Literature / Moonlight Becomes You

Moonlight Becomes You is a crime suspense novel written by Mary Higgins Clark, first published in 1996.

Photographer Maggie Holloway is pleasantly surprised when she's unexpectedly reunited with her former stepmother Nuala Moore. Once as close as mother and daughter, the two women quickly pick up where they left off and are eager to catch up. However, when Maggie arrives at Nuala's home for a dinner party, she is horrified to discover her beloved stepmother has been murdered and her home ransacked. The police believe it was a burglary gone wrong but Maggie isn't convinced. She believes that Nuala had been intending to confide in her about a grave matter and that this may have been the motive behind her murder; furthermore it seems to her that Nuala's killer was someone she knew and trusted rather than an opportunistic stranger.

Maggie's suspicions are further raised when she accompanies Nuala's close friend Greta Shipley to visit the graves of Nuala and several other friends they've lost - all residents of local luxury retirement home Latham Manor - and senses something is amiss, though she cannot explicitly put her finger on what. As Maggie sets out to investigate however, she unwittingly makes herself the killer's next target.

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Contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Maggie's late father Owen is hinted to have been this, of the emotionally abusive variety. He was excessively strict with Maggie, even trying to limit her creative efforts. After getting divorced from Maggie's stepmother Nuala - who was the closest thing to a mother she had - he forbade Maggie from even mentioning her name, and after his death Maggie learned he had spitefully destroyed all the letters Nuala sent to her. Notably, Maggie rarely brings him up and she's matter-of-fact when she tells people he died three years ago.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Nuala's full name is Fionnuala, though she tends to go by just Nuala to her friends and family due to her full name being quite long and difficult for some people to pronounce.
  • As a child, Maggie would sometimes refer to Nuala as "Finn-u-ala", which was as close as she could get to the correct pronunciation. When she meets Nuala again after many years, her calling Nuala this leads Nuala to instantly recognize her even though the last time they met Maggie was only ten.
• Aloof Leader, Affable Subordinate: Chief Brower tends to be quite brusque and gets straight to the point, while Detective Haggerty is more tactful and patient.
• Amateur Sleuth: Maggie is a photographer by trade but turns detective to find out who murdered her stepmother and why.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: As she's lying in the coffin she's locked in, Maggie is trying not to panic and begs Neil to help her, saying she loves him. He of course can't hear her at the time, though we already know he feels the same way.
• Awful Wedded Life:
  • Malcolm and Janice Norton have been married for two decades and can't stand each other. Janice is openly contemptuous of her husband for his lack of success as a lawyer, taking every opportunity to make snide comments or criticize him. Malcolm struggles to be cordial with her and is planning on leaving her for his secretary.
  • Maggie and Nuala both recall that Nuala's marriage to Owen ended badly; they often got into arguments and the marriage ultimately ended in divorce after five years. By all accounts they were ill-suited, with Nuala being quite a creative and free-spirited woman, while Owen was far more strait-laced and irritable (Nuala describes him as "Always sanctimonious, dour, sour, petulant, crabby"). Maggie believes her father never gave Nuala (or her) a chance to love him.
• Beneath Suspicion: The murderers are revealed to be Liam, Maggie's charming would-be boyfriend and Nuala's supposedly loving nephew, and Odile, Dr Lane's allegedly airheaded wife. No one remotely suspects them until the last few pages.
• Big Bad: Liam Moore Payne is revealed to be the mastermind behind the murders of several women at Latham Manor, and a scheme to con potential residents out of their fortunes. He also personally murdered his aunt Nuala when she began to catch on that something wasn't right.
• Big Damn Heroes: Neil - with the help of Chief Brower and Detective Haggerty - dramatically digs up Maggie's coffin and pulls her out just before she suffocates.
• Big Fancy House: Latham Manor is a mansion built around the same time as the Breakers and has been recently converted to a luxury retirement home.
• Brainless Beauty: Odile Lane is a very attractive woman with frosted blonde hair, but there's no much going on upstairs and she's described as an "airhead" on a few occasions. It turns out that while she's no genius, she's not as stupid as everyone thinks and is cunning enough to help pull off a murderous scheme without detection for several months.
• Buried Alive: This happens to Maggie in the novel's climax; the killer abducts her and buries her in a coffin with only access to a string attached to a bell above ground; this is an old Victorian custom intended to prevent this very thing by giving a grave's occupant a bell to ring to alert gravekeepers. However, it's mentioned that the killer has removed the bell's clapper, so no one can hear Maggie desperately ringing for help.
