Customer Reviews

All The Way Home

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Welcome to Lake Charlotte, a sleepy little town in upstate NY. It's been 10 years since 4 girls mysteriously disappeared without a trace. Rory Connelly, (who's sister Carleen is among the missing) returns home to deal with an aging mother and troubled younger sister. If that weren't enough to deal with, on the 10 year anniversary of the crimes, another girl disappears!

Rory soon realizes history is starting to repeat itself and she doesn't know who to trust. This book is truly one of the best suspense books I've ever read, everyone in this book looks guilty! When the real killer is revealed you will be SHOCKED!

I also loved the upstate NY setting, since I grew up around that area. Wendy even mentions my hometown of Kingston, NY in this book!

Wendy Corsi Staub is now on the top of my "must read list". I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good mystery.

I have been reading Wendy Corsi Staub's books for a few years now, and this one is my favorite so far. The characters are really well drawn. They are realistic in the sense that they aren't perfect, but you can understand why they have made the mistakes they have. There is a creepy aura about the setting, and the suspense never lets up from the very first page. Every time I thought I had it figured out, there was another twist, leading up to a real shocker at the end when the stalker's identity is revealed. I would highly recommend this for anyone who likes a real page-turner along the lines of Mary Higgins Clark or Patricia MacDonald.

This was a very Gripping Suspense Thriller. I could not put it down. After reading this, I purchased all of the Wendy Corsi Staub books I could find.

...a sleepy bedroom community in upstate New York. A community prided on its small town traditions, close-knit families and businesses and respite from urban crime.

But IS Lake Charlotte REALLY as idyllic as it seems? The Connollys and other families know that there is a film of algae on Lake Charlotte, obscuring the pure view that residents wish to maintain. Rory Connolly, the protagonist returns home to Lake Charlotte after graduating from Berkeley and traveling around the world. Her brother Kevin has been running the household in Rory's absence and has kept a watchful eye on their mentally ill mother.

Sad and psychotic since the death of her husband and youngest daughter, Maura Connolly lives in a shadowy world between mental illness and reality. Her misery is compounded when her oldest daughter, Carleen disappears in the late 1980s along with three other neighborhood girls. Carleen, then 13 is described by all as out of control. Molly, the youngest member of the Connolly family is 13 when Rory returns home. She, like Rory is close to Kevin and she does not really know Rory who is some 10 years her senior.

Molly's best friend disappears that summer; old fears and old suspicions are reawakened. Who is kidnapping the girls? What has become of them? Who are possible suspects? A neighbor's husband? A reporter with an agenda? Somebody in the community? A nun who acts as a companion to the severely depressed and delusional Maura? Somebody the Connollys know? The list is indeed a long one. With each kidnapping, another secret pops out like a jack in the box. This excellent book is sure to keep readers riveted to every page.

This brilliant, masterfully excuted book is something that is worth reading. The characters are rich and full; the story is taught and compelling. There is no extraneous matter. This book makes you hope Staub will keep writing!

Lake Charlotte, New York, is a sleepy village in the foot hills of the Adirondack Mountains. It's a place where everyone knows each other, and they don't have to lock their doors -- that is, until strange disappearances start to happen. Then the towns' people don't know who to trust.

Kirstin Stafford, a 13-year-old, is the first to vanish without a trace, Allison Myers, a 15-year-old, disappears three weeks later, and Carleen Connolly, a 14-year-old, vanishes a few weeks after her. Now it's 10 years later and Rory Connolly (the sister of Carleen Connolly who disappeared 10 years ago) has returned to Lake Charolotte from Berkley California where she attended college.

On the 10th anniversary of the first girl's disappearance, Emily Anghardt vanishes. Why is it starting all over again? Rory wants to find out so she can have some answers about her sister's disappearance. What Rory doesn't know is she is in danger as well as other young girls.

The characters are well defined and realistic in the sense that they are not perfect so that the reader can understand why they made the mistakes they did. I thought that I had it all figured out early in the book, but was I dead wrong. ALL THE WAY HOME is a well-told story with a lot of spooky revelations, fantastic amazement, and plenty of thrills and chills to keep you hanging on to every word right up to the breath-taking and astonishing conclusion.

