Mary Jane Clark Books in Order
Browse all Mary Jane Clark books in order, with quick summaries, series background, and simple tips on where to start with her thrillers and mysteries.
Last updated: June 7, 2026
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Publication Order
18 books
Do You Want to Know a Secret?
by Mary Jane Clark
1998
TV anchor Eliza Blake is trying to hold together her career and private life when a murder and a web of hidden scandals place her squarely in a killer's sights. It is a brisk first KEY News mystery with plenty of newsroom pressure.
Do You Promise Not to Tell?
by Mary Jane Clark
1999
KEY producer Farrell Slater spots a fake Fabergé egg at a headline-making auction and stumbles into a deadly scam. To save her job and expose the truth, she has to stay ahead of a killer silencing everyone who knows too much.
Let Me Whisper in Your Ear
by Mary Jane Clark
2000
Reporter Laura Walsh keeps having celebrity obituaries ready before anyone expects them. When she pursues a decades-old missing child case and a famous host dies, Laura becomes a suspect in a mystery that cuts through KEY News.
Close to You
by Mary Jane Clark
2001
Eliza Blake thinks a new house in the suburbs will give her and her daughter some peace. Instead, hateful letters and threatening calls reveal a stalker who knows far too much, and may be closer than anyone suspects.
Nobody Knows
by Mary Jane Clark
2002
After a career mistake sends reporter Cassie Sheridan from Washington to Florida, she covers an approaching hurricane and a grisly beach discovery. The deeper she digs into the story, the more she realizes someone will kill to keep it buried.
Nowhere to Run
by Mary Jane Clark
2003
Medical producer Annabelle Murphy knows the signs of anthrax, which is why a colleague's sudden death terrifies her. When more people fall ill and the broadcast center locks down, she has to find the killer before nobody can escape.
Hide Yourself Away
by Mary Jane Clark
2004
In summer-rich Newport, KEY interns arrive hoping one of them will land a full-time job. Then an old skeleton, a fresh death, and a missing intern pull single mother Grace Callahan into a dangerous hunt for long-buried secrets.
Dancing in the Dark
by Mary Jane Clark
2005
KEY correspondent Diane Mayfield heads to Ocean Grove for a television piece on abduction victims, only to walk into an active murder case. As the beach town buckles under fear and heat, Diane and her family move closer to the danger.
Lights Out Tonight
by Mary Jane Clark
2006
Film critic Caroline Enright travels to a summer theater festival to cover the arts and reconnect with her stepdaughter. Opening night turns deadly, and Caroline has to untangle backstage grudges and old secrets before they become the next targets.
When Day Breaks
by Mary Jane Clark
2007
When morning-show star Constance Young is found dead in her pool, Eliza Blake starts asking questions. A missing medieval treasure and a long list of enemies pull Eliza and her KEY News friends into their first case as a team.
It Only Takes a Moment
by Mary Jane Clark
2008
Eliza Blake can handle breaking news, but not the kidnapping of her seven-year-old daughter. As the search grows frantic and false leads pile up, Eliza and the Sunrise Suspense Society race a ruthless kidnapper with deeply personal motives.
Dying for Mercy
by Mary Jane Clark
2009
At a lavish party in Tuxedo Park, Eliza Blake witnesses a shocking death that opens the door to a much older mystery. Hidden clues inside a sprawling estate lead her and her team toward a killer who wants the past sealed forever.
To Have and to Kill
by Mary Jane Clark
2010
Back in New Jersey after acting work dries up, Piper Donovan helps at her mother's bakery and agrees to make a friend's wedding cake. Anonymous warnings, then a murder tied to the ceremony, pull Piper into her first wedding-day mystery.
The Bracelet
by Mary Jane Clark
2012
When a beautiful gold bracelet vanishes, every sign seems to point to Piper Donovan's difficult sister-in-law, Zara. Piper has to decide whether chasing the truth is worth tearing up the fragile peace in her family.
The Friend
by Mary Jane Clark
2012
Piper Donovan accepts a social media friend request that seems harmless at first. Soon a stranger is copying her routines and edging into her life, turning a casual online connection into a stalking nightmare.
