In every day conversation, a question like this might be startling, but at the library’s book signing event on Saturday, readers learned that it is actually the premise of Staub’s latest trilogy.

This month, members of Anderson-Lee’s two book clubs just finished reading “Little Girl Lost,” the first book of the trilogy, which was published last summer. Staub’s second book in the trilogy, “Dead Silence,” just came out on Tuesday, which she was excited to share with book club members and the general public on Saturday morning.

Staub’s inspiration

“This is based on my great-grandfather, who was a foundling, which is a ‘doorstep baby,’ an abandoned baby,” Staub explained. “I came up with this idea for the book before I knew that, though!”

Cristine Huff presented Wendy Corsi Staub with a gift of local wines at Anderson-Lee Library's book signing event on Saturday. Right is the cover of her latest novel.

Like many others, Staub had embarked on a journey to trace her family’s roots through ancestry.com. Also during this time, she watched a “20/20” episode about abandoned babies.

“I thought this would make a really good book series because whenever there’s a baby who is abandoned, they grow up and they don’t know who they are,” Staub said. “There’s always going to be drama and heartache surrounding that because somewhere in the past, someone had to give up a baby for whatever reason, so it’s inherently dramatic and tragic, and it can also be uplifting and mysterious.”

Staub pitched the idea to her editors at William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, who loved the idea but wondered: how is this a suspense novel? While Staub has made a name for herself in multiple genres, from young adult fiction to mysteries to romance, her work with William Morrow is specifically in the suspense/thriller genre. Staub agreed to give the idea more thought, when her editor suggested that she think about Charles Manson’s arrest.

“Several babies were found living on the ranch. Most of those children were placed in the foster system,” Staub pointed out. “What if you found out that your parent was one of the worst people in history? That struck a chord with me,” she reflected. “To me, that’s really scary!” And so the idea for Staub’s latest trilogy was born.

“Little Girl Lost” begins in 1968 with a baby left in a church. Twenty years later, she finds out at her mother’s deathbed that she’s not a biological child of her parents, and sets off on a course to discover her real mother, not knowing that this journey will intersect with that of a murderer. “Book two, ‘Dead Silence,’ takes place in 2016, and she’s an investigative genealogist,” Staub explained. “She’s trying to find out her roots and makes a living helping other people find out who they are.”

Author Wendy Corsi Staub (back row, second from left) was excited to meet members of Anderson-Lee Library's book club, who just finished her book "Little Girl Lost." Anderson-Lee Library Director Tyler Annis (back row) and book club founder Cristine Huff (front row, second from left) were excited to host Staub for a book signing and talk on Saturday morning.

The story became much more personal for Staub while she was engaged in the extensive research process. “Trying to figure out what kind of information they had about DNA and genealogy in the 1980s was really challenging,” she told the OBSERVER. “My books are so specific to a certain month and year, so I had to use so many newspaper and magazine archives to find out what was just invented and known in 1987.”

Then, in the midst of this research, one of Staub’s aunts pointed out that her maternal great-grandfather was a foundling. “He was left in a church in Valledolmo, Sicily, where a lot of Sicilians in this area are from,” Staub explained. “He grew up to raise 13 children; my grandmother was the youngest. They’re the Tampio family in Silver Creek. Once I learned that, I realized that this is a part of who I am.”

Understanding the genres

The award-winning author of nearly 90 novels, Staub is known for mastering several genres. Throughout the morning, she discussed her young adult fiction Lily Dale series, written in the 2000s, which is reaching a new generation of readers. Now, the series has garnered the attention of producer Tish Cyrus (Miley Cyrus’ mother), who is planning to create a television series based on the trilogy. Under the pseudonym Wendy Markham, Staub has published more than 20 works of women’s fiction, including “Hello, It’s Me,” which became a Hallmark movie in 2015.

“I was so excited to have Wendy come speak to our group,” Cristine Huff, founder of Anderson-Lee’s book clubs, told the OBSERVER. “We’ve read three of her books, and this is the first time we’ve had one of the authors we’ve read come speak to us. Her speaking to us opens a whole new world about who she is and how talented she is in so many genres.”

Staub’s new trilogy is considered suspense fiction, and during her talk she explained the difference between a suspense novel and a mystery. “In a suspense novel like ‘Little Girl Lost’ or ‘Dead Silence,’ you’re building towards something,” she explained. “There’s a ticking clock; something’s going to happen. The bad guy is out there, and he’s going to get you. In a mystery, something’s already happened, like an Agatha Christie story. There’s a dead body and you have to solve the crime.”

Staub went on to explain that each genre is nuanced and that the publishing industry is very specific. In a domestic suspense novel, such as “Dead Silence,” “The characters aren’t spies or political figures. They’re everyday people: people you can relate to. They’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing in everyday life, and then they cross paths with danger. The scariest thing that you can think of is something happening to you at home, where you think you’re safe — domestic suspense.”

Many readers know Staub for her gripping — and terrifying — suspense novels, which often feature villains that challenge the imaginations of even the most seasoned suspense readers. But for Staub, writing about these characters isn’t a challenge at all.

“I don’t have that much trouble because I’m in control,” she told the OBSERVER. “Not knowing what’s going to happen next in life is the scariest thing: fear of the unknown. I’m in control, so it’s not scary for me.”

Staub acknowledged that her work, especially some of the characters, can be rather dark. “When I create a villain, I try to find a humane part of the villain, and usually they’re victims,” she explained. “Few people are inherently evil. The only way I can go into that dark villain’s point of view and write about it is if I — even if I don’t put it on the page — know that they like puppies or I imagine them as a little kid with a candy bar. You try to find the human side of them to write about them, and that makes it not so dark for me. You have to empathize somehow. In both of these books, the villains were victims as children — victims of abuse.”

Hometown pride

During Saturday’s signing, Staub was excited to see many friends, family members and former classmates. “I love to visit this area,” said Staub, who grew up in Dunkirk, graduated from Dunkirk High School, and earned her bachelor’s degree in English from SUNY Fredonia. Many of her books take place in familiar places including Lily Dale, Chautauqua and Buffalo. “I like to write about western New York,” she said. “I like to bring it to a wider audience and say, ‘These are real places.’ To me, it’s gratifying to have readers say, ‘We were on a road trip, so we stopped off and we were in your hometown!’ I like that.”

Staub’s next chapter

Currently, Staub is writing the third book of the trilogy, which is expected to come out next July. “I’m writing a single title next after this, but I’m also doing some television writing right now,” Staub told the OBSERVER. “I wrote a script with my younger son, who is a television/radio major at Ithaca College. It’s set in a fictionalized Dunkirk; we named it ‘Chadwick Bay’ and it’s with a producer. I have another script that I’m writing right now, too, that I’m working on with another producer.”

Staub is excited about this new venture and sharing more of her hometown with her audience. “I’ve been writing for 28 years, and it’s something refreshing for me,” she told the OBSERVER. “It’s a new frontier that’s capturing my attention right now, and it’s all been unfolding in the past few months.”

While Staub has met readers all over the country, she always looks forward to visiting northern Chautauqua County, where most of her family still lives. “It’s coming home for me,” said Staub. “People are so supportive and proud. I speak all over the country, and people are really nice. But when I come back here — to see a line at the library on Saturday morning — it just makes me feel so good. I’m so proud to be from here.”