--- description: Find out why 'Where Are the Children?' by Mary Higgins Clark made the list. title: Where Are the Children?: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48792bd05fbccdcc/698a4081b3fce3303c0cad81/WhereAreTheChildren.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 03, 2023 # Where Are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Mary Higgins Clark’s first suspense novel, _Where Are the Children?,_ kicked off her career as a best-selling author—and her long reign as the [“queen of suspense.”](https://www.npr.org/2020/02/01/801902955/mary-higgins-clark-queen-of-suspense-dies-at-92 "undefined") Nancy Harmon is a woman who reinvents herself—moves to Cape Cod, dyes her hair, and changes her name—after she’s accused of gruesomely murdering her own two children. She gets off on a technicality, remarries, and starts over in a place where no one knows her past—until her two new children disappear and her suspicious history bubbles to the surface. --- ### More from TIME --- This fast-paced 1975 thriller is a classic for a reason, and cemented Clark’s status among the greats. She was one of the first to employ the form of short, cliff-hanger-filled chapters that are now standard in the genre, taking an absorbing story and packaging it in a way that made it truly unputdownable. [Laura Lippman](https://time.com/5629238/lady-in-the-lake-book-review/ "undefined"), who wrote the introduction to the latest reprint of _Where Are the Children?_ likened Clark’s artful approach to suspense to “a system of stones and breadcrumbs, similar to the items Hansel and Gretel used to mark their paths in and out of the woods.” The book’s popularity also led to a sequel, co-written by Clark and Alafair Burke, nearly 50 years after the original was published. —_Meg Zukin_ **Buy Now:** _Where Are the Children?_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781668021811 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/45K88dl "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309183/where-are-the-children/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309183/where-are-the-children/"},"headline":"Where Are the Children?: 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books","datePublished":"2023-10-03T11:50:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:20:21.698Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309183/where-are-the-children/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48792bd05fbccdcc/698a4081b3fce3303c0cad81/WhereAreTheChildren.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48792bd05fbccdcc/698a4081b3fce3303c0cad81/WhereAreTheChildren.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309183/where-are-the-children/","name":"Where Are the Children?: 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How We Chose the 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time","description":"Here's how TIME created its 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books list. There are books from 15 different countries, and no author appears on the list more than once.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bNzuDcsg/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-10-02T16:54:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bNzuDcsg.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309183/where-are-the-children/","duration":"PT1M35S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309183/where-are-the-children/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```