Little Girl Lost audiobook

Twenty years ago a vicious killer started killed entire families ... all except the teenage daughters of each family. They were brutalized but left alive. A janitor finds an abandoned baby in the church where he works. To him, this is a message from God. The only thing that this man and wife had been denied was a child. He smuggles the baby out and takes her home.Today.. someone is killing off the daughters that were spared so many years ago. The infant foundling is searching for her birth parents .. and heading into a collision course with a killer. Detective Stockton Barnes is searching for a missing millionaire who also has ties to the past crimes.All these events leave Detective Barnes in the dark ... until they start merging. This is a killer like he has never seen before and he prays he never will again. Lots of suspense ... many characters to keep track of ... and an absolute surprising ending. This is a cleverly written psychological thriller with an edginess that keeps the reader riveted.Many thanks to the author / William Morrow Books / Edelweiss for the advanced digital copy. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

I believe that I may have read everything this author has ever written...if I'm wrong in that then I can say that what I have read has never disappointed me. This may not be to everyone's liking as it quotes a great deal of scripture from Revalation in support of the many gruesom acts that occur. It's a dark, complicated story of psychological suspense with several interrelated threads and subplots that are eventually woven together. The only drawback I could see to the book was that the ending was very abrupt.

Little Girl Lost(The Foundlings Trilogy #1)by Wendy Corsi Staub4 StarsAs Amelia Crenshaw’s mother lays dying in 1987, Amelia learns that she was not her birth mother. The man she has always called her father found her as a baby abandoned in the church where he worked as a janitor, and the people she has always thought her parents kept her and raised her as their own, thinking she was the answer to their prayers. At about the same time back in 1968, a serial killer was in the midst of a killing spree that would leave four families dead and four young women pregnant with his children. Now in 1987 Amelia’s search for the truth about her past is about to entangle her with another killing spree linked to that time nearly twenty years before.Little Girl Lost is a terrific, suspense-filled read. It starts a little slowly and it’s tough to connect the many disparate parts to the story, but it’s well worth sticking it out. The story all comes together in the end and by then it’s impossible to put down!

Building to a climax and then, it's over! I can't wait for the next book Little Boy Blue.

Wow. Evil persists over 20 years. Amelia has no idea when she sets out to find her birth mother that she is a child of rape and murder and that the criminal is still out there. I have to wonder about how Staub, a veteran of psychological thrillers, came up with a plot where the innocent children are visited by the horror that led to the deaths of their families so many years ago. Trust that NYPD Detective Stockton Barnes is going to help her, even though the connections don't seem clear at first. This has a large cast of characters, some better fleshed out than others, a complicated plot, and good twists. Thanks to edelweiss for the ARC. Staub readers will be happy with this one. If you, like me, haven't read all her books (or even any), be prepared for a pretty darn good thriller. You're going to root for Amelia.

I really enjoy Wendy Corsi Staub's books and this didn't disappoint. Back in the 60's, several families were murdered in their homes and only the teenaged daughters survived. They were raped by the killer and later found to be pregnant. Many years later the children of these girls are now being targeted, even though the original killer is behind bars. I am assuming this will be a new collection of books by Staub, and I look forward to reading this series.Thank you to Edelweiss for the Advanced Copy

I loved this book no spoilers

I like this author, but this book was a bit too confusing.’Hated the ending; many unanswered questions. But it is a series, maybe that’s it.Suspenseful, for sure!

Great read. Always excited when this author comes out with new books. Never disappoints

4.5

Edgy and full of suspense! The plot twists kept me guessing...I'm ready for the next book!