• Calling Card: Maggie realizes that bells have been left on the graves of several women who died at Latham Manor and on Nuala's grave (even though she was murdered at home). It's revealed the killer left the bells there as a private twisted 'joke'.
• Con Man: Douglas Hansen has been conning elderly people - mostly old ladies who aren't very financially savvy - by charming them into investing in dodgy stocks and pocketing the cash, leaving them all but broke. It's revealed that his aunt Janice uses her position at Latham Manor to look up the financial details of people on the waiting list and pass them along to Doug.
• Connected All Along:
  • Maggie discovers at the Moore family reunion that Liam, her date for the evening, is actually the nephew-by-marriage of her former stepmother Nuala. Neither of them had any idea and they're thrilled to be reunited.
  • Doulas Hansen is revealed to be Janice Norton's nephew, not to mention her partner-in-crime.
  • Nuala's murder and the plotline involving Neil and his father's clients getting cheated out of their money are revealed to be more closely linked than they first appear: they're all part of the villain's Evil Plan to use Latham Manor to make more profits quickly and he killed Nuala because she began to suspect something shady was going on.
• Cool Old Lady:
  • Nuala Moore. She's the life of the party with a cheeky sense of humor, doesn't care what anyone thinks her, and yet is also very kindhearted and generous, including giving art lessons for the residents of Latham Manor and instantly welcoming her stepdaughter back into her life even though they hadn't seen each other in over two decades. Maggie finds that she's no different in her mid-seventies than she was in her late-forties, and Nuala herself insists she stopped aging at twenty-three.
  • Letitia Bainbridge is ninety-four and is as sharp as ever with a dry wit. She misses little, is a good judge of character and is key to helping the protagonists save Maggie's life and catch the murderer.
• Covers Always Lie: For some reason, the 2003 edition has a cover featuring a darkened window on a house's exterior, with a passing airplane reflected in the glass. This has nothing to do with the plot (except, maybe, the fact Nuala is murdered in a house with windows?).
• Driven to Suicide: After Barbara leaves him and his attempt to buy Nuala Moore's house falls through, Malcom sinks into despair. He can't afford to pay off the mortgage on his own house, his career is a failure, and he has nothing left but his hated wife Janice, whom he realized sabotaged his attempt to buy Nuala's property. After gathering evidence of Janice and Doug's crimes, he puts a gun to his head and pulls the trigger.
• Driving Question: Besides the obvious "Who killed Nuala?", one of the major questions for the characters is "What was the killer looking for in Nuala's house?" A bell Nuala had taken from the grave of her late friend Constance, which Maggie finds at the bottom of Nuala's wardrobe and recognizes as being identical to bells she found on other graves; they're used by the killer to mark his victims.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The novel ends with Maggie's investigations playing an integral role in catching Nuala's killer and saving other women from the same fate; she narrowly escapes suffocating to death and finally starts a new relationship with Neil.
• Fall Guy: The killer has arranged for Dr William Lane to take the fall for his crimes. The whole reason Lane was hired as director at Latham Manor in the first place was for this very purpose; he was fired from his last job for alcoholism and incompetence, so even if people discover that several residents of Latham died from having their medications mixed up, it will be assumed that it was a careless mistake on Lane's part rather than an intentional act of murder.
• Foreshadowing: At the start of the novel, Maggie is thinking of leaving the reunion early because she seemingly doesn't know anyone there except her date Liam, who has ditched her to hang out with his relatives. Liam's dismissiveness of Maggie despite inviting her is a hint towards his true nature: a cold-hearted man who puts up a charming facade, and uses and discards people as he sees fit.
• Good Stepmother: Nuala to Maggie. They love each other like mother and daughter, and even though Nuala divorced Maggie's father and they didn't see each other for twenty-two years (not through lack of trying on Nuala's part) their bond remains strong. Maggie recalls that Nuala always stood up for her to her controlling father and encouraged her creativity. Nuala also ends up bequeathing almost everything she owns, including her house, to Maggie in her new will.
  Aware suddenly that others were openly listening, Nuala slid her arm around Maggie's waist and announced, "This is my child! I didn't give birth to her, of course, but that's totally unimportant."
