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SECOND TIME AROUND




This is not the second time around but the nth time that I read a novel written by one of my favorite novelists -- Mary Higgins Clark. Check out an interview with her on this site.

SECOND TIME AROUND is a perfectly-crafted fiction that could make you think and feel at the same time. The novel involves a lot of characters who have their own stories to tell. But the main character is Carley, a reporter /writer who is writing about the real story about a man named NICHOLAS SPENCER. He was declared missing after the plane supposedly crashed. However, Spencer's body was not recovered so many believed that he was still alive and was just hiding. In fact, some claimed to see him with his secretary (?) .
Mr. Spencer is very important in the story. He didn't appear in the novel but everything happened because of him -- or because of his mysterious disappearance. He was expecting to "receive the blessing of the Food and Drug Administration for a vaccine that would both eliminate the possibility of the growth of cancer cells and bring to a halt the progression of the disease in those already afflicted -- a preventive and a cure that he alone was responsible for bringing to the world. He named the company "Gen-stone," a reference to the Rosetta stone that had unveiled the language of ancient Egypt and allowed the appreciation of its remarkable culture" (Clark 1).
All the other characters made the story worth the while: Lynn Spencer, the wife of Nicholas and Carley's step sister, Charles Wallingford and Adrian Garner, the heads of Gen-stone, Vivian Powers, the secretary of Nicholas who was suspected of having intimate relationship with him, Marty Bikorsky, a suspect in the novel, Dr. Broderick, a scientist who has idea about the effectiveness of the cure Spencer was experimenting on, etc.
The novel will give you an idea of what could possibly happen to pharmaceutical companies who are greedy enough to get credits for the world-awaited cancer cure. I never realize that a lot of people -- both from the field of science/medicine and those who are related to anyone with cancer --- may be interested to discover cancer cure. And never have I thought that even pharmaceutical companies may be hiding unpleasant secrets...

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