In The Blink of an Eye

by Wendy Corsi Staub

In the town of Lily Dale, New York, an unspeakable evil resides in Ten Summer Street, the house where her best friend Kristin had witnessed a horrifying event that changed her life forever, and when Kristin's blind six-year-old daughter Dulcie comes to live at Ten Summer Street, Julie takes the little girl under her wing and becomes determined to expose the secrets that lurk within the house. Original.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Suspense, Paranormal, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook

464 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 19, 2013

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Jim C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating is 3.5 stars.

According to Goodreads this is the beginning of a series. I went on the author's website and it did not say that so I am assuming this is a stand alone. In this one we visit Lily Dale which is a community filled with mediums and spiritualists. A tragedy happened three years ago that ties in with someone passing now in the present.

Right away the atmosphere captured me as we dived into the world of spirits and ghosts. This is not a horror book because of these aspects. This is a murder mystery book that uses the supernatural. It also crossed other genres as we have a love interest sub plot and we have a theme of family. I will say the author might have been overly ambitious with all these different sub plots as some of them did not hold my interest like others did. I have noticed that I tend to feel that way with this author's early works. There is a little too much to process and she needs to trim the fat. As for the characters I enjoyed all of them especially the child in the story that has a huge role in the book. The murder mystery was fine and the author provides red herrings to deceive the reader. I know I switched my theory several times. The reason I could not give this four stars goes to my mention of too many plots. The high stakes tension was never truly achieved as I believe it was overshadowed by all the various sub plots.

I enjoyed this book as I was engrossed in the atmosphere and I really had no idea what or who the ghosts were. I do believe that this could have been a little better of a novel if the author did not try to cram all of her ideas into this book. It was a little too much and at times I did start to wander. All in all I had a good time in this community with the idea of the supernatural being part of a murder mystery.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the Blink of an Eye" gives you a double whammy. The book's heroine, Julia, is anything but a helpless, dimwitted female who goes for solo walks with a killer about, or some other such nonsense that you find in some books. Julia is a strong willed, intelligent, capable single woman. "Eye" also delves into the supernatural, which makes for some fascinating reading from Ms. Corsi-Staub. Maybe the ending seems a bit too pat, but the journey itself is so enjoyable, with twists and turns, that you really won't care.
Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this great little read.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just love stories with creepy old houses. The prologue hooked me in, and I couldn't wait to find out more. The heroine is Julia Garrity, but the story centers around what happened to her friend Kristin many years ago. If you want to know what happens, you'll just have to read this for yourself.

[Jessica Sinn (Books and Trouble) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of those rare books that i had to chuck in the DNF pile. Usually I soldier through these things, but just couldn't find it deep within myself to finish off the last third of this thing. You see, there's kind of a major issue that I can't overlook: THERE'S NO PLOT! I'm sure others can argue there is indeed a plot buried somewhere within the long, meandering story following a multitude of psychics, charlatans and skeptics, but I couldn't find it. The discombobulating chapters jump from one group of characters to the next. I'm sure at some point their lives all converge, but I just wasn't patient enough to wait for everything to start gelling. And to be honest, I just couldn't care about any of them. They all have dull, humorless personalities and OH MY GOD that little blind girl just needed to stop with the knock-knock jokes! I just can't, y'all. Judging by the many rave reviews, this book is oddly a big hit with many, many people. It's just a no for me, dog.

[Kimberly · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was the first book I tried to read by this author. IDK why I even picked it to read. I think I saw one of her books & it looked interested, so I saved all of her books from my library's digital site to read. Guess I didn't read the description very well b/c I didn't realize it dealt with psychics and mediums. I don't dabble in any of that! I was listening to the audio version, and I only listened to about an hour of it before I decided I just didn't want to finish. The characters were a little confusing, and her style of writing doesn't seem to be great - at least to me. The little blind girl in the book was annoying! I couldn't handle her asking her dad to explain every little thing over and over and over! I get it! You're blind! But stop being a brat! Ok, rant over. I think I'll try another of this author's books just to see if I like her. :(

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very little paranormal activity. Way too many characters and most of them were one dimensional and really not relevant to the story at all. The author seemed to be stressing and over stressing the point that she was familiar with the area because every time she mentioned a store or restaurant, she would have to name the town by it's name. It is fine to do it once to create the setting, but to repeat it 40 times throughout the book or 5 or six times on one page is a little overkill! YES, we get it. WAL MART is in Dunkirk. the town a little ways a way from lily dale. Very little mystery. a few unexpected twists. but all in all it wasn't the authors best work

[Colette · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have marked this book as read, but I quit about 1/3 of the way through as I wasn't enjoying it and I have far to many books to read to force myself to finish this one. It is about psychics and "dark secrets" and something "lurking" in a big old mansion.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I truly enjoyed this book. I normally don't read horror, but I am glad I read this one. It was more mystery and suspense mixed with a little paranormal to keep me intrigued. I started reading it through an audiobook but finished reading it in EBooks. It is perfect for this time of year.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. It got me from the first page and kept me entertained to the last page...definitely an author I will continue to seek out.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I think part of it is because of it's setting, Lily Dale. It's home to many mediums, and it's next to Cassadaga. We lived in a small town in Florida called Lake Helen, which shared a police and fire department with it's next door neighbor, Cassadaga. The great majority of the people living in Cassadaga, Florida are mediums, originally from Lily Dale. During the winter mediums from there come down to Cassadaga for the warmer weather.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book that I have read by Wendy Corsi Staub but it will not be the last. The story takes place in Lily Dale, New York, this is a real place that is mostly inhabitated by spiritualists. The story deals with physics and ghosts. This is a suspense story but I definitely did not find it to be a scary story. I had a hard time putting the book down.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this story. Maybe because I've made several visits to lilydale, ny. This started out as a ghost story and ended up as a murder mystery. I think the characters could have been a little stronger, more developed. The story line was a good one. The ending was pretty abrupt , and could have been a little more emotional. A good beach read

[Barbara Kramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a frequent visitor to Lily Dale, NY, I really enjoyed this book. You get the true flavor of this unique and compelling community through Wendy Staub's writing. There is something special about Lily Dale.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

It kept me occupied.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very deep book from Wendy Corsi Staub that deals with psychics and with ghosts with an unsolved mystery. My heartstrings were tugged!

