, the has-been Hollywood producer; Lauren Sullivan, the movie star; and my particular favorite, Phyllis Talmadge, the psychic who's at the spa touting her latest book, Flex Your Psychic Muscles! Brava, Lisa Scottoline for giving us detective Vince Toscana, who "retired" to rural Virginia to please his wife, but wants nothing more than to sink his teeth into a Philly cheese steak, and, oh, by-the-way, solve the murders. Wheee, to JA Jance who drowns a victim in the lake and to Faye Kellerman, who knew CPR! Ka-pow, to Diana Gabaldon who really knows how to throw the reader a curve. Ye-gads, to Val McDermid who gives new meaning to the word "incarnadine". Wow, to the amazing Laurie King, who ties up all the loose ends with delicious tongue-in-cheek humor. And, thank you, Marcia Talley who sewed the patchwork together into one, seamless novel and is a heck of a writer, too!! All I can say is, "Encore"!!

With Close To You, Mary Jane Clark has an interesting premise but turns it into a disappointing novel. At under 300 pages, it's is certainly a quick read, but Clark fails to deliver genuine suspense. The so called "thrilling" sequences in the book are much too short, barely giving the reader time to think about what's going on. On top of this, the novel is quite predictable. Anyone with half a brain could figure out the identity of the killer within thirty pages.

One could forgive the predictability if the characters were well developed, but unfortunately, Ms. Clark didn't do this either. Other than the novel's heroine, we don't get much of a backstory for any character.

Mary Jane Clark has a long way to go before she can join the ranks of the great suspense novelists, such as James Patterson and John Sandford. All and all, you could easily find something worse to read than Close To You, but the real question is, why would you waste your time with it when there are so many better books out there?

We've felt the same way after all four of M.J. Clark's four novels of mystery and suspense set in the interesting venue of "Key News", no doubt a knock-off of CBS News where our author toils in real life. Her stories are invariably entertaining and suspenseful, even though her female leading characters verge on Wonder Women. And one eventually gets used to her one- and two-page (or less!) chapter lengths. But we really don't need three main plots and three sub-plots in one fairly short novel, much less the several dozen characters it takes to populate all those mini-stories.

The tale this time is about Eliza Blake, reprised from Clark's first novel "Do You Want to Know a Secret?", who now anchors the evening news broadcast. Two or more viewers, not to mention some of her co-workers, are taking way too much interest in Blake, leading to three variations of a stalking problem, two different male romances gone awry, and one potential female liaison thrown in for good measure! As before, Eliza is so perfect it's clear she's Clark's vision of a modern, progressive, gorgeous, single female parent on the pedestal personified, which gets just a little tiresome after a while. But even more tiresome is the seemingly endless cast of characters and plot details that only sap strength from the main story.

We've complained loudly about this same "clutter" in MJ's three earlier works. We guess there's just no recourse but too quit now before we invest any more time in an author who otherwise has tremendous potential. Can't an editor do something here?

Close to You is a universally satisfying novel. It has a strong sense of mystery but also touches on comedy and romance. Eliza Blake is living a nearly utopian life until she decides to move out of the city. Not only is she stalked by a shady bartender, but trouble is sitrred up in the Key Newsroom by her co-workers. Attempting to keep herself and her daughter, Janie, safe, she is reunited with the past she tried to forget. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good read.

Ms Clark is a producer and writer for CBS News. The news on TV has become a vehicle for advertising; perhaps this is where the author got her idea that advertisements should be generously sprinkled throughout the book. She devotes two pages plugging glass ornaments by Christopher Radko. FAO Schwarz gets three pages. Jaguar and Range Rovers get honorable mention. Various restaurants get plugs. Cookbooks, magazines and TV shows are also well represented. One character is murdered wearing a Pashmina shawl. Liquor is not generic, only Glenlivet, Dom Perignon, Veuve Clicquot and, the common touch, Budweiser. The blurbs go on and on.

The sad thing is that the book is otherwise interesting. The writing, while not of Pulitzer quality, is good. Perhaps in future books Ms Clark will imagine herself working for PBS and can the commercials.

Oh my God, Mary Jane Clark did it again, and this time its better than before. Her latest novel "Let Me Whisper In Your Ear" is true to its media thriller genre. Mary Jane Clark had me hooked from the first page to the last. She is so good with the whodunit's that she had me guessing all the way to end, and even then I was shocked to find out who it was. Her writing is so clear and easy to read, you get hooked on the characters and you get to know what goes on behind the scenes of the television world. She has got the media world down packed. You have got to get this book its too good not to. Also read her two prior books, "Do You Want To Know A Secret" and "Do You Promise Not to Tell," for more info on them check out her website www.MaryJaneClark.com, that's how I found out about them or just read what the other amazon customers have written about them. I really think she is definitely the Next Big Thing...

This book was read in just a couple of hours. It was too interesting to put down! All the characters were very real and I loved the way Mary Jane Clark describes different things! I'm currently reading her second book - should be done shortly! I'm on the waiting list for Book #1. I hope her fourth book is out soon! I also like the fact that you don't have to read these books in any particular order - they're all great!