Nighttime is My Time is a 2004 crime suspense novel by Mary Higgins Clark.
Graduates of the prestigious Stonecroft Academy are gathering in the town of Cornwall-on-Hudson for their twenty year school reunion, but all is not well. Over the past two decades, five women who were friends at Stonecroft have died, the fifth just a month before the reunion date. While these deaths have been dismissed as tragic accidents or suicides, in truth they were murdered by a former classmate who has been nursing a decades-long vendetta. Now, this man has come to attend the Stonecroft reunion to complete his vengeance against the students who tormented him.
Unbeknownst to author and historian Dr Jean Sheridan, she is one of the killer's targets. However, she is already wary due to receiving anonymous, threatening letters regarding Lily, the newborn daughter she gave up for adoption nearly twenty years ago. Jean doesn't know who could've found out about Lily or why they're contacting her about it now, but she cannot shake the feeling her daughter could be in danger. And all the while, a killer walks amongst the graduates of Stonecroft, preparing to strike again...
Tropes found in this novel include:
- Alpha Bitch: Alison Kendall was this in high school; she was well-known and even admired by some students for her beauty and wit, but she had a cruel streak and enjoyed making cutting remarks and mean jokes about other students, especially the less-popular kids. Some of her former classmates state that most of the "nerds" tried to stay out of her way and that a few may have resented her enough to want to hurt her. In adulthood, she apparently wasn't much better.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: A few of the Stonecroft graduates had these, none of which are presented comedically.
- Jean's parents when she was growing up. Jean frequently felt humiliated and suffered anxiety because her parents were notorious for their vicious arguments; they couldn't even keep a lid on it in public and the police were involved a few times, with no thought as to how it might affect their daughter. Jean was so embarrassed by her parents' behavior she couldn't bring herself to introduce her boyfriend to them.
- Carter's and Gordon's mother often left them humiliated because of their poor housekeeping; Their house were always a mess their clothes were never cleaned properly - Carter either turned up to school in dirty clothes or clothes ruined by his mother's attempts at washing (which included putting bleach in the washing machine). They were often mocked for this in school.
- Animal Motif: The villain calls himself the Owl and is referred to by this name in his narration to conceal his identity from the reader. The villain chose this alias because owls are stealthy nocturnal predators, like him. It also stems from an incident in his childhood where he had to play an owl in a school performance but was so nervous he ended up humiliating himself and was slapped by his father; he was later mocked for it in high school too, so he reclaims it as a symbol of his power and vengeance against those who have wronged him. The Owl also utilizes owl-shaped pins as his Calling Card and wears an owl mask while committing his crimes.
- Anonymous Killer Narrator: There are some sections told from the killer's perspective, with a few hints dropped about who he is, but his identity isn't confirmed until the climax. He's only ever referred to as the Owl in his narration; no one else ever speaks his name, with the killer even forbidding his victims from calling him by his name.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: As part of his revenge against the Stonecroft women, the Owl stalked and murdered five of them with the intention of killing the other two eventually, torments Jean with his knowledge of her secret daughter whom he also plans to kill and...dobbed Laura in to the IRS for unpaid taxes.
- Asshole Victim: Downplayed with Alison. By all accounts she was never a very pleasant person and could be ruthless as a talent agent, making a lot of enemies. At her memorial, most people aren't especially torn up by her death, with only Jean being genuinely saddened. Even then though, her murder is still presented as a horrific act and not something she deserved. Some characters also express distaste when others dismiss or joke about her death even if she was a jerk.
- Awful Wedded Life: Jean's parents are okay people apart but were absolutely terrible together. Their constant fighting when Jean was growing up made her extremely anxious and closed-off from others. This sometimes escalated to physical fights as well; on a few occasions the police were even called to deal with them because they were brawling on their front lawn. They bluntly stated they were only staying together for Jean's sake (even though being exposed to their horrible marriage did Jean no favors) and they indeed divorced not long after Jean graduated.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: When the Owl attacks a random woman named Helen Whelan, her German Shepherd Brutus attacks him to protect her, prompting the Owl to savagely beat the dog. Brutus' injuries are severe enough that a vet has to put him down. Brutus proves to be the Owl's downfall in the end, due to the bite wounds he inflicted.
