Kiss Her Goodbye [Mass Market Paperback]

Wendy Corsi Staub (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2008

"A Great Place To Live": Woodsbridge, New York, is the sort of upscale community where the American Dream is alive and thriving - shiny cars, beautiful homes, and safe, tree-shaded streets. There are pools where kids splash each other gleefully, and soccer games where moms cheer their teenagers from the sidelines. For Kathleen Carmody, moving to Woodsbridge is an attempt to escape memories of her own rough childhood and a shattering secret that still haunts her. It's a place where her 13-year-old daughter Jen will have everything Kathleen didn't."The Perfect Place To Die": But suddenly, the sleepy, affluent suburb is gripped by fear. One by one, teenage girls are disappearing from Woodbridge's "safe" streets. Someone wants what these charmed people have. Someone who will take what they love most. Someone who is targeting girls with long, blond hair and brown eyes...girls who look a lot like Jen. Someone who is watching and waiting for the moment Kathleen drops her guard and kisses her daughter goodbye.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Overburdened by a full cast of characters and an unnecessary amount of detail, this new suspense novel from Corsi Staub (after She Loves Me Not) starts out agonizingly slow, but it manages to keep readers in the dark about the killer's identity until the final pages. The idyllic community of Woodsbridge, N.Y., represents everything Kathleen Carmody didn't have growing up: love, stability and normalcy. But when a young teen disappears and a mysterious figure begins lurking around the field where Kathleen's 13-year-old daughter, Jen, plays soccer, Kathleen fears that her past may have come back to haunt her—and her daughter. Kathleen's big secret remains hidden for much of the book, which is a cause for some confusion. The constant narrative shifts—from Kathleen, to Jen, to their neighbor, to one of Jen's school acquaintances and then to some possibly shady characters the reader knows nothing about—only compound the problem. Still, Corsi Staub throws in several credible red herrings, and though she doesn't deliver nail-gnashing suspense, this competent mystery offers a challenging puzzle and some eerie chills.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Mass Market Paperback edition.

Review

"Scary...the characters are well-drawn, and the atmosphere suitably gothic. Staub keeps the readers guessing." - Publishers Weekly"

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Zebra Books (March 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 142010344X
• ISBN-13: 978-1420103441
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,121,301 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:

4.0 out of 5 stars Move Over, Mary Higgins Clark!, July 13, 2004

By 

J. Christiansen "Book Addict" (Bloomington, Illinois) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kiss Her Goodbye (Mass Market Paperback)

I just finished "Kiss Her Goodbye" by Wendy Corsi Staub. This woman can flat-out write! She cunningly weaves the mystery throughout the book and keeps you guessing as to the identity of the killer, as well as turning the pages.

Someone in Woodsbridge, a suburb of Buffalo, New York, is targeting young teenage girls who look a lot like Katie Carmody's daughter, Jen. But who? Is it the husband of Stella Galinski, the woman Jen babysits for? An elderly priest? Jen's father? A young drug dealer? And Katie has a secret of her own -- something somebody else knows which has to do with mysterious baby cries in the night and a gift-wrapped pink baby bootie left on Jen's pillow.

This isn't the first book I've read by Staub and it certainly won't be the last. They get progressively better with each one. She's as good as Mary Higgins Clark USED to be and has my vote for the new "queen of suspense!"

The only downside of the book were some obvious editing mistakes I picked up on -- like saying the family was from Ohio on one page and then saying Indiana on the next, and also that Stella Gattinski's twin daughters had her blonde hair and then saying their hair was red. Come on! I thought professional editors were supposed to do a better job than that!!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars suspense, atmosphere, plot twists, June 4, 2004

By 

lisatheratgirl "lisatheratgirl" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Kiss Her Goodbye (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm a big fan of Wendy Corsi Staub. I may have grabbed the first copy of this book. In general, she's great at building suspense and atmosphere--for instance, she will make you want to get up and check that your deadbolts are locked. You may find yourself looking out the window to be sure no one is watching you. She is a master at throwing in plot twists. You think you just got a clue to who the killer is, and she throws you a contradiction. You end up suspecting just about everybody in the book. This time, however, I not only guessed the killer but also some other things before they happened. I gave this a 4 rather than a 5 because the story was just a little too neatly wrapped up as well as highly unlikely to happen the way it did in real life. Part of the fun of mystery/suspense/horror stories comes from things happening to ordinary people in ordinary situations, i.e. this could happen to you. I enjoyed the book, read it straight through (with some interruptions like going to work) but I think the plot could have been better. A lot of it seemed out of the 1950s rather than the 21st century. I'll be anxious to see what others think.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Staub is a Star, October 22, 2004

By 

Dianna "Sullynation" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kiss Her Goodbye (Mass Market Paperback)

Such a great read! Kept me up well into the night. Highly recommended read. Staub has the ability to write a well thought out mystery that keeps the reader guessing until the end.