The Butcher’s Daughter by Wendy Corsi Staub
Foundlings Trilogy (Book 3)
August 25, 2020
Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
New
York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub is the master of psychological
suspense. In her latest thriller, an investigative genealogist digs for her own
biological roots, well aware that some secrets are better left buried.
Investigative genealogist Amelia Crenshaw solves clients’ genetic puzzles, while hers remains shrouded in mystery. Now she suspects that the key to her birth parents’ identities lies in an unexpected connection to a stranger who’s hired her to find his long-lost daughter. Bracing herself for a shocking truth, Amelia is blindsided by a deadly one.
NYPD Detective Stockton Barnes had walked away from his only child for her own good. He’ll lay down his life to protect her if he and Amelia can find out where—and who—she is. But someone has beat them to it, and she has a lethal score to settle.
Amelia and Stockton’s entangled roots have unearthed a femme fatale whose family tree holds one of history’s most notorious killers. And the apple never falls far…
Investigative genealogist Amelia Crenshaw solves clients’ genetic puzzles, while hers remains shrouded in mystery. Now she suspects that the key to her birth parents’ identities lies in an unexpected connection to a stranger who’s hired her to find his long-lost daughter. Bracing herself for a shocking truth, Amelia is blindsided by a deadly one.
NYPD Detective Stockton Barnes had walked away from his only child for her own good. He’ll lay down his life to protect her if he and Amelia can find out where—and who—she is. But someone has beat them to it, and she has a lethal score to settle.
Amelia and Stockton’s entangled roots have unearthed a femme fatale whose family tree holds one of history’s most notorious killers. And the apple never falls far…
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I have enjoyed
several Wendy Corsi Staub books over the years. I wish I had realized this was
part of a series but I didn't until I started it. It didn't seem completely
necessary to read the first two books in the Foundlings Trilogy but there were
a few things that I felt in the dark over... so my recommendation would be that
you read the first two books to get the full experience from this final story.
Now, this final book, The Butcher's Daughter goes back and forth between two
timelines. We alternate between present day and 1968. Now if you enjou history,
I don't but still, you'll know this was a very contentious time in the American
history. We have a very tumultuous time of the Vietnam and Civil Rights era...
we weren't just battling for the rights of African Americans (as we still are
unfortunately) but for the rights as females... as women. The Butcher's
Daughter really connects the social injusts of the 60s. Staub seamlessly blends
and connects the two timelines.
I was glad I was reading a print copy of this and not listening to an audiobook since there was a lot of characters to keep track of. I really fell for those southern ladies in 1968... Melody and Honeybee were great. Stockton and Amelia are they two lead characters in the 2017 timeline. Their character development is the best and I really enjoyed their relationship. Gypsy Colt is the connection. This isn't exactly a "who dun it" story but a mystery into the how’s and why’s... some of my favorite mysteries. Gypsy was only a child in 68 and we get to see the development of the character over the time and into 2017. Really this area is the best and worst of the book. There was so many characters that I did feel slightly lost at times and confused. I really think I could have fixed that by reading the first two books. However, this is still a great story without those first books. You just have a lot of characters tossed at you at once and little time to get to know them. The best part is the way Straub weaves these characters together making me gasp a bit (which is no easy feat these days).
The plot was so excellently put together. Once I got to those last several pages, I rapidly finished. This is one of those stories that you get answers to your questions step by step. However, you won't see the overall picture until that very last piece is found and placed squarely where it goes, and then... que musical 'ahhhhh' in the background... there it is! I had my own thoughts along the way, after all, it's partly the reason I read these books. It's like playing Clue in my mind. I might have had a few of the cards lined up but I wasn't quite seeing the entire picture until Wendy Corsi Straub laid it all out!
Thank you to William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers for sending an advanced copy of The Butcher's Daughter. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that... my opinions.