- Beta Bitch: Laura Wilcox was indicated to be this to Alison in school; they were close friends and often egged each other on in making nasty jokes at the expense of their classmates. In adulthood, while Laura is still a bit shallow and insensitive at times, she seems to have mellowed out a lot and is nowhere near as bitchy as she was in school. The Owl isn't convinced she's changed though.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Gordon Amory is one of the more amiable suspects who shows concern for Laura and Jean, and it turns out he's the killer.
- Bound and Gagged: After kidnapping Laura, the Owl ties her to a bed in such a way that if she struggles, the ropes will tighten, and ties a sock across her mouth as a gag. Laura is terrified that if she throws up she will choke on her own vomit.
- Copycat Mockery:
- In school, Laura mimicked the Owl's stuttering voice from when he messed up his lines in the second grade play, causing much laughter. The Owl didn't take it well. He later forces Laura to mimic him again and act out the girls laughing at him, over and over.
- Robby Brent is talented at mimicry and regularly incorporates this into his comedy routines. He humiliates several people at the reunion by mimicking them, reducing one of his old teachers to tears.
- Damsel in Distress: About a third of a way through, Laura is kidnapped by the Owl, who keeps her imprisoned in her old house. He intends to kill her, but draws it out to torment her and also plans on using her to lure Jean to him. Laura does try to escape but isn't really in a position to do anything. She spends most of her time tied to a bed in such a way that when she tries to wriggle free the ropes just get tighter, the Owl only visits her once or twice a day (or less) to give her food and water, and he waits outside the bathroom (which has no lock) while she uses the toilet. The Owl allows her to make phone calls to throw people off the scent, but threatens to smother her with a pillow if she goes off script or tries to warn people.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The Owl is trying to murder all the women who bullied and looked down upon him at Stonecroft Academy. While the bullying was hurtful, killing them over it is way beyond the pale, especially considering he's willing to murder them decades after high school ended; it's been twenty years since their class graduated and yet the Owl is still nursing a grudge over it.
- Driven to Suicide: In the climax, when the Owl realizes the police have him surrounded he uses a gun to take his own life rather than be captured and tried for his crimes.
- Dude Magnet: Laura is considered to be very beautiful and charming, attracting lots of male attention both in high school and in the present. It's mentioned that many of the men attending the reunion had a crush on her in school and that some attempted to ask her out, including the Owl. Laura's rejection partly fuels the Owl's murderous vendetta against her.
- Entitled to Have You: The Owl towards Jean. He had a big crush on her because unlike the other girls she hung out with, she was never cruel to him and even showed him kindness on a few occasions. Because Jean also had a crappy homelife and never quite fitted in at Stonecroft, the Owl saw her as a kindred spirit and believed they belonged together. He then discovered Jean was secretly dating a young cadet, Reed Thornton, which he saw as a 'betrayal'. Twenty years on, the Owl is still bitter that Jean chose another man, which factors into his decision to kill her; he even convinces himself that Jean was just as horrible as the other girls behind his back (which is untrue). It's revealed that the Owl went so far as to kill Reed to make Jean suffer and he also plans to kill the daughter Jean conceived with Reed, purely to spite her.
- First Love: Reed was this to Jean; he was her first serious boyfriend and she was even prepared to marry him straight out of high school when she found out she was pregnant. Unfortunately, his sudden death was so traumatic for her that she never had another serious relationship for nearly twenty years, although she starts to develop feelings for Mark Fleischman at the reunion.
- Forced to Watch: In the climax, the Owl intends to force Jean to watch him slowly suffocate her daughter and Laura; he says Jean will die last and that he thinks it'll probably be a mercy by that point. Luckily, Jean is able to distract him long enough for the police to get there.
- Foreshadowing: Mark warns Jean that if the person sending her threats about her daughter knows she's desperate enough that she would instantly jump at a chance to meet with Lily, this person could exploit this to cause harm to Jean. This actually happens to Lily / Meredith, who is so eager to meet her birth mother she is lured into the Owl's trap.
