Dead Before Dark [Mass Market Paperback]

Wendy Corsi Staub (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2009

When The Sun Goes Down...The Night Watchman is ready to kill - again. After thirty-five years in prison, he is free to commit the same twisted atrocities that once made him as notorious as the Zodiac Killer and Jack the Ripper. Now, at last, his moment has come...The Nightmare Begins...For renowned psychic Lucinda Sloan, fame is a double-edged sword. Through her television appearances, she helps police capture America's most elusive serial killers. Unfortunately, she also catches the eye of the Night Watchman. Once this madman learns that Lucinda 'sees' murders after they're committed, it's time to play...And The Fear Never Ends. The first victim is someone she knows - a personal shock that brings Lucinda closer to her ex-lover, Detective Randall Barakat. Then a second murder in Chicago, and a third in Denver, makes her realize that the Night Watchman is toying with her. Each victim wears a wristwatch...each watch bears a message...and each message is a warning for Lucinda that her time is up - and soon she'll be next to die...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this intense follow-up to 2008's Dying Breath, just as self-described psychic detective Lucinda Sloan is helpless to stop a monomaniacal serial killer, readers will be helpless to stop turning pages until the end. From the moment the killer branded the Night Watchman sees Lucinda on television, he knows that she will be the grand finale in his latest series of brutal murders. He busies himself sending cryptic messages to her and her friend, Cam Hastings, whose daughter was kidnapped the previous summer and whose sister was the victim of a long-ago murder. Retired FBI agent Vic Shattuck, who is writing a book about the Night Watchman, also receives messages that only tease at the edges of clues about the next victim. A few inconsistencies are tiny bumps on the twisty road to the chilling conclusion. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Zebra; 1 Original edition (May 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1420101323
• ISBN-13: 978-1420101324
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #504,589 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm an award winning, New York Times bestselling suspense novelist of more than 70 novels. All of my adult thrillers and in print backlist are available on Amazon and many are e-books as well. Check out my author website at www.WendyCorsiStaub.com, my reader community site at www.WendyCorsiStaubCommunity.com, and my author page at www.facebook.com/pages/Wendy-Corsi-Staub/43054289209. I'm also a bestselling novelist with the chick lit and romantic comedy I write under the pseudonym "Wendy Markham."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wendy Corsi Staub: A Storyteller At The Height Of Her Powers, April 28, 2009

By 

John B. Valeri (Portland, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead Before Dark (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An easy read with fast-paced intrigue, June 9, 2010

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Before Dark (Mass Market Paperback)

Thirty-five tortuous prison years made the Night Watchman's desire to murder again build like shaken champagne. He is free --- at last! --- and the cork is ready to pop, letting him reclaim macabre fame that made him as notorious as Jack the Ripper. Scotland Yard is out of the question in the mean streets of several U.S. cities, leaving only Super Psychic Lucinda Sloan to keep America safe. But who keeps Lucinda safe from the Night Watchman?

Shortly after the Night Watchman's prison release on the first day of summer, his celebratory murder brings Lucinda and former lover Detective Randy Barakat together, but only professionally. Randy is now married, but "Lucinda doesn't have to be psychic to know that he, too, has unresolved feelings," despite Randy being engaged when Lucinda met him. Lucinda need not be psychic to know that such a romance is doomed. Or is it?

In a psychic scene, Lucinda "sees" the body of her former lover's wife. Wishful thinking or ESP? The Psychic Detective goes to Randy's house, newspapers strewn about the entrance, a sure sign no one has been there for days. With a key under the mat, the Clever Clairvoyant opens the door and with psychic horror knows what has happened, before discovering....

"A monster masquerading as a gentleman," the Night Watchman's MO is always at full moon, and victims' lips are smeared with red lipstick that make them "look like a demented clown." The Sexy Soothsayer wears blood-red lipstick of a war-time calendar girl. The Night Watchman alters his MO "[t]o let the almighty Lucinda know she no longer has control of her own life." He breaks into her apartment, leaves a scrapbook of all his macabre "successes," including mention of the "suicide" of her friend's sister 35 years ago. Cam Hastings, a friend, is also clairvoyant, "having visions of her daughter's abduction long before it became a frightening reality."

The Night Watchman deviated from his MO when he murdered his own mother --- the heinous crime for which he was sent to prison for 35 years. The MO also calls for sort of a "parting gift" --- parting from the world of the living. He leaves on each victim's wrist a watch with the death date and longitude and latitude of the murder site. He leaves clues for Lucinda as to where the next murder will be committed, perhaps to let her know that he is playing psychic by predicting her murder --- and guaranteeing success of that prediction. He leaves mysterious clues, two sets of decimal numbers, the better to baffle Lucinda. He taunts former FBI agent Vic Shattuck, who is writing a book about the Night Watchman murders, with "I'M BACK" written in red lipstick and mailed to his house.

The Night Watchman sets up fake online newspaper websites, giving exact details of a murder he plans to execute, so that Lucinda is at the scene immediately after the crime is committed, giving investigators cause to believe she is somewhat more than clairvoyant. The attempts fail, bolstering Lucinda's alibis for multiple homicides, for which she's a borderline suspect. Not-so-subtle clues are strewn about like wildflowers. Or are they herrings red as Lucinda's lipstick?

Lucinda's hair --- her DNA --- is planted in the death grip of chalky hands, as though the dying hand had grasped her hair. Detective Frank Santiago thinks Lucinda is orchestrating serial killings to bolster fame as the Sexy Soothsayer. A dramatic scene shakes the foundation of this premise, as Lucinda "sees" that Santiago's claimed "touch of pneumonia" is rapidly metastasizing lung cancer. Santiago now knows that Lucinda really is psychic, and his following the Night Watchman's red-herring leads allowed many more murders.

The motivation for the Night Watchman's obsessive fascination with killing women who wear scarlet lipstick is told in a surprise scene that will keep readers of this review --- among other things --- dangling.

Initially confusing, Staub's use of third person present tense and sentence-paragraphs are as substantial as Lucinda's "usual breakfast: Cap'n Crunch or Frosted Flakes, coffee, and a can of Pepsi." Staub has a unique, strong style that pulls the reader into Lucinda's world. Her funny, clever style is displayed in a scene where Lucinda fears for her life and Detective Neal Reingold asks, "What are you doing today?"

"Let's see... Sitting at home, reading magazines, eating stale marshmallow Peeps, and waiting for something terrible to happen. That's pretty much it."

"That's not good."

"I like them stale. I leave the packages open on purpose. They get this crunchy crust of sugar that I really..."

"I'm not talking about the Peeps. I'm talking about the waiting for something terrible to happen."

"Oh --- I'm just kidding, Neal."

"No, you're not."

"You're right. I'm not."

An easy read with fast-paced intrigue, DEAD BEFORE DARK is dead-on with thrills and spills, like Disney World's Space Mountain.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Terrible Ending, June 18, 2009

By 

A Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Before Dark (Mass Market Paperback)

I thought this book was really good and suspenseful and I had trouble putting it down. That's why the ending turned out to be such a huge disappointment for me.

I also didn't care much for the way the whole thing was presented -- the springboard for the whole book seemed to be Ava's murder, but the way the author ended up weaving that into the rest of the story she was telling didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Disappointing overall.