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it! She's a great writer!

[Carina · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was a very gook book. I think Wendy Corsi Staub is a really good author.

[Autumn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've yet to find a book written by Wendi Corsi Staub that I dont instantly love. I love the way she writes her characters back story and this book was filled with memorable characters.

[Shannon Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

AWESOME book! Keeps you on your toes! Great Who-done-it!

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read via audio - solid audio performance by Allyson Ryan can’t elevate shaky writing foundation of odd anti-medium bias about the most famous site of in resident USA-NYS mediums. Having stayed at Lily Dale, I do know author’s physical map of this location and its events to be firm; however I was stymied by the authors choice to make frequent fraud-schemer accusations by main characters (who weren’t likes or themselves) that are further proved by other characters whose moral compass was broken long ago. But in a tiny “village” of mediums, no one sensed multi-murders? Shut the door! Plus the constant scenes of an endangered child who - why?!? - is blind yet her psychic sight is far clearer than the practicing adult psychics. So… problems stemming from author. This story is a prequel, written after the first two books in a series set in LD, focusing on characters that don’t reappear in flesh or spirit in the later timed books… that I’m aware of. I’ll be trying those books next and seeing from all angles if their mysteries are more charming and cozy than this very haunted cold prequel. Fingers crossed!

[Chassidy Hester · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was hard for me to stay interested in the story. However, I bought the book so I was going to read it one way or the other. There were parts that were great, but overall, it was lacking. It jumped around entirely too much. There were so many storylines with different characters that i had to keep going back because I was lost. I kept realizing the book had yet again changed characters without my notice. It had some interesting plot twists, but it was all a little forced and, at the same time, strung out. I did try to start the next book in the series. I felt invested at that point. It was on the plus catalog, so it was no extra cost. However, when I realized none of the characters from the previous book were in it, I lost interest in that one quickly as well.

[Carissa Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lily Dale is a supernatural town. There are many mediums and psychics and they're legit.

Julie's friend died a few years ago due to a drowning and now her mother is found dead in the bathtub. Julie doesn't believe these are accidents.
Kristin's husband and daughter come to Lily Dale to close down Iris's estate and as a side note he wants to know what really happened to his wife. As Julie and Dulcie become closer things escalate as a ghost gets more unsettled.

This was a decent book. It may have been more impactful had I known it was a part of a series. It's not necessary to read any other books, but they may have given a better backstory for the town.

[maria arcara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm probably being overly critical

I probably should give a 5-star rating; I think I didn't for 2 reasons: 1 is because this book is listed as the 5th book in the Lily Dale series, yet it's completely disconnected from the first 4 books (with all different characters and seeming to be set before the first 4 books). The other reason is because of the tone and format of the book - it almost felt frenetic to me, the way every chapter was segmented with SO many characters' points of view.
That being said, I was engaged and compelled to keep reading and reading until I could finally find out what happened. It was a captivating story, to be sure. Okay, so 4.5 stars :)

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I wasn't involved in a fierce book reading challenge this year I probably would have stopped reading this.

The mystery was easily understandable, to the point I was frustrated that characters didn't understand it. The veins of the plot did not impact each other in a significant way, and it got confusing to tell the one dimensional characters apart.

I'm used to an author drone on about setting, but for some reason it grew tiring to have the setting continually explained because of the blind child.

It was a very "meh" book, basically.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a paperback mystery, so I wasn't necessarily expecting great literature. I used to read a lot of these when I was younger, and I got pretty good at guessing whodunit before the end, so this one didn't really surprise me in that way. But the supernatural elements made it legitimately creepy and I stayed up late some nights to continue being entertained by it, so I consider it worth my time and fun.

[Raven Moonstone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twist after twist, suspect after suspect, grief, and finding the answers are what kept me turning the pages in this novel. Julia, Paine, Dulcie, and so many other's lives are twisted as tragedy after tragedy happen to those they love, and the answers are waiting just behind the veil -dying- to be discovered. Keep your schedule free for this one as you'll have no free time until you've read the very last page!

[Lauren Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good suspense novel by Wendy Corsi Staub, though I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the Lily Dale novels that were part of the youth series that starts with Awakening or the adult Nine Lives series. It takes place in the same town so I couldn’t resist it. But it’s about new characters and I just wasn’t as attached to them.

[Janet York · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly surprised at how disappointed I was with this book. I usually love books by this author. The best word I can use for it is disjointed. So many loose ends and unanswered questions. And so sad. There were too many descriptions that went on and on. We get it. More time should have been spent on explanations.

[LittleDeadRedGoddessPersephone · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 out of 5 stars

I have become a big fan of Wendy Corsi Staub within the last year or so and I am so glad that I discovered her. Her novels are always well written with interesting characters that really pull you in. This novel was no exception. A great story.

[Evalitera · Rating 2 out of 5]

Erst geschieht etwas paranormales, dann ein Mord. Hängt beides zusammen?
Das ist so langweilig geschrieben, da blätterte ich zu Mitte und zum Schluss.
Ich habe nichts gegen paranormales Ereignisse aber dann bitte auch glaubhaft und spannend. Ist sowieso ein alter Thriller. Thrillt nicht mehr.