In her new thriller, Mary Higgins Clark, one of America's bestselling suspense writers, delves into a legal battle over the guilt or innocence of a man accused of murdering his wife.

Woven into her 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.

Natalie Raines, one of Broadway's

brightest stars, accidentally discovers who killed her former roommate and sets in motion a series of shocking events that puts more than one life in peril.

While Natalie and her roommate, Jamie Evans, were both struggling young actresses, Jamie had been involved with a mysterious man to whom she referred only by nickname. Natalie comes face to face with him years later and inadvertently addresses him by the nickname Jamie had used. A few days later, Natalie is found in her home dying from a gunshot wound.

The police immediately suspect Natalie's theatrical agent and soonto be-ex-husband, but no charges are brought against him until two years late when a career criminal suddenly comes forward to claim that Aldrich had tried to hire him to kill his wife.

Young attorney Emily Wallace is thrilled when she's assigned to prosecute the high-profile, careermaking case. But as Aldrich's trial makes headlines, so does Emily for the press soon learns that she is the recipient of a transplanted heart.

What they don't know is that she's begun to experience sentiments that defy all reason, along with an eerie suspicion that HER life is now at risk.

"During the trial, Emily experiences these sentiments which continue after Aldrich's fate is decided by the jury."

The Literary Guild Insider magazine states that the novel is "a compelling novel that probes the mysteries of the human heart and mind. It is a most spellbinding tale."

Just Take My Heart is available at the Mary Willis Library.

(Some information taken from the Literary Guild Insider magazine).