- Future Loser: Laura is on the verge of becoming this. She was considered one of the most beautiful and popular students at Stonecroft, but twenty years on she's struggling both professionally and personally. She went through two divorces - the second of which was extremely messy - is rumored to have struggled with alcoholism, and the IRS is about to seize her house for unpaid taxes. Her acting career is tanking; her biggest role was starring as a ditzy blonde in a popular sitcom, which was cancelled a few years ago, and she's barely worked since; not only is she widely regarded as a one-note actress but she's also nearly forty - while she can pass for thirty it's pointed out she's still considered 'old' by Hollywood standards so there are less roles offered to her. Laura is still honored as a "distinguished alumna" at the reunion, though some think she's the least deserving.
- Gene Hunting: Inverted; for most of the novel Jean - with the help of Sam Deegan - is trying to track down the daughter she gave up for adoption nineteen-and-a-half years ago. This is mostly because Jean has reason to believe someone who knows about her daughter is a danger to her, though Jean also admits that she wishes she could see her daughter again, even if only from a distance, to know she's alright. In the ending, Jean and Meredith do get to meet again, with it turning out Meredith has also wanted to meet her birth mother, and they stay in touch.
- Girl Posse: There were a group of seven girls in the same graduating class at Stonecroft, who were close friends and sat together at lunch every day. Most of these girls were considered some of the brightest and most popular students at Stonecroft; unfortunately some of them were also bullies. Over the past twenty years, the Owl has been killing each girl in the order they sat at the lunch table and now there are only two remaining.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: When Jean decided she couldn't keep her unborn child because the father was dead, she had no other support and she was only eighteen, she was quick to decide on adoption with her doctor; the option of abortion never even came up. This is understandable given that Jean was raised Catholic and so likely would've had moral compunctions around abortion; she also genuinely wanted to keep her baby and only decided to give her up after her boyfriend died, and sometimes wonders if she made a mistake over the years.
- Grave-Marking Scene: Alice Sommers often visits her daughter's grave. On one occasion she finds an owl pin on the grave and takes it with her, thinking a child might've left it there and knowing Karen liked those sorts of things. Sam Deegan sees it and finds it oddly familiar, though he initially can't place why. He's been investigating Helen Whelan's murder and her body was found with an owl pin in her pocket...
- Happily Adopted: It turns out that Lily, or Meredith Buckley as she is now called, has always known she was adopted and also knows the circumstances of her adoption. She has no emotional hang-ups about this and has a close relationship with her adoptive parents, though she's always wanted to meet her birth mother.
- Hollywood Old: This trope came up in a conversation between Alison and Laura about a potential role in an upcoming sit-com; Alison said they might be looking for a younger actress for the role in question, only for Laura to argue that she's only thirty-eight and that the character has a twelve year old daughter, plus she can pass for younger.
- Hope Spot: When she's abducted by the Owl, Jean manages to push her cellphone down between the front seats of the car, allowing the police to track it. Later, when Meredith has been tricked into entering the car, she manages to find the phone. Unfortunately, when Meredith - believing the Owl to be distracted - tries to call for help, the Owl grabs the phone out of her hand and throws it out of the window, destroying it and leaving the police with no way to track their location. Sam even says their only hope now is to pray.
- Innocent Beta Bitch: Jean to Alison in school. They were friends but Jean never joined in Alison's mean girl antics and was even nice to some of the students Alison bullied. She didn't do much to stop Alison from what we can tell, though this is indicated to be because Jean herself was extremely introverted and meek in high school, as opposed to approval of Alison's bullying. The Owl even briefly considers sparing Jean because she wasn't unkind and stuck-up like the other girls, but then convinces himself that she was just as horrible as them deep down.
- The Lost Lenore: Cadet Carrol Reed Thornton Jr is this to Jean. They began dating when Jean was in her final year of high school and were truly in love despite their young age and having only known each other a few months. Jean regarded him as one of the few bright spots in her life in those days. Unfortunately, he was killed in a hit-and-run accident shortly before she graduated. Jean has never seriously dated anyone else since, still gets tearful thinking about Reed sometimes and wonders what their lives would've been like if he'd lived. In the epilogue, she has finally managed to move on and is now Happily Married to Mark.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Most of the Owl's previous murder victims appeared to have been killed in accidents.
- Catherine's car skidded off the road and crashed into the Potomac; she was known for being a careless driver so no one thought to check if her brakes had been tampered with.
- Cindy is presumed to have been killed in an avalanche while skiing as her body was never recovered; the Owl actually killed her on top of the mountain and dumped her body in a crevice, with the avalanche just being an extra bit of luck for him.