The Look of Love
by Mary Jane Clark
2012
Piper Donovan takes a cake job at a luxury Hollywood Hills spa, hoping the trip will also clear her head. Instead, a murder in a private bungalow exposes ugly secrets behind the beauty treatments and a bride-to-be in danger.
Footprints in the Sand
by Mary Jane Clark
2013
Piper Donovan travels to Sarasota to make her cousin's wedding cake and serve as maid of honor. When a bridesmaid disappears and a body turns up on the beach, Piper has to sort through a crowded suspect list fast.
That Old Black Magic
by Mary Jane Clark
2014
Piper Donovan heads to New Orleans to sharpen her cake skills and lands a small film role on the side. Then a grisly murder and a trail of eerie clues force her to hunt the so-called Hoodoo Killer through the French Quarter.
Where should I start?
If you want classic newsroom suspense: Do You Want to Know a Secret? → Do You Promise Not to Tell? → Let Me Whisper in Your Ear
If you want high-pressure TV mysteries: Close to You → Nobody Knows → Nowhere to Run
If you want the Eliza Blake team books: When Day Breaks → It Only Takes a Moment → Dying for Mercy
If you want the cozier wedding mysteries: To Have and to Kill → The Look of Love → Footprints in the Sand → That Old Black Magic
Author bio
Mary Jane Clark grew up in northern New Jersey, in the kind of household where crime stories did not feel far away. Her father was an FBI special agent, and his work on espionage, kidnapping, and extortion cases helped spark her interest in suspense early. She attended Immaculate Heart Academy and later studied journalism and political science at the University of Rhode Island.
At first, though, writing novels was not the plan. Television news was. After college she went to New York and started at CBS News as a desk assistant, then spent almost three decades there, eventually working as a producer and writer. That long stretch in the newsroom gave her something many thriller writers have to invent from scratch: the daily rhythm of deadlines, studio nerves, field reporting, and the small frictions that build up inside a high-pressure workplace.
She wrote what she knew.
That choice shaped the KEY News books, the twelve media thrillers that made her a familiar name to suspense readers. Starting with Do You Want to Know a Secret? in 1998, she built a fictional network newsroom filled with anchors, producers, interns, and reporters who keep finding themselves tangled in murder cases. Books like Nowhere to Run, When Day Breaks, and Dying for Mercy work because the stakes feel both public and personal. There is always a story to cover, but there is also a family to protect, a boss to answer to, or a secret waiting just off camera.
Clark has said that years in television taught her one useful lesson: news is never boring. That restless energy is all over her fiction. Her chapters tend to be short, the danger arrives fast, and even when the setting is polished, a morning show studio, a wealthy enclave, a resort town, the real hook is usually simple. Somebody is hiding something, and somebody else is about to pay for it.
Later she changed gears without giving up suspense. In To Have and to Kill she introduced Piper Donovan, a struggling actress who ends up back in her family's wedding cake business and, naturally, near a murder. That series, which also includes The Look of Love, Footprints in the Sand, and That Old Black Magic, keeps Clark's taste for fast plotting but adds a warmer, cozier feel, with bakers, weddings, travel, and a little romantic tension mixed in.
She likes capable women with busy lives.
That may be one reason her books feel grounded. Again and again, she writes about people juggling work, family, money worries, parenthood, ambition, and the need to keep going when the day has already gone sideways. Her protagonists are often professionals first and sleuths second. They are not chasing murder for fun. They are trying to do their jobs and take care of the people they love.
Clark has also spoken openly about family life beyond the page. She has a daughter, Elizabeth, who is an actress, and a son, David, who has Fragile X syndrome. Her support for research into the condition has been an important part of her public life. She has also said that watching Mary Higgins Clark work up close helped demystify writing for her. It looked less like magic and more like discipline, showing up, sitting down, and doing the work.
These days she lives in New Jersey and Florida. That seems fitting for a writer whose books often move between polished surfaces and uneasy undercurrents. Whether she is writing about a broadcast center, a beach wedding, or an old house full of secrets, she keeps the same focus: ordinary people under pressure, making choices fast, and hoping they are not already too late.
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.
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