Review of THE OTHER FAMILY by Wendy Corsi Staub

Your Spouse Only Knows What You Want Him to See

With over 90 books under her belt, if you ask bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub how she keeps her writing fresh, she’ll tell you that she immerses herself in her characters and story. Using the thriller writers’ famous prompt of “what if?” she’s once again created a twisty-turny family drama filled with secrets.

In THE OTHER FAMILY, 104 Glover Street in Brooklyn is the new address of the Howell family: “a redbrick nineteenth-century row house.”

Nora Howell and her family need a new start. She and her husband, Keith, have had some problems in their marriage, so when a job transfer opportunity came up, they took it. Their 17-year-old, Stacey, isn’t thrilled about the move, but their 14-year-old, Piper, loves the new adventure.

At dinner with their new neighbors, Keith and the girls are surprised to learn that someone had murdered the family who lived there before. But Nora knows the date well—January 17, 1994. The triple homicide was linked to organized crime, but they never found the killer. Now she’s got to be careful about who she trusts.

Nora is used to living with lies.

As the family settles into their new lives, true-crime buff Stacey gets the feeling that someone is watching her and the house. But she has nothing to prove it.

Jacob Grant is used to observing the house at 104 Glover. He strolls by whenever he can—it’s an obsession. After all, he’d intimately known the girl who was murdered there, Anna Toska. He can’t get over her death. Now another family has moved in, and he could swear one of the daughters is Anna—she looks just like her. But how could that be?

As Nora fights to protect her secrets, she must also protect her daughters. Yes, she knows Jacob and what he’s capable of, and she must make sure he will never hurt her family again.

Readers are gobsmacked by the hidden truths in the serpentine conclusion they don’t see coming.

Read the rest of my review and interview with Staub in The Big Thrill.