- The private plane Debra was piloting crashed after it was secretly sabotaged.
- Alison's drowning death is initially thought to be accidental, with the police speculating she fainted after she dove into her swimming pool.
- Mama Bear: Even though she gave Lily up for adoption and hasn't seen her since she was born, Jean still loves her daughter and is deeply concerned for her wellbeing when she receives anonymous messages threatening Lily. She goes to great lengths to track Lily down to warn her and her adoptive parents. When the Owl tries to suffocate Lily by putting a plastic bag over her head, Jean knocks the chair she's tied to down onto his arm in a desperate attempt to protect her.
- Murder by Mistake: The Owl reveals in his narration that Karen Sommers was his first ever murder victim and he killed her by mistake; he'd broken into her home and stabbed her after mistaking her for Laura Wilcox, having forgotten Laura had moved house not long ago. The Owl regards it as the moment that set him free to seek revenge, even though he had no connection to Karen whatsoever.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: It's revealed the Owl was the one responsible for the hit-and-run that claimed Reed Thornton's life, as he was bitterly jealous of him being with Jean Sheridan and also wanted to make Jean suffer for 'rejecting' him (even though she was clueless the Owl had feelings for her).
- My Secret Pregnancy: Jean had only just found out she was pregnant when her boyfriend Reed died. No one even knew they were dating (or so Jean believed); Jean knew her parents wouldn't be supportive and she wasn't sure how Reed's family would react, so she confided only in Dr. Connors, who helped organise a private adoption. Jean managed to hide her entire pregnancy and even give birth in secret by getting an out-of-town nursing home job lasting eight months; Dr. Connors travelled out there himself to deliver her baby. As a result, Jean is understandably freaked out when someone begins sending her messages that they know about her child.
- Never Suicide: Gloria, one of the Owl's victims, is believed to have committed suicide. She was found suffocated with a plastic bag over her head and there was little reason to suspect foul play, especially as she was going through a messy divorce and often said things that could be interpreted as suicidal ideation. As one investigator points out later in the novel though, lots of people tend to be bitter and depressed when their relationships end and it doesn't necessarily mean they actually want to kill themselves.
- Odd Friendship:
- Jean's friendship with the popular girls at Stonecroft; as a shy, withdrawn girl whose parents were infamous for their vicious fights, she seems like she would be a target for ridicule, but she was treated as a friend by the popular girls and sat with them at lunch.
- In adulthood, Jean and Laura's friendship. They couldn't be more different; Jean is a successful author of historical books and a university professor who doesn't have much of a personal life, while Laura is a semi-famous actress who is struggling financially and has been through two divorces. Jean is quite a grounded and introverted person, while Laura is outgoing and a bit ditzy, yet they genuinely care about each other.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Alice Sommers' only child Karen was murdered twenty years ago while visiting her parents; Alice and her husband found Karen's body in her room the next morning, having had no idea she'd been murdered in the night. The killer has never been found. Alice understandably still grieves for her daughter, sometimes wondering if Karen would now be successful doctor, gotten married and had children of her own if she'd lived. There's a slight silver lining in that Sam Deegan, one of the main investigators on the case, has grown close to Alice over the years, which is comforting for both of them (her husband has since died, as has Sam's wife).
- Parental Neglect: Jean's parents were (and in some respects still are) guilty of this; they physically and financially provided for her but are useless in regards to emotional support and affection. It was for this reason Jean felt she couldn't confide in them about her pregnancy and tragic relationship with Reed. Even in adulthood, Jean isn't very close to them. Jean's mother stated at her second wedding to her high school sweetheart that her biggest mistake was not marrying him years ago; although Jean would be the first to agree her parents' marriage sucked, it didn't make her feel much better given she was the product of said-marriage.
- Parental Obliviousness: Jean's parents were and still are oblivious to the fact that during her senior year she dated a cadet for months until he died, got pregnant and gave birth to a child she gave up for adoption. Their self-absorption and inability to maturely handle conflict made Jean reluctant to even bother telling them.
- Practically Different Generations: The ending reveals that Jean and Mark now have a son, who just turned a year old. He's around twenty-one years younger than his older half-sister Meredith, who adores her little brother though she has little time for babysitting. Becoming a mother again later in life and in more stable circumstances gives Jean to chance to finally raise one of her children, which she missed out on with Meredith even though she's involved in her life now.