• Greed:
  • The killer's motive all along. He and his accomplice had been quickly turning over apartments at Latham Manor - which the killer secretly owns - by covertly bumping off old ladies with no close family and renting the rooms out again as soon as possible. The killer also helped to organize a separate plot to scam potential residents out of their fortunes.
  • Douglas Hansen cons rich elderly women looking to move into Latham Manor by tricking them into investing their money in dodgy stocks with the help of his aunt Janice, who has always resented that her husband was never able to make big bucks as a lawyer. He then pockets some of the cash.
• He Knows Too Much: It's revealed that Nuala was murdered because she found a bell on her friend Constance Rhinelander's grave, which made her suspicious enough that she looked into the other recent deaths at Latham Manor and realized they may have been murder victims as well, as they all had bells on their graves and died within weeks of each other. The killer later attempts to murder Maggie because she had realized the same thing as Nuala.
• How We Got Here: The novel opens with our heroine Maggie Holloway waking up after being attacked and knocked unconscious, and realizing she's trapped in a coffin, underground. The rest of the novel begins nearly a month prior, explaining how Maggie came to be in this predicament.
• Hyper-Awareness: Maggie has a keen eye for detail and picks up on even subtle things that appear out-of-place, and are of course important to the plot. In fairness, she's a professional photographer and does sculpting as a hobby, so it comes with the territory. Her observation skills lead her to subconsciously pick up that something's not right at the cemetery where Nuala is buried: upon closer inspection she realizes that not only did Nuala and some her friends die only weeks apart, but that bells have been left on these graves.
• Important Haircut: Maggie states at one point that she used to wear her hair long because her husband Paul liked it that way; after he died she kept it that way for five years. Then last year she finally got her hair cut to shoulder-length and has kept it that way ever since, symbolising she's ready to move on.
• Jealous Romantic Witness: After spending half the book trying to get in contact with Maggie, Neil finally manages to track down her address in Newport and drives by...only to see her getting back from a date with Liam, much to his disappointment.
• Kick the Dog: Liam decides he has to kill Maggie because she's getting too close to the truth. The way he decides to kill her is exceptionally sadistic: he buries her alive while giving her false hope of rescue by tying a grave bell to her finger (with the clapper removed). He even makes a point of coming back to taunt her about her predicament before clogging the air vent and leaving her to suffocate.
• Love-Interest Traitor: Liam is revealed to be this to Maggie. He only began pursuing her romantically in order to get close to her and find out if Nuala had told her anything about her suspicions surrounding Latham Manor. When she gets too close to the truth, Liam tries to murder her in an extremely sadistic manner.
• Love Triangle: Maggie in fact has three admirers in the story: Liam Payne, whom she has been casually dating for a year and accompanies to a family reunion at the beginning of the story; Earl Bateman, Liam's cousin who takes a shine to her after they meet at said reunion; and Neil Stephens, whom she met six months ago and occasionally goes on 'friendly' dates with, oblivious to the fact he wants them to be more. Earl never stands a chance as Maggie finds him offputting right from the start and later suspects he could've killed Nuala, but she's fond of both Liam and Neil. She ends up with Neil, especially given Liam tries to kill her.
• Menacing Museum: Earl Bateman's ultra-creepy funeral museum, which features numerous artifacts and exhibits relating to death rites and funeral customs around the world and throughout history. He persuades Maggie to take a tour and she later sneaks back in after dark to look for clues around Nuala's murder where she's attacked and abducted by the murderer.
• Missing Mom: Maggie suffered this twice. Her biological mother died in a car accident when she was an infant. Her stepmother Nuala - who married her father when Maggie was five - treated her like a daughter, but after Nuala left when Maggie was ten she didn't see or hear from her for twenty-two years. She later learned that Nuala tried to stay in contact, sending her many gifts and letters, but Maggie's father forbade it and hid this from Maggie. And then shortly after Maggie is reunited with her, Nuala is brutally murdered.
• The Mistress: Barbara is a downplayed and defied example of this to Malcolm. They've made it clear they have romantic feelings for each other and go on dates, but Barbara refuses to pursue a full-blown relationship with Malcolm until he leaves his wife. Malcolm wants to make a fortune off Nuala's property so he can start a new life with Barbara. Unfortunately, Barbara gets tired of waiting, plus she's deeply disturbed by the police's questioning of Malcolm in relation to Nuala's murder, prompting her to quit her job and head off to stay with her daughter in Colorado.
• Never One Murder: Greta Shipley dies shortly after Nuala and it's revealed she was murdered. The killer attempts to murder Maggie as well, but fails.