Wendy Corsi Staub has quite a pedigree. She has published nearly 90 novels in her career, in various genres, and has been nominated three times for the prestigious Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her latest effort, LITTLE GIRL LOST, is set in and around New York City and upstate New York, and the action bridges the years between 1968 and 1987.There are different storylines to follow here, but two significant events that happened back in 1968 drive the story forward. First off, a brutal serial killer tabbed the Brooklyn Butcher, who is actually a man named Oran, is terrorizing families in the Brooklyn area, creeping into their homes as they sleep and murdering them. For some unexplained reason, a teenage daughter from each family is left alive to mourn their tragic losses.The other incident involves a custodian cleaning up at the church where he is employed. One night, he spots a package left there like a bag of garbage. It is a newborn girl. To a man who comes from a childless marriage where he and his wife have prayed for their own infant, this discovery is a blessing. The couple adopts the girl as their own and decides never to tell her that she is not their own flesh and blood. The ironic twist is that the baby came into this world as the result of a violent act directly linked to the Brooklyn serial killer. They keep their vow not to tell Amelia where she actually came from, and the Brooklyn Butcher is never caught.Fast forward to 1987. Amelia’s adoptive mother, Bettina, is hospitalized with a serious illness, and her prognosis for recovery is not good. When Bettina succumbs to her illness and passes on, Amelia is made privy to her medical history that indicates she never gave birth to a girl in 1968. The confused and angry Amelia runs from the people she had always called “family,” heading out in search of her real mother and uncovering her own identity. This will lead her to the town of Ithaca in upstate Western New York.The joint 1987 storyline involves NYPD detective Stockton Barnes, who comes from upper Manhattan and has a large chip on his shoulder. The case in which he and his partner, Stefanie, are engaged is one that was born in the summer of 1968. The surviving females from the four slaughtered families are being targeted. A killer going by the name of Red is slaying them one by one. Stockton is committed to bringing this monster to justice once and for all and making a name for himself. By accomplishing this, he also hopes to put to rest the demons that drive him.Staub keeps her readers not only on the edge of their seats, but also somewhat confused as to what is going on. We know that Oran is the original culprit, but we are shown cryptic interactions with what seems to be a group of killers who, in their own deluded minds, may have taken on the persona of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse --- a scary proposition, indeed. Nevertheless, it is clear that Red is on a mission, one that will put this murderer directly in the path of Amelia as she is figuring out her own identity up in Ithaca.LITTLE GIRL LOST is a solid suspense novel and, in the more-than-capable hands of this veteran mystery writer, a deftly plotted psychological thriller. Readers will feel the frustration of characters like Amelia and Stockton while being defied by the killer or killers who represent their opposition. Not all questions are answered in this paperback original, which includes a sneak peek of LITTLE BOY BLUE, a sequel coming in 2019. I look forward to the story’s conclusion at that time.Reviewed by Ray Palen

Recommended by a friend, I chose this mystery thriller for a quick read to finish out the year, and it was a swift engaging read, just perfect for the entertainment I needed! It is a very complicated tale, switching back and forth twenty years and does manage to bewilder the reader who will not be able to connect the dots completely until the final pages. In the late 60’s, four brutal family murders are committed in which only the teenage daughter of each family survives...but she is raped and left pregnant. Two decades later, in spite of the fact that the Brooklyn Butcher was caught and put away for life, someone (or rather multiple people) systematically begin hunting down these mothers and their grown children to murder them. A whole host of good and bad guys add layers of complexity to the tale, and it is easy to picture them. Only occasionally did I find a bit of heavy stereotyping, but altogether this was a great escape read to ring in the new year!

Bettina is a young teenager who upon the death of her mother, discovers that she was adopted. This news comes as a bit of a shock to her, but her father's version of events makes it even more confusing. She sees and ad in the newspaper about this new technology. It's called DNA testing and she believes it may be able to find out about her parents. The story is set in the early 70's so DNA was a relatively new revelation to the public that had proved a man's innocence in a criminal case. The character's are well drawn but I found it hard to move the story along in the beginning. I had put it aside for a bit and then picked it up again a week or two later. It does start to really get going but I was a good third of the way through the book by then. I would recommend to you as a good read because it was, my problem was mainly with the pace in the beginning, but maybe that's just me. I say give it a shot and see what you think.

The Lost ChildrenI really like this author, she writes great suspenseful novels that really interested her readers.These children were abandoned at birth by their mothers at a unsafe area.

When I need my Mystery Fix, I know the gal to go to - Wendy Corsi Staub. :) You know, Wendy, I've been with your books for many, many years now. I always enjoy the ride. Thank you for your craft! Love ya girl!