I had never read any Mary Higgins Clark before but I noticed in going to the public library that she has written many books and after reading No Place Like Home I can understand why she is so widely published and read. This book had me guessing up until the very end.
In this book you find that Celia Nolan has a dark past. Her birth name was Liza Barton. Liza's father died in a horse riding accident and her mother later remarries a man named Ted Cartwright. Liza never warms up to Cartwright and when the marriage began to crumble he blamed Liza. One night Liza awakens to hear her mother and Ted fighting. Liza remembers how afraid of Cartwright her mother had seemed lately. Liza goes to where she knows her mother has a gun hidden. When she enters the room Ted is grabbing her mother. Liza demands he release her mother. Ted shoves Liza's mother toward her and the gun goes off accidentally killing her. Ted then starts toward Liza and she opens fire on him. She does not kill her stepfather but the events of this night will forever change the life of this ten year old girl.
During the trial Ted tries to portray Liza as a cold blooded killer who knew what she was doing. One of the neighbors, Marcella Williams supports Ted's portrayal in court. Eventually the shooting will be ruled an accident and Liza is adopted by some distant relatives and changes her name to Celia.
Celia marries Laurence Foster and has a son named Jack. Her husband becomes ill and makes Celia promise to never tell about her past because of what it would do to their child. Later she remarries a cousin of her late husband, Alex Nolan.
Alex has a surprise for Celia's birthday. They were looking to buy a larger home. Unknown to Celia Alex purchases the home in which she accidentally killed her mother as a child. When they get to the new house someone has splashed red paint all over the house and had written LITTLE LIZZIE'S PLACE BEWARE! They had also carved a skill and crossbones on the front door with Liza Barton's initials in the eyes of the skulls. All this is too much for Celia and she collapses. The next morning she finds a picture of Liza and her parents taped up in the barn. It becomes clear someone is trying to send her message. Has someone discovered who she really is?
The real estate agent who sold the home to Alex, Georgette Grove was not entirely truthful in the home's past and is afraid of losing the sale. She offers to show Celia some more homes in the area and fore go her commission. When Celia goes out to a lovely farm house to meet Georgette she finds her dead in the house. The murder weapon is laying in a stain of red paint. The same red paint which was used to vandalize the house. Celia freaks out and leaves and goes straight home before calling the police. This makes her look suspicious to the police because she got back home very quickly. Either she is lying about what time she found the body or she knew where she was going. It becomes clear to Celia that someone is trying to set her up.
She goes on a mission to clear herself of these murders and the death of her mother. She begins digging into the past. She found out that her mother had dated Ted Cartwright before her father and they had even been engaged. The author leads you to believe that Ted is behind the deaths. Eventually it is discovered a local yard/maintenance man named Charley Hatch vandalized the house. He got paint on his shoes and paints and this is discovered by a detective on the case. Before he can be questioned Charley is found dead. Celia just happened to be passing through the area around the time of the death further making her look guilty.
Celia starts taking riding lessons from the same man who gave her father riding lessons so many years before. She begins asking questions about the accident in which her father died. She offers to pay Zach Willet $1,000,000 for the truth. He tells Celia that Ted Cartwright had been on the trail the day her father died. Her father was afraid of horses and very little control of his horse. Cartwright fired a gun and spooked the horse. The horse and Will Barton went tumbling down the cliff to their death. Willet said he had proof of all of this. Celia made an appointment to meet with him later that evening. When she went to meet him, Willet was dead in his car.
While Celia is doing all this research to clear her name, a reporter has discovered her true identity. She takes this information to Jeffrey MacKingsley the prosecutor for the county. Normally the prosecutor does not work with the media but her promised the reporter if she would hold the story until he tied up some lose ends, she would have the full story. It turns out MacKingsley also believed Celia was innocent...both now and as a child.
Celia awakens to someone calling her Liza and telling her to drink something. The killer turns out to be her husband Alex. He is working with his girlfriend Robin, who working for the real estate agent who sold Alex the house. It turns out Alex was mad that his cousin left all his money to Celia and Jack. He worked with Robin to set up Celia. He wanted to make it look she was emotionally unstable. Alex placed Celia and Jack in a running car in the garage and waited for the fumes to kill them. They managed to survive. Celia/Liza's name is cleared. Ted Cartwright goes to jail for the death of her father. Robin and Alex both go to jail for their crimes. Celia ends up staying the house which haunted her before she knew the truth. She ended up marrying Jeffrey MacKingsley....
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