• Never the Obvious Suspect: Earl Bateman is so creepy and off-putting, it seems too obvious for him to be the killer despite much of the evidence pointing to him. Sure enough, it's turns out he's innocent.
• Not the First Victim: Nuala isn't the killer's first victim, though she is the first to be clearly and violently murdered. The previous victims' murders were disguised as natural deaths.
• Office Romance: Malcolm has fallen in mutual love with his secretary Barbara and wants to leave his wife to be with her. It's not a case of Sleeping with the Boss though, as Barbara refuses to take their relationship further until he's single.
• Old Flame: Tim Moore, Nuala's third and final husband, was this to her. They dated as teenagers before Nuala moved to Europe. Decades later, they met again after Tim's first wife died and Nuala divorced her second husband, fell in love and got married.
• Once More, with Clarity: Early in the novel, Neil mentions in his narration that he once saw Maggie sobbing in a movie theatre, due to the movie being about a young widow. Knowing that Maggie is a widow, Neil wonders if he should comfort her but decides against it and never mentions the incident, which he later regrets. It initially seems to just be a simple anecdote to establish how deeply Neil cares for Maggie and wants to be there for her, but it's later revealed to have more significance via Maggie's POV; Maggie knew Neil was there and that he had seen her crying. When he didn't so much as approach her about it she believed he didn't reciprocate her feelings and has been emotionally distant towards him ever since.
• Outlaw Couple: It's revealed Odile has been having an affair with Liam, and together they planned and carried out several murders of Latham Manor residents so they could keep renting out the rooms and raking in more cash. Based on information Odile passes along, Liam selects victims who have no close family and are on medication, then Odile covertly switches their medications.
• Police Are Useless: Subverted; they're initially a bit useless because they assume Nuala's murder is just a random burglary that went wrong, much to Maggie's frustration. However, Chief Brower and Detective Haggerty both start to agree with Maggie that something feels off about the case and dig deeper. They actually manage to piece together quite a bit of the mystery by the climax (with Maggie having come to the same conclusions separately) and they help save Maggie's life.
• Poor Communication Kills: This is a big reason why Neil and Maggie don't get together until the very end of the novel, and leaves Maggie in a far more vulnerable position. A few weeks back, they both happened to be separately attending a film where the heroine loses her husband; Maggie has personal experience with this and began crying her eyes out in the cinema. Maggie realized Neil was behind her and that he could clearly see she was upset (she had previously confided in him that she was a widow); she thought to herself that if he cared for her he would come comfort her. However, Neil left without approaching her and when they saw each other at a restaurant later that evening, he didn't bring it up. As a result, Maggie believes that she's not important to Neil. In actual fact, Neil didn't approach Maggie about it because he wasn't sure she'd seen him and didn't want her to be embarrassed. Subsequently, Maggie is aloof towards Neil and reluctant to confide in him about her investigations, when she could really use someone who cares about her in her corner. She confides in her other love interest Liam instead, who as it turns out is the killer and tries to silence Maggie.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Maggie is described as being a beautiful woman with classic Celtic features, including a "cloud" of dark curly hair and fair skin. Several characters comment on her good looks and she has no less than three potential love interests.
• Red Herring:
  • Just about everything to do with Earl Bateman. Maggie is seriously creeped out by him given his obsession with death and mood swings, and starts to wonder if he killed some of the women at Latham Manor in revenge for being publicly humiliated after a lecture he gave was received poorly there. However, while Earl is a creepy weirdo, he had nothing to do with the murders, although the real killer stole his Victorian grave bells to leave on the women's graves, and later steals a hearse and casket from his funeral museum in an attempt to dispose of Maggie.
  • Malcolm Norton's attempt to cheat Nuala out of her house so he can make his fortune and run off with his lover. This plan is scuppered when Nuala backs out of the agreement at the last minute and drafts a new will leaving everything to her stepdaughter; the police, Janice and possibly even Barbara wonder if he was desperate enough that he killed Nuala and tried to destroy her new will to ensure the sale went ahead. However, it turns out that trying to swindle Nuala is the only thing Malcolm was guilty of.
• Relationship-Salvaging Disaster: The villain's attempt to murder Maggie does wonders for her and Neil's relationship. They weren't on the best terms for much of the novel due to a misunderstanding and had only just started to make up. Then when Maggie is abducted, Neil does everything in his power to find her, horrified at the thought of something terrible happening to her. Meanwhile, Maggie's Near-Death Experience results in a Love Epiphany. After Neil rescues Maggie from the coffin, they start a romantic relationship, with the implication they'll eventually marry.