- Red Herring: The novel gives us a few possible suspects for the Owl's identity; all of them are men who attended Stonecroft Academy, were not very popular and were subjected to mockery and rejection by the popular kids. We're also told the Owl performed in school plays and knows a bit of Shakespeare, that his father was abusive and his mother emotionally distant, all of which could apply to any of the men in some way. Joel Nieman and Jack Emerson are regarded as suspects by the characters, but as the Owl interacts with them during his chapters the reader is aware they're innocent.
- Carter Stewart. He's a playwright who uses his works as a outlet for his pain, including creating characters based on his classmates where he mocks them or makes them suffer. He also hates his given name and now goes by his middle name, and was a Peeping Tom as a teen.
- Gordon Amory. His mother was neglectful, he's rumored to have set fire to his house in school and currently owns several television stations. He also hates being referred to by his childhood nickname of Gordie and insists on being called by his full name.
- Robby Brent. He's a comedian with a lifelong interest in performing, was considered the "last and least" of the Brent family, and enjoys mocking and humiliating those he sees as having wronged him.
- Mark Fleischman. He became increasingly estranged from his parents after the death of his brother, whom his parents blatantly preferred; it's rumored he may have deliberately caused his brother's death from jealousy. He's a psychologist with his own talk show. He also shows a lot of interest in Jean's personal life despite them having not interacted much since graduating two decades ago.
- Reunion Revenge: The villain is seeking revenge on the girls who bullied or rejected him in high school. At the beginning of the book, he's already killed five of them. He attends the reunion to kill the final two and also intends to kill one woman's daughter.
- The Reveal:
- The reason Mark is estranged from his parents is not just because his mother blamed him for his brother's fatal accident until the day she died, but because his father eventually admitted it was actually his fault; he liked to sneak alcohol in the afternoons but wanted to avoid his wife scolding him, so he had a few drinks in his eldest's son car and inadvertently moved the handbrake. Mark's father was so ashamed and guilt-ridden, he never told the truth and so everyone spent decades believing Mark was to blame.
- Lily, now named Meredith, was adopted by a general and his wife and is a cadet at West Point, just like her biological father Reed Thornton. She's also aware she's adopted.
- Romancing the Widow: A subtle two-way example between Alice and Sam. Alice's husband died several years ago while Sam's wife died a few years after that. They've been friends for twenty years, with Sam helping support Alice after her daughter's murder. Sam also struggles with loneliness now his wife is gone, while his children have grown up and moved away. Consequently, their close friendship starts to develop into sonething else. The epilogue reveals Alice and Sam got married.
- Sadist: The Owl takes great pleasure in seeing his victims humiliated and terrified; in the opening chapter where he murders Alison Kendall, he deliberately reveals himself to her in a moment of vulnerability so that she'll know he's about to kill her and there's nothing she can do. He also enjoys psychologically torturing Jean by sending her threatening notes regarding her daughter, even acknowledging to himself it's not necessary given he already plans on killing her.
- Scholarship Student:
- Jean got into Stonecroft on a scholarship. Although she didn't much enjoy growing up in Cornwall, she was grateful for the education she received at Stonecroft, as it allowed her to attend a good college (far away from her bickering parents) and develop a successful career. It's indicated that Jean not being raised in a privileged position and getting into Stonecroft based on her own academic achievements helped her avoid becoming a spoiled brat like some of the others.
- Robby Brent was a scholarship student (helped by the fact the rest of his family also went to Stonecroft) although his poor grades meant he was constantly in danger of losing his scholarship. He was never that academically-inclined and went into show business after graduating; it's implied that his status as an 'outsider' exacerbated his lack of popularity.
- Serial Killer: The Owl. His primary targets are the girls who tormented or rejected him at Stonecroft Academy, although he also takes out his anger and violent impulses on random women. His methods of killing differ, though at each crime scene he leaves behind his symbol - owl-shaped pewter pins. At the start of the novel, he's responsible for the deaths of five of the women from Stonecroft and has possibly killed other women, and he doesn't plan on stopping there.
- Sins of the Father: The Owl plans to kill Meredith because of the perceived wrongdoings of her birth parents; he believes Meredith's mother rejected him and that Meredith's father took her mother away from him.