Four girls mysteriously vanish one ill fated summer in the small town of Lake Charlotte, never to be seen or heard from the past ten years. Now, on the anniversary of the first girl's disappearance, history is repeating itself. Rory Connelly lost her older sister, her father and her best friend that summer. She hasn't been back home since, but her family needs her. Rory is once again at the center of the tragedy and no one is safe from the past.

If this had been my first Wendy Corsi Staub novel, I would probably have rated it higher. Unfortunately, I felt that the author creates not only a similar scenario from one of her other books, but even characters are presented in the same fashion as in Fade to Black. It isn't that the idea of teenage girls disappearing is far fetched for a story plot, but the background into "why" as the author reveals in the end, is just a little too unrealistic. It starts out slow and then just begins to get wierder with every page. The ending was also extremely predictable and non-climactic.

Is it worth buying?
I was completely turned off by this book. I don't recommend buying it. However, many other readers disagree. That is why I picked this book up in the first place, based on the high reviews. I do like other works by this author. I just wasn't wild about this particular book. If you are really curious, I suggest checking it out from the library.

Wendy Corsi Staub is frequently touted as the author to read while you're waiting for the next Mary Higgins Clark book to come out. I'm actually enjoying Staub's books MORE than Clark's. This one was a real page-turner. It kept me guessing up until the very end. (My only criticism -- and I can't believe an editor didn't catch this -- is the repeated use of the phrase "could care less" when what was intended was "couldn't care less." It's a mistake made by almost everyone, but in print, it's annoying.)

I read this book in three days. I couldn't put it down. While I was working I continued to think about the characters, and tried to decide who done it. I didn't want to read this by myself. I hope Wendy Corsi Staub hurries up and writes another book, I can't wait for the next one.

My first novel by this amazing author was "Dearly Beloved," one of Wendy Corsi Staub's first novels, what I got at a used bookstore, that is now out-of-print. I absolutely loved it! I then went to the store and bought "Fade to Black." This novel was even better. I read the whole thing in two days. I was on a Wendy Run!! So then I saw "All The Way Home." I bought and devoured it in one day! It was the best one that she wrote. The plot: Four teenage girls mysteriously disappeared from Lake Charlotte, New York, including Carleen Connelly, Rory (the main character's) sister. Rory goes off the college and returns to Lake Charlotte ten years later. While she is back in town she meets Barrett Maitland, Rory finds him attractive and strange at the same time. Then on the anniversary of the first girls disapperance ANOTHER GIRL IS TURNED UP MISSING! Can Rory solve this crime and find out what happened to her sister before she becomes the next victim? WENDY CORSI STAUB IS THE NEXT MARY HIGGINS CLARK IN MY MIND! Keep your eyes open for "The Last To Know," Wendy's next thriller in April 2001!

From the creepy opening prologue to the shocking twist at the end, I could not put this book down. With three small children and a full time job, I rarely have time to read and a book has to be really amazing for me to get through it. I finished this one in two days. I won't go into the plot again because other reviewers have done so already. But I will say that this author had me completely fooled. I can usually figure out suspense plots easily and lose interest early on. But I found myself whipping through the pages of this book, wondering what could have possibly happened to the missing girls of the past and present. There is one stunning development toward the end that totally caught me off guard. Let me just say that nobody in this book is who--or where--you think they are. There are lots of creepy touches, from the scary nun to the disappearing groceries in the big old house to the mentally ill mother who keeps seeing visions of dead people...or does she? I loved the way the author mixed teenagers and small children into the plot and, unlike another reviewer on this page, I thought that the children were very authentic. As the mom of a two-year-old, I have to say that I thought the two year old spoke and sounded like my own two year-old. And I could totally relate to the very realistic pregnancy. Also, I loved that the book was written in present tense, unlike that same reviewer--as far as I know, there are no "rules" that only short stories should be written present tense, which is a ridiculous statement. A lot of novels I've read are not in past tense, but in present, although it is unusual for a suspense novel. I found that in this particular story, the present tense lent the plot a sense of urgency and suited it very well. Overall, I think this was an excellent read. I picked it up after my sister bought and loved Wendy Corsi Staub's newest one, THE LAST TO KNOW, which I now cannot wait to borrow or buy and dive into.