Just Take My Heart
Mary Higgins Clark

Summary

When Natalie Raines, one of Broadway's brightest stars, accidentally discovers who killed her former roommate, it sets in motion a series of shocking events that puts more than one life in extreme peril. A few days later Natalie is found in her home in Closter, New Jersey, dying from a gunshot wound.

The case remains unsolved for two years, until Jimmy Easton, a career criminal, comes forward to claim that Natalie’s husband had hired him to murder his wife. Assistant prosecutor Emily Wallace is assigned to the case. As she spends increasingly long hours preparing for the trial, a seemingly well-meaning neighbor offers to take care of her dog in her absence. Unaware of his violent past, she gives him a key to her home.

As the murder trial makes headlines, her boss warns Emily that this high-profile case will reveal personal matters about her, such as the fact that she has had a heart transplant. During the trial, Emily experiences sentiments that defy all reason. Woven into the plot is an eerie, little-understood but documented medical phenomenon: the emergence of a donor’s traits and memories in the recipient of a heart transplant.

Questions and Topics for Discussion

1. Gregg Aldrich, Natalie’s husband, recounts that after driving by Natalie’s house in New Jersey, he felt that their relationship was truly over. Do you think that Natalie had see more