Unfortunately this wasn’t for me. The back and forth between time frames wasn’t easy to track and the story was quite muted overall.

Although she has written a number of books and series, Wendy Corsi Staub is a "new to me" author. I was very excited to read The Fourth Girl, a thriller/suspense about four friends with a dark secret, three of whom are brought back together over unpleasant circumstances years later.

On their prom night, four friends gather at a party. One of the four slips away never to be seen again. The remaining three keep the secret of what really happened that night for 25 years. Now a murder has brought them back together. Midge, one of the friends, is a cop who has to investigate the murder. What she finds in the man's hand convinces her that his death is related to their long disappeared friend.

The Fourth Girl was very interesting as were the characters. Normally, this is exactly the type of book that really pulls me in. I'm not sure why I wasn't as thrilled with this one as I normally am. I suspect that the back and forth timelines - which normally don't bother me - coupled with so many characters going back and forth on those timelines was the reason. It really did get to be too much. I did like the ending and I do look forward to reading the next book in the series. I just really hope the next book is kept more tailored, less back and forth.

The Fourth Girl is the perfect start to an new series Haven Cliff .

The book goes between the past and the present .

In the past we meet four 16 year old girls that are best friends, have each others back and have given their promise to each other to be friends always.

Their names are Kelly, Midge , Tali and Caroline.

They celebrate this milestone with matching charm bracelets.

Prom comes and one of the girls disappears never to be found or seen again.

What do the other three know, it is hard to say for sure.

Life changes and we get older friends can drift apart and the other three do as their life continues on.

Flash to the present and Midge is Chief of Police and when two bodies are found in this quiet comminuity the questions are raised and people are asking could this be related to the disappearance of Caroline 25 years ago.

Wendy Corsi Stubb masterfully throws in twists and turns that had me guessing one way then quickly changing my mind.

Who could I trust.

The pages fly by and before you know it Haven Cliff #1 is finished.

I cant wait to see what happens in Book 2 and I will be first in line.

Great read that keeps you guessing and turning those pages.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the privilege of reading and reviewing The Fourth Girl.

Multiple POVs, alot of time line jumps, A lot of unanswered questions throughout the book which kept your reading to the end.
Thank you @netgalley for the arc of this book.

The Fourth Girl by Wendy Corsi Staub is a highly recommended mystery following four friends.

In Mulberry Bay, New York, Caroline Winterfield, Midge Kennedy, Kelly Barrow, and Talia Shaw are childhood friends. On Prom night in 2000 Caroline walks into the woods and disappears forever. Her disappearance is treated as a drowning. Midge, Kelly, and Talia know what happened and are keeping the secret, but they plan to return to the site where she walked off and meet on the anniversary.

Life intervenes with their plans and the three head in separate directions. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of that night, they plan a reunion and hopefully Caroline will meet them there. Once they meet it becomes clear that someone knows what happened and that another person may have witnessed something.

The plot is follows a familiar trope of friends keeping a secret but it is also entertaining and will hold your attention. The narrative jumps between time periods and characters so readers can understand what happened in the past, the intervening years, and in the present. It is somewhat predictable and the ending is not entirely satisfying.

What stands out in this version of the familiar plot are the well developed characters. Each character is portrayed as a unique individual and they all have distinct voices. As the narrative flips back and forth through time periods it is easy to follow who is who because they are distinguishable.

The Fourth Girl is a good choice for readers who appreciate fully realized characters in their mysteries. Thanks to Thomas & Mercer for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Edelweiss, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

I always love Wendy Corsi Staub. This book didn’t disappoint. Fantastic read! Thank you NetGalley and publisher for giving me the opportunity.

This one gave me all of the creepy spine tingles in all the right ways! I love when a book marketed as thrilling is actually thrilling.

This will wrap you in and continually grip you tighter until the very last page.

What a beautiful story about sisterhood and the rites of passage that shape us. Midge, Tallie, Caroline, and Kelly’s journey together—through both the highs and the hardest moments of their lives—felt so real and deeply emotional. Their bond was the heart of the book, and I was completely immersed in their story.

The emotional weight of this novel is overwhelming in the best way. It tugs at you, making you feel every joy, heartbreak, and moment of growth alongside the characters. And then, right in the middle of all that sisterhood, there’s a mystery woven in. The author masterfully drops little hints throughout but never reveals too much until the very end.

I love when a book keeps me guessing while also making me *feel* something, and this one did exactly that. It’s a beautifully written story, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a mix of deep emotions and well-crafted mystery.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for their generosity in allowing me to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Twenty-five years ago, 16-year-old Caroline walks into the woods on her Prom Night. She is never seen again. Kelly. Midge and Talia, her best friends, were there and they have a secret about that night. Midge grows up to be a detective and ends up with a case that could be connected. The story is told in both past and present and with multiple POV's. It does start off a bit slow but picks up fairly quickly and I had to know what happened! I enjoyed the police procedural aspect but couldn't help but think how much easier it would all have been had the girls just told what happened from the get-go. But kids do dumb things. I have read this author for years and she can always be counted on for quick, easy, suspenseful reads.

Thank you to #NetGalley, Wendy Corsi Staub and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

I will post my review to Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, Instagram and other retail and social media sites upon publication day of March 25, 2025.

This book had a good storyline, but it took way too long for me to get into. The pov/timeline swaps every chapter threw me off and the timeline wasn't chronological in the flashbacks so it felt all over the place. As someone who has read dozens of thrillers, the plot twists were pretty predictable. If someone is new to the genre I could see them having their jaw dropped by this book.