- Slain in Their Sleep: Many years ago, someone broke into Karen Sommers' bedroom and viciously stabbed her several times as she slept. The investigators assured her parents that she would've died quickly and probably never woke up - which Karen's father desperately clung to for comfort - but both Sam Deegan and Karen's mother sometimes wonder if she did wake up just before or during the murder and spent her last moments in terror.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Deconstructed and subverted with Jean and Reed's daughter; she had told him she was pregnant with his child shortly before his untimely death and prior to that tragic event she'd intended to raise the baby. However, Reed's death was what made her decide to give the baby up for adoption, because without him she didn't have anyone to help her (her parents were too wrapped up in themselves and their bitter marriage, while Reed's family didn't even know he was dating Jean and she wasn't sure they'd support her).
- Spanner in the Works: The Owl made a severe miscalculation when he chose to abduct and kill Helen Whelan; he didn't realize she was walking her pet dog, a huge German Shepherd named Brutus who would fight to death to protect his owner. The Owl inflicts fatal injuries to Brutus but not before Brutus sinks his teeth into the Owl's arm. The bite wounds are quite serious and start to turn septic, but the Owl can't risk going to hospital and so tries to treat them himself with medication and bandages bought over the counter. In the climax, Jean knocks the chair she's tied to onto the Owl's arm, incapacitating him long enough for the police to arrive.
- Spotting the Thread: At one point the Owl tries to convince Jean that the threats against Lily are just Laura asking for money out of desperation, claiming that she acquired the hairs from Lily’s hairbrush during a casual encounter. However, when Jean reveals that detail to the lawyer who handled Lily’s adoption, the lawyer is able to quickly confirm that Lily’s adopted family would never have been in a position where someone as notoriously famous as Laura Wilcox would have been able to take their daughter’s hairbrush without anyone knowing it.
- Suspect Existence Failure: It looks extremely likely that Robby could be the killer, only for him to be murdered by the Owl when he comes snooping. It takes a while for the characters to realize this though, as they believe he's just missing or hiding.
- Teen Pregnancy: Jean got pregnant with her daughter Lily at 18; she found out she was pregnant shortly before the baby's father died in a hit-and-run. Jean decided to give the baby up for adoption as she was in no way to prepared to raise a child alone and never even told her parents or anyone else about the pregnancy; her doctor thought she should, but because Jean was legally an adult she could make that decision for herself.
- Textual Celebrity Resemblance: A few characters remark that Jean looks a lot like Katie Couric; Peggy Kimball goes as far as saying she thought they could be sisters.
- That One Case: For Sam Deegan, it's the murder of Karen Sommers, a twenty-two year old college student who was stabbed to death in her own bedroom while visiting her parents in Cornwall-on-Hudson. He believes her ex-boyfriend was responsible but was never able to find any substantial evidence against him, nor identify any other likely suspects. This is heightened by the fact that he's planning to retire soon but is still no closer to solving the murder, as well as the fact he's grown increasingly close to Karen's mother Alice over the years, meaning It's Personal now.
- Too Clever by Half: This is Robby Brent's downfall. He's smart enough to figure out that someone at the reunion knows what happened to Laura and this someone would probably go running straight to her location when he calls Jean pretending to be Laura. This enables him to follow Laura's abductor to the house where he's holding her. Unfortunately, he's not smart enough to realize that the abductor is a dangerous man who doesn't like to be tricked and is willing to do anything to keep his secrets, resulting in Robby getting killed. Robby doesn't tell anyone else his plans either, so it takes a while for everyone to figure out what happened to him and even longer for them to realize where Laura was taken.
- True Art Is Angsty: Carter firmly believes this In-Universe; all his plays are extremely dark and angsty (for what it's worth they tend to be critically-acclaimed too). He believes his plays reflect the true nature of society and humanity, and it's clear he uses his works as an outlet for years of emotional pain.
- The Unfavorite: Mark is this in his family; his parents - especially his mother - favored his more popular, outgoing and successful older brother Dennis and it's rumored the reason Mark is estranged from them is because they felt he should've died instead. There are some who speculate that Mark may have resented his parents' favoritism enough to deliberately cause his brother's death.
- Villain Opening Scene: The novel opens with the Owl murdering Alison Kendall and establishing his motives for wanting her and the other women from Stonecroft dead.
