Double Dose Of Higgins-Clark

Not every mystery writer enjoys the success of Mary Higgins Clark when she writes a novel, reports CBS This Morning Co-Anchor Mark McEwen. Her fans line up to buy it, and her latest is no exception. We'll Meet Again went straight to The New York Times bestseller list and her newest paperback, You Belong To Me, is No. 3.

Meanwhile, her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark, is enjoying her own success, following in her mother's footsteps. Her fourth novel, Twanged, is also her fourth bestseller.

When she first starts to write a book, says Mary, "I know what the story is about. I can tell you in one sentence what the book is about, and then I start to plan the characters, and where my setting is, and the why of it. I've got to know, because if six people would have done the dirty deed, only one could have done it. Only one would have gone over the line. I have to know who that person is before I start page one. It's important."

In We'll Meet Again, says Mary, a young socialite is found guilty of the murder of her husband, the head of an HMO. She serves five years in prison, with no memory as to whether she committed the crime. When she is released, she asks her friend, an investigative reporter, to do a TV program about her case. It turns out to be a more complicated case than anyone had guessed.

Carol used to type her mother's manuscripts when she was a college student, frequently editing them as she went along. She later became an actress, who interpreted her mother's books for the audio tapes. One of the tape producers suggested that she try her hand at writing.

She came up with the character Regan Reilly, a young female detective who is the central figure in all her books. Regan's mother, of course, is a mystery writer.

"My friends think [Regan] is all me," says Carol. "Not totally, but I do use experiences from my own life, and I think she has a sense of humor, and just drawing from my own life, it just inevitably comes a lot of me."

Mary looks upon her daughter's career with pride. "The joke is, people will say, 'Do you mind that she decided to be a writer and in the suspense field?' I say, 'If a doctor says [his] son or daughter is going to be a doctor, everybody is happy.' What is this nonsense that you would be jealous or angry or feel crowded? I think it is wonderful."

Mary has four other children, and it's a tight-knit family. They had a Mother's Day dinner together.

And Carol's next book, Fleeced, is almost completed. This one is set in New Orleans.