Fade to Black

Rating:
Summary: You're in for a Surprise!!!!
Review: "Fade to Black" is the firsrt book I have read by Wendy Corsi Staub and it was marvelous! So thrilling, believable, and grabbing. Cliff-hanger chapters with a perfectly delighting and surprise ending. Of course, you'll have to find out the end for yourself. The Main character, Elizabeth Baxter, used to be the famous actress, Mallory Eden, until a stalker forced her to fake her own death and begin a new lif in Windmere Cove, Rhode Island. A man she thought she couldn't trust might have some connection to Mallory Eden's past... Wonderful, don't miss it!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Could have been 80 or 90 pages shorter!
Review: Hate to be in the minority but I found this book boring. There was so much detail on stupid things. Two paragraphs on how a woman changes her baby's diaper. Three on exactly what someone puts on their sandwich. And Elizabeth/Mallory/Cindi was constantly questioning herself: Should I do this or should I do that. I understand that she would be paranoid after what she's been through but she kept going over the same things, again, and again, and again. Not to mention the fact that she seemed to suspect everyone of being the stalker, except the real stalker! I really believe that if this book had been cut back to 230 or 240 pages it would have been a big improvement!

Rating:
Summary: Good story
Review: Mallory Eden was dubbed by the Hollywood press corps as the "new Meg Ryan". However, her rising star abruptly burns out when she flees town to escape a stalker who has shot her. When she reaches her selected destination, she leaves a suicide note on the dashboard of her car, which is overlooking a cliff.

For the next five years, Mallory has hidden in Rhode Island under the alias of Elizabeth Baxter. For fear of being found by the stalker, Elizabeth has kept to herself. However, her nosy neighbors want to know more about her. Soon the stalker starts to send her letters informing her that he has found her. Elizabeth knows her deadly enemy is coming for her, but wonders if her foe could be the locksmith, a man she desperately wants to trust will protect her as he claims he will.

Elizabeth is a charming character who will solicit much reader sympathy. The support cast adds an authentic feel while propelling the story line forward. Though the novel is chilling,, FADE TO BLACK does not quite reach the level of tension it seems to have had the potential to generate, almost as if Wendy Corsi Staub could not bear having her heroine in non-stop danger. Still, fans of romantic suspense and women in danger novels will enjoy this well constructed tale.

Harriet Klausner