Mary Higgins Clark, also known as the “Queen of Suspense” thanks to her substantial output as a crime and mystery novelist, has died at the age of 92. Her publisher Simon & Schuster confirmed the news in a social media statement, saying that she “passed away peacefully” on January 31 “surrounded by family and friends.” The cause of death was described as “complications of old age.” Starting with the publication of her first suspense novel Where Are the Children? in 1975, each of Clark’s 56 fiction books — which were deliberately devoid of profanity, sex, or extreme violence — have become subsequent bestsellers, with more than 100 million copies of her books sold in America alone. Clark, whose most recent book was published last November, has said that she most enjoys writing about “nice people whose lives are invaded,” or rather, work that makes the reader think: “This could be me. That could be my daughter. This could happen to us.” She’s survived by five children and six grandchildren.
