All the Way Home

by Wendy Corsi Staub

Overview

New York Times–bestselling Author: “Staub’s scary plot expertly mixes teen and adult perspectives and themes . . . keeps readers guessing.” —Publishers Weekly
 
For ten years, Rory Connelly has been haunted by the memory of her rebellious older sister Carleen, who vanished from her bed one night and was never seen again. When Rory returns home to care for her ailing mother and teenage sister in upstate New York, she discovers a family that has never recovered from the tragic events of so long ago.
 
That summer, the quiet little town of Lake Charlotte was torn apart when four teenage girls vanished—a mystery that still puzzles its residents. Now, a decade later, on the anniversary of the first disappearance, another girl goes missing, and the community is consumed with fear.
Rory is about to relive her worst nightmare—only this time, her own life is at stake . . .
 
“If you like Mary Higgins Clark, you’ll love Wendy Corsi Staub.” —#1 New York Times–bestselling author Lisa Jackson

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062230126
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/18/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	420
Sales rank:	60,464
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

USA Today and New York Times bestseller Wendy Corsi Staub is the award-winning author of more than seventy novels and has twice been nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. She lives in the New York City suburbs with her husband and their two children.

Editorial Reviews

Filled with nail-biting suspense, danger, and surprise, All The Way Home is a delectable read. Staub is a master at creating scary situations and the spookiest of characters. You’ll find yourself looking over your shoulder long after the last page is turned.
— Romantic Times

Toby Bromberg

Survivors of a long-ago crime in upstate New York relive the terror when teenage girls start disappearing once again in this suspense novel from the prolific Staub (Fade to Black). After Rory Connolly's father dies, she goes home to Lake Charlotte, N.Y., to care for her rebellious 13-year-old sister, Molly, and their disturbed mother. But Rory can't shake her memories of the four girls who vanished 10 years ago--among them her older sister, Carleen, and her best friend and next-door neighbor, Emily Anghardt. Rory calls in her mom's old friend Sister Theodosia, but the dour, aged nun only casts more gloom. Molly proves to be an obstreperous handful who provokes Rory into revealing the secret surrounding Molly's birth. No wonder Rory leaps at the attentions of handsome Barrett Maitland, who may or may not be a crime writer doing research. The Anghardt house's current occupant, Michelle Randall, is about to give birth, and Molly babysits for Michelle's toddler, Ozzie, fearing every creak and thump from Ozzie's room. Crisis hits when Molly's best friend, Rebecca, disappears on the anniversary of Carleen's abduction, and the horrified townspeople direct renewed attention to Michelle's house. Staub's scary plot expertly mixes teen and adult perspectives and themes, but too often buries the action under passages of extended exposition that dull the tension and slow the pace of the narrative. The characters are well drawn, however, and the atmosphere is suitably gothic. Staub keeps readers guessing through a series of believable red herrings and clues. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

One long-ago summer, four girls mysteriously disappeared in the upstate New York town of Lake Charlotte and were never heard from again. Among them were Rory Connolly's older sister, Carleen, who may have had her own reasons for fading from sight, and Rory's best friend and next-door neighbor, Emily Anghardt. Rory's mother, Maura, dropped into deep depression; a year later, her husband dropped dead of a brain aneurysm. Maura skipped her meds and wavered on the brink of insanity while Rory's younger brother, Kevin, took over the household. Rory went off to college at Berkeley, graduated, traipsed about the country, now is being called home by Kevin. He's just graduated from college; Rory must care for Maura and their independent young teenage sister, Molly, while Kevin goes backpacking across Europe with his new girlfriend. Not surprisingly, the old fears Rory has buried arise, for it was ten years ago this week that the first girl disappeared—and of the four girls who vanished, not one body was ever found. When a new teenage girl vanishes, all Rory's nightmares erupt. Heavily plotted from page one, Staub's second builds suspense more slowly than her feverish but unpromising Fade to Black (1998). The resolution here is more focused and believable, although stock characters and dialogue prevail throughout.

Kirkus Reviews