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Wendy Corsi Staub's Dead Before Dark in stores today (Win a signed copy!)
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When I unexpectedly acquired an advance uncorrected proof copy of Wendy Corsi Staub’s new novel, Dead Before Dark, back in January—almost four months prior to its official release date—I was ecstatic. Having been a longtime fan, and having read her previous twelve adult suspense titles with relish, I eagerly put aside what I was reading and dug in. Two sleep-deprived nights later, I closed the book and breathed a sigh of content. Staub, the author of more than seventy books under her own name and the pseudonym Wendy Markham, did something unexpected: She shocked me.
And please remember, dear reader, that there is a difference between shock and surprise . (She’s been surprising me for years…) As one definition states, to shock someone is “to strike or jar with intense surprise…”
Among readers, Wendy Corsi Staub is well known for her ability to deliver surprise endings. Her killers are often hidden in plain sight, and yet they remain unrevealed until the precise moment that the she has chosen to unmask them. That’s quite an accomplishment so many books in. So to say that I was shocked is to say that this book is in a category all its own.
Dead Before Dark is the follow-up to last year’s Dying Breath, which introduced characters Lucinda Sloan and Cam Hastings. (Read my review here.) Both play prominent roles in DBD, but the story can easily be read as a stand-alone, as the author lays the framework early on. Sloan, the protagonist, is a psychic who possesses the gift (or is it a curse?) of being able to see murders after they have been committed. Having proved herself an ally to Cam when Cam’s child was abducted, she finds herself at the center of a media storm, with her growing notoriety proving to be both a blessing and a curse. While the publicity has helped to bring attention to her work, it has also caught the eye of a madman.
When The Night Watchman sees Lucinda Sloan on TV, he is entranced by her. Just released from a thirty-five year prison sentence, his blood lust is great. The atrocities that he committed before being jailed for an unrelated crime were savage enough to earn comparisons to Zodiac and Jack the Ripper, and now that he is again on the loose, he orchestrates a cross-country game of cat and mouse that Lucinda has no choice but to play along with.
The first victim is an acquaintance of Lucinda’s, and her knowledge of the crime quickly renders her a suspect. As she fights to clear her name and make sense of the frightening visions that plague her, two more bodies turn up. Each is found wearing a wristwatch, and each wristwatch bears a message. Time is running out. And soon Lucinda will find herself face-to-face with an unspeakable evil…
All of Staub’s trademark elements are well represented: an abundance of red herrings, a hint of romance, and a truth that is both surprising and inevitable. Always a page-turner, the author still manages to ratchet up the suspense to almost unbearable levels, and the last hundred pages seem to turn themselves. The ending, however, is somewhat of a departure—it’s a calculated risk, and it pays off. Just when you think you know Staub’s game, she changes it up.
Dead Before Dark showcases a master storyteller at the height of her powers.
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