Kiss Her Goodbye

This is one of those books that makes you want to throw it across the room -- not because it's tripe, but because it is so full of editing errors that it's hard to pay attention to the story.

There's a baby blanket that's key to the plot. The first time it's described as knitted. Later it's crocheted. And then it's knitted again. (Different crafts, Wendy!) A person is murdered and the person who finds the body notes a bullet hole in the back of the skull. Later in the book, the person is described as having been stabbed. More murders ensue, and at one point the identity of one victim is confused with the other -- by the writer! And finally, a hereditary physical oddity, also important to the plot, suddenly becomes a "scar" in the last 50 show more pages.

What the Everlasting Hell.....

The book has its own set of problems already, and didn't need to be further impeded by sloppy editing. It's fairly slow-paced for a thriller, and there is so much information telegraphed in advance that Western Union should probably get a cut of the royalties. There is a nice twist at the end, though the careful reader probably had at least a glimmer.

Essentially, it's a who's gonna do it, with a killer stalking teenage girls in a spanking new yuppie subdivision. Turns out it's not just a random wacko, but a murderer looking for a very specific girl. There are long-buried secrets, betrayals, philandering husbands, and teen-aged angst sprinkled in along the way.

If you're stuck at home with nothing else to read, this beats perusing the backs of cereal boxes. But not by much. show less

This was the first Wendy Corsi Straub book I had ever read, and I was not disappointed. The writing style is nice and concise, with a interesting mix of characters and minor conflicts (aside the major one, of course) make for a very interesting tale while you wonder about just who some of the characters are and their motives.

I felt bad for Jenny because she lost her friend, but this was a rather thrilling book. I could not stop reading it and finding out just who was behind all the crap that was going on, and just who on earth would want to hurt poor Jenny. The person who is after her... well, I don't want to spoil it for you folks, but it certainly wasn't anyone I would have *ever* expected, that's for sure. A solid, thrilling and show more enjoyable read, two thumbs up! show less

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 bootee left on Jen's pillow. Did it keep me interested? Yes, and it's ending is a surprise, even though you'll slap your head and say, "I Should have known." That's what makes Staub's books so interesting---she does surprise you!

This was a confusing, overly complicated story. There are a lot of characters, and when the bad guy is revealed, it seems to come totally out of left field.

Someone wants to kill Jen. Why? We don't know until the very end. Who is it? Same deal, we don't find out until the very end. Along the way, several other people get murdered. And what is the horrible secret Jen's mom is hiding? By the time it is finally revealed, it seemed a little anticlimactic. The last third of the book started moving pretty fast and was interesting, but the first two thirds of the book were a little slow for me.

My first book by Ms. Staub was The Last to Know. I remember, while reading, that her writing style is similar to MHC. Both have a talent of including a host of characters in their books and somehow finding a way to tie all of them to the plot. Since reading The Last to Know, I have read all of Ms. Staub's books. Kiss Her Goodbye was a good read. I didn't figure out the killer until the killer finally identified himself. But all the clues where there and I kicked myself for not picking up on them sooner. I've read several of her books under the name of Wendy Markham and I have to say I enjoy her suspence novels better.

I really like Wendy Corsi Staub, and I'm a sucker for books set in Buffalo (although I actually didn't know this one was until I started recognizing the names of the suburbs), but this one just didn't hold my interest at this particular time. I might try it again in the fall, when I'm more in the mood for a thriller.

I had read this one before but I enjoyed reading it again.