Little Girl Lost

Little Girl Lost: Wendy Corsi Staub

Creating a positive world for unwanted children and hiding that fact can be devastating to someone when learning the truth. Within this novel there are many lives that will be destroyed and one untold truth that will send someone on a quest she might never return from.

In 1968 a killer goes on a rampage killing families in their sleep. Each one linked to something in the present as the mother were killed and one man who would father them rapes the daughter.

Amelia Crenshaw’s mother is god fearing and her father Calvin is no different bringing her up to follow their rules and hoping for her to graduate college and be successful. But Bettina her mother is deathly ill and one look at her hospital chart reveals a truth behind a hidden wall of lies. Calvin found Amelia in a basket and brought her home as if she was his own. No one ever knew the truth but when Bettina dies Amelia goes off on Calvin and on a quest to find her real mother.

• But this book had multiple plots and we meet a dangerous killer called Red due to a red scar on her face and two people White and Black plus someone else. Red is given a list of victims to kill and told the order places and timetable. Margaret Costello, Bernadette DiMeo, Christina Myers and Tara Sheehan are the victims as well as their children. Following the pattern of the Brooklyn Butcher who methodically killed four families as they slept except the teenage daughter the sole survivor. Someone called White to find these hour living women and their children and kill them told Red. All four young teens were raped and pregnant and Red locates all four but no one could find Margaret ‘s child. Tara is in Boston with her daughter Emily. Christina is in Brooklyn and Bernadette and Margaret in Manhattan. No records could be found of Margaret’s child.
• Millionaire Perry Wayland has disappeared but something about it does not ring true to detective Stockton Barnes and his partner Stef. His wife very austere and money conscious named Kirstin Wayland seems distressed and upset about his disappearance. Appearances are deceiving and this apparent kidnapping will take a different turn throwing readers a series curve ball.

Amelia realizes that she’s not even sure when she was born or who she really is. Calvin and Bettina never turned her birthdays into true celebrations. While Barnes and Stef investigate Waylands disappearance by checking out his office and learning more about his habits and personality. Liz who works for Wayland did hear him mention miss White but in what context? Was he cheating on his wife? You won’t believe what you learn.

Amelia wants answers and was determined to find them even if Calvin would not and still treated her like a maid and made demands on her time and actions. Silas moss was the answer and meeting him might help her get started as he was on Barbra Walters talking about DNA and how this new technology since this novel takes place in 1987, would or might help find her real mother. But there’s much more she would learn before the unexpected final scenes are played.

As Amelia learns about how Silas might be able to help her Barnes and his ex-partner Washington talk about his fate and the fact he might be the father of a woman’s child he hardly knows. So why does he realize he might need to step up as a killer is on the move and the victims are about to puke up. Christina is hit and so is Bernadette even with the police protecting her. Author Wendy Corsi Staub takes us inside the mind of red that feels justified in her actions whose life and past we get to know but whose heart seems cold but is it really or is she just another foundling?

What happens when Barnes meets his daughter and the woman who just wants him to pay her bills and provide for his child but will he and if he does will he be a real father? This is a story about acceptance love identity and loss in so many ways. Amelia teams up with Jessie McCall whose parents are well off and who’s being watched by Silas. True friendship is formed and the night of fun is one that Amelia will remember but just how will her path cross with the killer and what does Barnes learn about Wayland and what about his family?

Each young girl was forced or made to give up her child and each one wondered until her untimely death what her child was and if it was being well cared for and by whom. Amelia would have a huge revelation but will she learn who her mother really is or was and an unexpected and realized she lost two mothers: Bettina who cared for her and loved her in her own way and one who might have loved her but will she ever learn the truth? What about the ring with the C on it and where did it wind up?

The time period might be the sixties but the events could happen during any time period as the families were murdered while sleeping and the final whereabouts of their children yet to be revealed as Red goes after each one of these young mothers and their children while the Brooklyn Butcher is in prison for life.

A startling revelation about Red and who her mother is will shock readers as she seems to be killing in order to get in her good graces. An ending so startling, so unexpected and twisted with a revelation that will rock not only the police, Amelia’s worlds but Barnes too as lives will never be the same, hopes might be destroyed and the author allows us to learn more about what life has in store for Amelia when her the sequel comes out next year titled: Little Boy Blue.

As Barnes will have to deal with his own fate and his future, and the promise he made Washington, which will be the hardest one yet as the police close in on a dangerous killer but not before someone else is in the crosshairs.

When they learn something about Wayland and relate it to his disappearance and find his car what they learn will unravel what they thought happened, his wife might have hidden her fears behind what she thought he felt for her but in reality she will too will pay the price and have a huge loss. Who was really loved? Who was chosen? Who would do anything for their child? Who would kill to gain love and acceptance? Who is truly the Little Lost Girl?

Characters that are strong, determined to find answers to questions that others might let fall by the wayside, and one young girl named Amelia who just wants to know that her mother loved her because among others she might never be more than the Little Lost Girl. Once again author Wendy Corsi Staub raises the bar when creating a multi-complex plot with many story lines that still have room for more to come as we meet the Brooklyn Butcher and feel the chill in the air.

Fran Lewis: Just reviews/MJ network/MJ magazine