Still sorting out the pile of books here.
My finding so far is that Mary Higgins Clark is a terrible writer. Every time I read a page to see what the story might be like, I was rolling my eyes so hard in every one of her books. Cliche sentences, ridiculously attractive people and even describing them in detail like that, ridiculous scenes. She'd be a great writer for C-movies, she's too cringe even for B-movies.
I cannot claim that my mother has good taste.