• Rule of Three: Following Nuala's murder, Greta is reminded of an old saying "Death comes in threes". Recently, her friend Constance Rhinelander died too and Greta hopes she isn't next. Unfortunately her premonition comes true.
• Sacrificial Lion: Greta Shipley. She actually dies less than halfway through the novel, but her death has a profound impact on Maggie, as she had become fond of Greta in the short time they knew each other and it occurs less than a week after her stepmother was murdered. Maggie starts to think it's too much of a coincidence that Greta died so suddenly only weeks after both Nuala and several other Latham Manor residents died, which leads her to investigate the deaths and whether they're connected.
• Second Love: Liam is a subverted example to young widow Maggie, given he's revealed to be Evil All Along. Luckily, her other love interest Neil plays it straight.
• Serial Spouse: Nuala, though not really through any fault of her own. Her first husband died young and her second marriage to Owen ended up being a disaster due to Owen's controlling ways; they divorced after five years. She then married her third husband Tim Moore and they were happy together for many years until he died the year before the novel's events.
• Silver Vixen: Nuala is in her mid-seventies and is depicted as being a very attractive and charismatic woman who looks much younger than her years (though more due to the exuberance she radiates than lack of visible aging).
• Spanner in the Works: Maggie mucks up Malcolm Norton's plan to buy Nuala's house and leave his wife completely by accident. Nuala had been seriously considering moving into Latham Manor and had agreed to sell her house to her lawyer Malcolm. Unbeknownst to Nuala, the property was about to become extremely valuable due to a change in the Wetlands Act, which would allow for more development on the property. Malcolm had learned of this but didn't tell Nuala so he could buy the house more cheaply. But when Nuala is unexpectedly reunited with her long-lost stepdaughter, she cancels the sale and drafts a new will leaving the house to Maggie, who decides not to go ahead with the sale, unaware of Malcolm's grand plan.
• Spurned into Suicide: Although it's not the only reason, one of the main catalysts for Malcolm's suicide is when his lover Barbara leaves for Colorado without saying goodbye. He senses that he has lost her forever due to everything else in his life falling apart and decides to kill himself shortly after.
• Taking You with Me: Although Malcolm doesn't kill his despised wife before he commits suicide, he makes sure all the evidence he's gathered against her and her nephew will be found by the police, ensuring he messes up her life the way she messed up his as a final 'screw you'.
• Unwanted Spouse:
  • Dr William Lane secretly detests his wife Odile. Any affection he felt for her has long since faded and just about everything she does and says irritates him beyond belief. He only sticks with her out of grudging gratitude, as she got him the position of director of Latham Manor even after he lost his previous job due to his drinking. After learning that she's set him up to take the blame for the Latham Manor murders, he resolves not to spend one more day with her.
  • Malcolm Norton hates his wife Janice (trust us, the feeling is more than mutual) and has fallen in love with his secretary Barbara. He wants to leave Janice and start a new life with Barbara, but he wants to buy Nuala's house first so he has enough money to set himself up after he ditches Janice.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Liam unwittingly sows the seeds of his downfall by inviting Maggie to the Moore family reunion. Neither he or Maggie had any idea that Liam's aunt and eventual murder victim Nuala was once Maggie's stepmother. Maggie senses Nuala is troubled about something and is determined to find out why she was killed, uncovering Liam's Evil Plan in the process.
• Woman Scorned: It's revealed that Janice has found out that her husband is planning on leaving her for his secretary. Although she hates him, she still fells betrayed that after sticking with him for twenty years he's just going to cast her aside, and plots to ruin him. She succeeds...only it works a little too well; Malcolm ends up committing suicide but not before uncovering a significant amount of dirt on Janice to get back at her.
• Would Harm a Senior: Nuala's killer; Nuala was in her seventies when she was Bludgeoned to Death in her own home. It's later revealed the killer and his accomplice also poisoned Greta Shipley and several other elderly women living in Latham Manor, disguising the murders as natural deaths due to illness and advanced age.
• Would Hit a Girl: The killer bludgeons Nuala to death and also whacks Maggie over the head, buries her alive and leaves her to suffocate. He also arranged the deaths of several women by having his accomplice switch their medications to poison them.

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