Wendy Corsi Staub has written almost 100 novels, her Lily Dale mystery series being among the most critically acclaimed.
Appropriately, Staub lives in the New York City suburbs with her family (and more than a few rescue kitties). She’s known for creating memorable characters, and the Lily Dale series doesn’t disappoint.
The series centers around a single, widowed mom, Bella Jordan, and her son Max. Though a skeptic, the two settle unexpectedly in the quirky, lakeside village of Lily Dale, New York, where mediums, spiritualists, and psychics populate.
They’re able to find the fresh start they were in such desperate need of; but they’re also thrust into the midst of more murder mysteries than the typical person experiences in a lifetime.
Not only is there another addition to the Lily Dale series under contract, but the series has also been sold to NBC Peacock Television, so we may also get to see it soon on the big screen.
Until then, here is a list of the Lily Dale paranormal series to get you started.
Nine Lives
Following the death of her husband, Bella Jordan and her son Max need a fresh start. They’re on their way to stay with family in Chicago, but a storm (and a stray kitty who needs to be returned to her owner) force them to detour in Lily Dale, New York for the night.
Brimming with psychics and mediums, Bella just knows Lily Dale is the type of quirky little town her husband would have wanted to settle in. So she agrees to step in when the local hotel owner, Leona, passes away. The longer they stay, the more like home the little town feels.
But nothing is ever easy. The fact of the matter is, Leona was murdered. And if Bella really wants to make a home in Lily Dale, she has no choice but to track down the killer.
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Something Buried, Something Blue
Bella and Max have agreed to stay in Lily Dale as the Valley View Guesthouse (and feline) caretakers through the winter. They’re looking forward to the peace and quiet of the off-season after such a hectic summer–but they should know better.
Odelia Lauder, the medium next door, has recruited them to host a destination wedding for a friend of her granddaughter. Johneen Maynard is perhaps the most ill-tempered bride–but she didn’t deserve to die!
The Spirits begin giving Odelia warnings about Johnheen’s looming death, and when the prediction comes true, Bella finds herself trapped in a house full of suspects.
Can she figure out who killed her, and what genius murder weapon made the death appear to be a result of natural causes, before the killer catches on?
Dead of Winter
Wrong window, wrong time: Just as a murderer is disposing of a corpse in the lake across Valley View in Lily Dale, Bella happens to be looking out her window, not quite registering what she’s seeing.
But the killer sees her, and he’s on the way to her door; that is until the superstitious killer sees a black cat cross his path. But he’ll be back.
Jiffy Arden, a neighborhood kid, stumbled across the killer while looking for the black cat that dissuaded his descent on Bella. He begins to have premonitions of being kidnapped during the first snowstorm–and sure enough, amidst the first storm, Jiffy never returns from the bus stop.
Max is convinced of his premonitions, but Bella isn’t so sure…until a body is found in the lake.
Now, it’s a race against time to find the missing Jiffy, identify the body, and catch the killer before he shows up for Bella next.
Prose and Cons
It’s been nine months since Bella’s move to Lily Dale, and she and Max have come to call it home, and her medium neighbors as friends–even pompous Pandora, the previous Valley View owner before her difficult divorce.
When Pandora requests a word with Bella, she assumes it’ll just be another book club complaint, but not this time.
Pandora casually mentions that her Auntie Eudora is embarking on a last-minute cruise from London to New York with her gentleman friend Nigel. And to top it off, Pandora has promised to host them at Valley View free of charge.
Bewildered, and with too much on her plate already between her son, two kitties, a budding relationship with local vet Drew, and choosing this month’s book club pick, she is nevertheless determined to uncover the truth about the suspicions of one of her new guests.
Even if it kills her.
The Stranger Vanishes
Bella may not believe in ghosts, but after a year in Lily Dale, she has to admit that sometimes, her psychic neighbors do know some impossible things.
So when a Black stranger in old-fashioned clothing turns up unexpectedly at Bella’s guesthouse at midnight on Juneteenth, only to be gone without a trace the next day, she’s unsure what to think.
Odelia gives her a strange warning from the Spirits: “Beware of Barry.”
But Bella doesn’t know a Barry, and it leads her to wonder if they actually meant bury.
Dog Days
After attending a family wedding in Chicago, Bella sees the impossible at the airport: a glimpse of her late husband, Sam. Bella is a skeptic, rooted in facts and logic, but she can’t seem to find a reasonable explanation for what she saw.
She returns to the guesthouse and its various distractions, and her psychic friend Odelia reveals that she’s made contact with Sam’s spirit, and that he shared a significant name: Kevin Bacon.
Bella has no idea what to think, but then she glimpses Sam again and things begin to vanish around her.
She knows she needs to get to the bottom of the strange occurrences, even if it means letting go for good.
Featured image: Łukasz Łada / Unsplash