I know this is set up as the first book in a series, so I'm hoping some of the unanswered questions do get answered in the next installment. I'll definitely read it because I need to know everything and the second half of the book had me tapping my Kindle to turn pages like a madwoman.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Wendy Corsi Staub's "The Fourth Girl" is a psychological thriller that grips the reader from the first page. This story revolves around four childhood friends – Lily, Chloe, Ava, and Grace – whose lives are irrevocably altered by a tragic accident. Years later, as they navigate the complexities of adulthood, a chilling secret from their past threatens to unravel their fragile friendships and expose the darkest corners of their souls.

Staub masterfully weaves a tapestry of suspense, expertly manipulating the reader's expectations. The narrative shifts seamlessly between the perspectives of the four women, each grappling with guilt, grief, and the lingering trauma of the past. Their voices are distinct and compelling, drawing the reader into their inner turmoil and forcing them to question their own perceptions of reality.

The novel delves into the profound impact of grief on the human psyche, exploring themes of guilt, betrayal, and the enduring power of childhood trauma. Staub's exploration of female friendship is particularly poignant, highlighting the complexities of loyalty, forgiveness, and the enduring bonds that can both sustain and destroy.

"The Fourth Girl" is a chilling reminder that the past has a way of catching up with us, and that the secrets we bury deep within ourselves can have devastating consequences. Staub's masterful storytelling and insightful character development make this a truly unforgettable reading experience.

In high school, Caroline, Midge, Talia, and Kelly were inseparable. But when Caroline disappears, the remaining three friends have to keep her secret. Twenty-five years later, Midge, now a detective, has to solve a murder that has something to do with her friend’s disappearance.

Normally I like novels with multiple POVs and timelines, but I found this story harder to follow than other similar novels. I also wasn’t particularly pulled in by the story or the characters. I did think it was interesting that Caroline was in such a religious family she had to go through that creepy vowing-to-be-a-virgin ritual where it looks like she’s marrying her father. It had its moments, but I remember enjoying another Wendy Corsi Staub novel more than this one. (That was quite a while ago).

NetGalley provided an advance copy of this book, which RELEASES MARCH 25, 2025.

The Fourth Girl is a standalone suspense novel. Four friends go to prom and then one of them disappear. Twenty five years later, the missing girl’s boyfriend is murdered and someone is stalking the other girls. The story moves kind of slow in the first two-thirds of the book as it switches between the past and present uncovering the details of prom night. The last third of the book the pace and suspense picks up as danger rears its ugly head for an unexpected twist to the story. I enjoyed the ending of the story but the beginning was a lot slower paced than I expected. The characters are okay but not really ones I would care to visit again in a future book. This story is just okay for me. My voluntary, unbiased, and non-mandatory review is based upon a review copy from NetGalley.

The suspense permeates every page of this, even when I’m not sure what is going on. There are time hops and perspective changes, and sometimes it’s confusing, but the book will hold your interest until the end. I predict it will be a reader favorite for 2025.

The back and forth between the different time lines was really confusing to me, even though it was time stamped under the chapters it seemed to jump around a lot. There not being a wrap up to explain what actually happened was also frustrating it left me feeling like the story wasn’t finished.

The plot was good, i liked how it all came together and said what their life was like before and then the present. Overall I did enjoy the book

I received an ARC of this book from Thomas & Mercer via NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback. I was really expecting to rate this higher, but the ending was just not good!

The part I enjoyed the most was the four women's friendship and history. I am the same age as they are, so the pop culture references were very relatable. I also found their friendship totally believable, with each woman really having her own personality and backstory. Many reviewers mentioned this book dragged; I did not feel this way. I was invested in finding out what happened.

I also loved the description of Haven Cliff, both historically and with Kelly's renovations. I enjoy fiction about the Gilded Age, and the fact that Kelly was painstakingly recreating how the estate looked in the past was very satisfying to me.

But the end really just ruined the book for me. So many unanswered questions! I almost never like books with unresolved issues at the end, and this had multiple. I didn't realize at the time I requested the book from NetGalley that it was going to be a series, so presumably some of the questions will be resolved in the future, but I just found the ending very confusing and not totally believable. I may or may not seek out the other books in the series to maybe get some clear answers...

The Fourth Girl by Wendy Corsi Staub was a pretty gripping read. The story had me hooked as it unraveled the secrets within a group of friends, with lots of twists I didn’t see coming. The pacing was a bit up and down, though, and some plot twists felt a little predictable, but overall it’s a solid, suspenseful thriller that kept me wanting to know what happened next.

*4 Stars*

Copy kindly received via NetGalley for an honest review.

Secrets eventually come out and not in a good way. Some parents are way too strict on their kids. I found the ending to be interesting.

This was fantastic. I truly had no idea what was going on until the final page. It left me breathless!

Thank you, Thomas & Mercer for the copy of The Fourth Girl by Wendy Corsi Staub. I enjoyed this book and the friendship of the four young women, but it took some time to get used to the multiple timelines and the occasional different POVs. I didn’t love the story of the friends as adult women as much because Midge was the only one who was interesting. The ending fell flat to me because I had it figured out early on and some of the things that would have explained things more were built up but never resolved. It really only occurred to me as I was thinking about what I was going to write in my review! 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 because I loved most of the book!