Mary Higgins Clark makes no bones about it. When America's best-selling whodunit writer sat down to pen "On The Street Where You Live," her 24th novel, she wanted art to imitate life -- namely, life in the somnolent shore town of Spring Lake, N.J., where the author spends four summer months out of every year. The remainder is spent in her spacious home in Saddle River, N.J. The renovated 1891 Victorian summer home that she shares with her husband, John Conheeney, a retired chief executive officer for Merrill Lynch futures, has an oceanfront office where Higgins Clark fleshes out creepy characters or plots the downfall of her next poor victim. 

But it wasn't always smooth sailing for the self-made success, now 79. Born in the Bronx, N.Y., Higgins Clark lost her father when she was 11 and her mother struggled to raise her and her two brothers. Then, five years later, her older brother died of spinal meningitis. To help shoulder some of the family expenses, she worked as a switchboard operator at a downtown hotel after school. Her plan was to get married and have children and be the woman behind the man. That man was Warren Clark, whom she had admired since the age of 12. It was after the couple married, in 1950, while staying home and caring for their five children, that Higgins Clark started penning short stories. In 1964, tragedy struck again. Her husband died of a heart attack at age 49, leaving the 36-year-old mother to raise five young kids on her own. Staying home was not an option any longer, so she went to work writing radio scripts to support the children.

After the success of her first novel in 1975, Higgins Clark entered Fordham University at Lincoln Center, graduating summa cum laude in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Fordham in 1998. Not bad for a gal of mystery who put pen to paper and became one of the bestselling authors -- over 70 million copies sold in the U.S. alone -- of all time.

Bankrate: At the time you were working for the radio station, did you make enough money to feed your children?

Mary Higgins-Clark: I was living paycheck to paycheck. I never thought about writing a novel then. When you write a radio show, it's broadcast and it's gone. My agent suggested I write a book and I really gave it my all. I woke up at 5 a.m. and wrote until 7, then I got the kids ready for school. 

Bankrate: What was your first novel?

Higgins-Clark: It was a biographical novel about George and Martha Washington, "Aspire to the Heavens." It was a darn good book, but when it hit the stores, it hardly raised an eyebrow.

Bankrate: I read your book "Kitchen Privileges," that traces your road from the Bronx through the Depression to single-handedly raising your five children. Do you think single moms of today could follow your lead in being independent and becoming such a huge success?

Mary Higgins Clark: There are many single mothers today. My youngest daughter is a single mother. She works and she's doing a marvelous job. And I think single mothers are doing a wonderful job. Is it easy? No! I think you do the best you can. I admire them because I know it's not easy.