I was glad I was reading a print copy of this and not listening to an audiobook since there was a lot of characters to keep track of. I really fell for those southern ladies in 1968... Melody and Honeybee were great. Stockton and Amelia are they two lead characters in the 2017 timeline. Their character development is the best and I really enjoyed their relationship. Gypsy Colt is the connection. This isn't exactly a "who dun it" story but a mystery into the how’s and why’s... some of my favorite mysteries. Gypsy was only a child in 68 and we get to see the development of the character over the time and into 2017. Really this area is the best and worst of the book. There was so many characters that I did feel slightly lost at times and confused. I really think I could have fixed that by reading the first two books. However, this is still a great story without those first books. You just have a lot of characters tossed at you at once and little time to get to know them. The best part is the way Straub weaves these characters together making me gasp a bit (which is no easy feat these days).
The plot was so excellently put together. Once I got to those last several pages, I rapidly finished. This is one of those stories that you get answers to your questions step by step. However, you won't see the overall picture until that very last piece is found and placed squarely where it goes, and then... que musical 'ahhhhh' in the background... there it is! I had my own thoughts along the way, after all, it's partly the reason I read these books. It's like playing Clue in my mind. I might have had a few of the cards lined up but I wasn't quite seeing the entire picture until Wendy Corsi Straub laid it all out!
Thank you to William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers for sending an advanced copy of The Butcher's Daughter. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that... my opinions.
Little Girl Lost
Book 1
From New York Times Bestselling Author Wendy Corsi Staub comes a gripping novel of psychological suspense, as a young foundling’s path to her biological parents leads to a killer with a chilling agenda
MAY, 1968
On a murky pre-dawn Mother’s Day, sinister secrets play out miles apart in New York City. In Harlem, a church janitor finds an innocent newborn in a basket. In Brooklyn, an elusive serial killer prowls slumbering families, leaving a trail of blood and a twisted calling card. Cloaked in lies, these seemingly unrelated lives—and deaths—are destined to intersect on a distant, blood-soaked day.
OCTOBER, 1987
Reeling from shocking personal discoveries, two strangers navigate a world where nothing is as it seems. Amelia Crenshaw embarks on a search to discover the truth about the birth mother who abandoned her, never suspecting she’s on a collision course with a killer. Detective Stockton Barnes, a brash young NYPD detective, trails a missing millionaire whose disappearance is rooted in a nightmare that began twenty years ago.
The past returns with a brutal vengeance as a masked predator picks off victims whose fates intertwine with a notorious murder spree solved back in ‘68—or was it?
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Dead Silence
Book 2
New York Times Bestselling Author Wendy Corsi Staub is the master of psychological suspense. Here, she delves into the twisted mind of The Angler, who lures his human prey the way he catches fish. Sometimes, he gets one worth keeping… for a little while…
No Such Thing as Coincidence…
Staring into his frightened blue eyes, investigative genealogist Amelia Crenshaw Haines vows to help this silent little boy who is unable—or unwilling—to communicate his past. Though her own roots remain shrouded in mystery, she relies on tangible DNA evidence to help fellow foundlings uncover theirs . . . until a remarkable twist of fate presents a stranger bearing an eerily familiar childhood souvenir.
NYPD Missing Persons Detective Stockton Barnes has spent his career searching for other people’s lost loved ones and outrunning a youthful misstep. Now a chance encounter with a key player from that fateful night leads him on a desperate quest to locate the one woman he’s ever regretted leaving—unless a savage killer finds her first.
As Amelia and Barnes uncover intertwining truths—and lies—the real horror emerges not in crimes already committed, but in evil yet to come . . .
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Wendy’s current releases, LITTLE GIRL LOST, DEAD SILENCE, and THE BUTCHER’S DAUGHTER comprise her fifth suspense trilogy for HarperCollins/William Morrow. To date, there are three titles in her Lily Dale traditional mystery series: NINE LIVES; SOMETHING BURIED, SOMETHING BLUE, and DEAD OF WINTER.
Her 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 (HarperCollins). Her short story “The Elephant in the Room” appears in Nasty Woman Press’s 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 young adult 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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