It has been almost a decade since I picked up a Wendy Corsi Staub novel but the plot of The Other Family sounded so intriguing I decided to give it a try. I am glad I did. This is a quick, engrossing read that is ideal for whiling away a cold afternoon.

Nora and Keith Howell, along with their daughters Stacey and Piper, look like the perfect family. Three of them are catalog pretty blondes, athletic with clean cut all-American looks. And while Nora’s blonde comes from a bottle and Stacey’s brown hair and grunge chic set her apart from the rest of the family, those factors just give a modern edge to their otherwise flawless appearance. But of course, looks can be deceiving.

The Howells have moved from the West Coast to New York to reset their family. There is a mysterious crack in Nora and Keith’s marriage, one alluded to but never spoken of. Stacey had problems at school which hopefully won’t follow her into her new educational facility. In LA, they had been unsure how to fix anything. They needed a break from their old lives and when Keith’s company required someone from their LA office to oversee a project in their New York one, they grasped that opportunity with both hands.  The move seems charmed. They found a fabulous rental house, were able to get the girls into terrific schools and have already made friends. Nora encounters their neighbor Heather at the park during their first day in the city and the gregarious woman invites Nora and her clan to have dinner  at her place. Dutifully, the Howells set off to have a congenial gathering with their new buds. Heather’s wife Jules proves to be witty and a wonderful cook and Heather and Jules’ kids are of an age to be friends with Piper and Stacey. Everything is going along swimmingly until the conversation turns to murder. The reason Nora and Keith were able to get such a great rental? No one has lived in the house they are in for over two decades because a family was killed there, all of them shot while they slept.

And when odd things start happening, when it appears as though someone is watching them, when everything about the house seems to have a connection with familial deaths, the Howells can’t help but wonder if their home is gearing up to claim yet another set of victims.

I absolutely loved the premise of this story - a cursed house with a mysterious unsolved murder in its past -  and the author does a decent job of utilizing that basis to create an intriguing tale. The house isn’t in and of itself creepy - it’s a charming family home - but little details give an ominous vibe to its innocuous façade. Eldest daughter Stacey is established as a murderino at the start of the tale - she brings a box of books about the Lizzie Borden murders with her for ‘light’ reading - so it is natural that she gets caught up in the narrative of the murdered family.

Ms. Staub also does a great job of establishing how ordinary events can turn sinister. Mom Nora, a gardener by both profession and inclination, tackles the yard work with gusto only to find secrets buried beneath the bushes. Nora’s new besties Heather and Jules seem amiable and outgoing but they also seem clingy, prone to dropping in unannounced. and their son Lennon has become strangely possessive of Stacey. Heather and Jules lived in New York at the time of the murders - Heather just a few doors down from the Howell’s current home - and Nora can’t help but wonder if Heather knows something. Are they really her friends or are they watching the Howells? Are they assertively friendly or inviting themselves over to keep tabs on Nora and her husband and kids? The book does a really nice job of balancing normal and slightly off-beat so that we can never be sure if what is happening is what should be happening or if the seemingly banal, mildly atypical  events actually have malevolent motives lurking behind them.

Staub seems most in her element in building typical middle class families, and she does a good job of that here. Stacey and Nora are well drawn characters; especially Stacey who, as the geeky awkward but earnest loner, blends into the story beautifully, providing just the right note of curious and clueless, never quite sure if what she is discovering about the house, herself and her family is fact or just her imagination running wild on teenage hormones. I liked how she vacillates between mature sleuth and teen girl trying to figure out how to handle her first boyfriend and all her feelings toward her parents and sibling.

It is clear that something is up with Nora from the start. She makes cryptic calls to a person named Teddy. A lover or something else? It’s clear she’s keeping secrets, we just aren’t sure what or why. Here again the author hits the right note between possibly cheating housewife who is innocent of any other crimes or a woman with a dark past who isn’t talking to a lover but an accomplice.

But in spite of the well done plotting and characterization there are a few problems with the novel. Piper and Keith aren’t sufficiently fleshed out and as a result feel totally unnecessary to the story, and the character of Jacob feels unrealistic. I also questioned the plausibility of some of the crimes committed being gotten away with. The initial crime seemed likely to leave forensic evidence which would point to the killer, and the nature of the crime would undoubtedly have drawn the curiosity - and meticulous investigation - of the feds. I also felt the author set up several scenarios which were never brought to conclusion and could have used some closure.

That said, I was absorbed in The Other Family while reading it and invested enough in the puzzle of what was happening that I finished it quickly just so I could have the satisfaction of knowing the ending. I would recommend it to mystery fans, especially readers who enjoy stories centerred around family dynamics.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible or your local independent retailer

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