I admit that I usually go for cozy mysteries rather psychological thriller – when it comes to books. But your latest book, THE OTHER FAMILY, sounds like some of my favorite horror films. What draws you to writing thrillers?
I’m a Type A personality, so I think it’s likely about control. Psychological suspense novels are driven by fear of the unknown–for the characters, and for readers. But as the author, I know what’s going to happen–I’m the one who’s making it happen. In real life, there are so few things we can control, and there’s always going to be a measure of uncertainty and fear–unnerving for someone who likes to be in charge. In my fictional world, I truly am!
The book description for THE OTHER FAMILY describes a sinister “watcher”. In some suspense or thrillers, the perspective alternates between a few of the main characters, along with an unknown killer playing the role of voyeur. Does your book jump perspectives as well? Or do your characters just get an eerie feeling of being watched, without confirming it for the readers throughout the story?
My novel unfolds from three perspectives. Nora Howell is a mother of two who’s recently moved with her husband and teenaged daughters from California to a Brooklyn rowhouse; Stacey Howell is her true-crime-obsessed older daughter who’s convinced that someone is watching the house; Jacob is an enigmatic figure whose past is intertwined with the unsolved triple homicide of a family that once lived in the rowhouse. No spoilers about whether the voyeur is confirmed–there are quite a few twists in this novel!
Are there any paranormal elements to this story? Or just the creepiness of monsters in reality?
Again, no spoilers–let’s just say that this novel sits firmly in the psychological suspense genre, as opposed to paranormal or horror. There are certainly elements the characters perceive as potentially paranormal…but are they?
I remember reading the unabridged copy of THE SHINING by Stephen King in high school and being totally freaked out before the family even started living at the evil permeated hotel. Is it difficult maintaining tension over the course of an entire book?
The Shining is one of my favorite novels ever, and perhaps the first that truly terrified me. It’s no accident that THE OTHER FAMILY opens with a quote from that book: “Monsters are real. Ghosts are too. They live inside of us, and sometimes, they win.” Stacey, the teenaged daughter, discusses the book with Lennon, her new boyfriend, after discovering that she and her family have moved into a house where murders took place. I don’t necessarily find it difficult to maintain tension over the course of an entire book, because I’ve been doing this for a while (three decades!) - I tend to rely on certain elements to keep the tension high, such as short scenes, viewpoint shifts at pivotal moments, and dropping bombshells at the end of a chapter.
After interviewing a few other authors, some have told me that what they like to write is sometimes different than what they like to read? Is that true for you? What kinds of things do you like to read? Favorite books or authors?
In terms of fiction, I read everything except sci-fi/futuristic/dystopic/fantasy (and have pretty much written everything except that, as well!). I mostly do lean toward psychological suspense novels, in part because so many of my close friends write them! I also read quite a bit of nonfiction, particularly true crime, history, memoir, and travel.
What are you currently working on?
I’m in revisions for THE STRANGER VANISHES, the fifth book in my traditional mystery series, The Lily Dale Mysteries–the fourth book, PROSE AND CONS, was out in December. And I’m writing another standalone psychological suspense, tentatively entitled WINDFALL, about a trio of former college roommates who buy a lottery ticket and win the astronomical jackpot. But before they can claim it, the one holding the ticket goes missing. That will be out from William Morrow next year.
How can readers learn more about your books?
My website, www.wendycorsistaub.com, has a complete list and info about nearly all the nearly one hundred books I’ve published over the years. And I enjoy getting to know my readers on social media –I’m often on Facebook, usually on Instagram, and sometimes on Twitter!
New York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub makes her trade paperback debut with a fast-paced thriller in the vein of Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs and Megan Collins’ The Winter Sister. Here, a family making a fresh start moves into a house which was the site of an unsolved triple homicide—and are watched by an unknown person...
The watcher sees who you are...and knows what you did.
It’s the perfect home for the perfect family: pretty Nora Howell, her handsome husband, their two teenage daughters, and lovable dog. As California transplants making a fresh start in Brooklyn, they expected to live in a shoebox, but the brownstone has a huge kitchen, lots of light, and a backyard. The catch: its previous residents were victims of a grisly triple homicide that remains unsolved.
Soon, peculiar things begin happening. The pug is nosing around like a bloodhound. Nora unearths a long-hidden rusty box in the flowerbed. Oldest daughter Stacey, obsessed with the family murdered in their house, pokes into the bloody past and becomes convinced that a stranger is watching the house. Watching them.
She’s right. But one of the Howells will recognize his face. Because one of them has a secret that will blindside the others with a truth that lies shockingly close to home—and to this one’s terrifying history.
Suspense Psychological [William Morrow Paperbacks, On Sale: January 18, 2022, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780063084605 / eISBN: 9780063084612]
New York Times bestseller Wendy Corsi Staub is the award-winning author of more than ninety novels, best known for the single title psychological suspense novels she writes under her own name. Those books and the women’s fiction written under the pseudonym Wendy Markham have also appeared on the
USA Today,
Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and
Bookscan bestseller lists.
Her current standalone suspense novel, THE OTHER FAMILY, is about a picture-perfect family that that moves into a picture-perfect house. But not everything is as it seems, and the page-turner concludes “with a wallop of a twist,” according to #1 New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben.
Her critically acclaimed Lily Dale traditional mystery series centers around a widowed single mom—and skeptic—who moves to a town populated by spiritualists who talk to the dead. Titles include NINE LIVES; SOMETHING BURIED, SOMETHING BLUE; DEAD OF WINTER; and PROSE AND CONS, with a fifth book under contract.
Wendy has written five suspense trilogies for HarperCollins/William Morrow. The most recent, The Foundlings (LITTLE GIRL LOST, DEAD SILENCE, and THE BUTCHER’S DAUGHTER), spans fifty years in the life of a woman left as a newborn in a Harlem church, now an investigative genealogist helping others uncover their biological roots while still searching for her own.
Written as Wendy Markham, Wendy’s novel HELLO, IT’S ME was a recent Hallmark television movie starring Kellie Martin. Her short story “Cat Got Your Tongue” appeared in R.L. Stine’s MWA middle grade anthology SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN and her short story “The Elephant in the Room” is included in the Anthony Award-nominated inaugural anthology SHATTERING GLASS.
A three-time finalist for the Simon and Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award, she’s won an RWA Rita Award, an RT Award for Career Achievement in Suspense, the 2007 RWA-NYC Golden Apple Award for Lifetime Achievement, and five WLA Washington Irving Prizes for Fiction.
She previously published a dozen adult suspense novels with Kensington Books and the critically-acclaimed young adult paranormal series “Lily Dale” (Walker/Bloomsbury). Earlier in her career, she published a broad range of genres under her own name and pseudonyms, and was a co-author/ghostwriter for several celebrities.
Raised in Dunkirk, NY, Wendy graduated from SUNY Fredonia and launched a publishing career in New York City. She was Associate Editor at Silhouette Books before selling her first novel in 1992. Married with two sons, she lives in the NYC suburbs. An active supporter of the American Cancer Society, she was a featured speaker at Northern Westchester’s 2015 Relay for Life and 2012 National Spokesperson for the Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Foundation. She has fostered for various animal rescue organizations.
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