Bella Jordan and her son, Max, have enjoyed the last year as they settled in and became part of the community of Lily Dale--the birthplace of modern spiritualism--as a result of taking a wrong turn. Bella now manages the Valley View Guesthouse and has made a number of friends. Max, now seven, has a best friend and finds living with his mother in a community composed of shamanic healers, psychic consultants, registered mediums, and other talents to be perfectly normal. Bella on the other hand is a skeptic but she does believe there are some people who occasionally seem to have information that seems to come from some source she has yet to determine.

Things take a weird turn when Bella forgot to lock-up and a man dressed in a historical costume arrived needing a room for the night. There are no openings beginning the next day so she gives him the room under the condition he moves out early the next morning so she can reset the room. Only, the next morning he is gone but his satchel is left behind. There's no car on the street that doesn't belong there. Searching his satchel for any clue yields only a diary that is quite old. Bella is warned to "beware of Barry" and that her missing guest was probably a ghost. Bella is convinced he is a real person who is now missing.

The area is also currently upset by David Slayton, a TV medium with a big following, chosen to assist in the festivities for Juneteenth. He was chosen over the local congressman Terry Truman. Slayton is trying to leverage his family's ties to the underground railroad to offset the fact he hasn't actually lived in the area for many years.

It's always interesting to read the interplay between the skeptic Bella and the residents of Lily Dale. The interactions between the believers, want-to-be-believes, and those who accept that it is what it is--keep me engrossed in this series. The stories always have multi-layered mysteries, interesting and quirky characters, and some interesting concepts to think about after closing the book on the final page.

The mediums, good police work, a wealth of local knowledge, and several very interesting bits of American history tie all the threads together to solve the puzzle of the stranger who vanished.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC! I could not get into this book for some reason and had to DNF it way to early

This is book 5 in the Lily Dale series. It is an enjoyable read that explores the past of runaway slave from the Civil War era. Bella is making a success of running the guest house in the spiritualist community and summer season is about to begin. People from all over come to meet the local mediums and speak to ghosts. When a stranger arrives late one night she rents him a room to have him vanish. I think if you have read previous books in the series, you'll enjoy this story but Wendy does a pretty good job of giving background for first time reader. I have visited Lily Dale and it is certainly a unique community.

The Stranger Vanishes by Wendy Corsi Staub is the fifth in the Lily Dale paranormal cozy mystery series.


First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Severn,  and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.


Series Background:    (Warning – May contain spoilers from previous books)
Lily Dale is a small gated community in New York State.  It was the birthplace of modern spiritualism back in the 1980's and today's population predominantly consists of psychics.  The energy in the town is known as Spirit, and most residents speak with this entity.  In the summer season, it is a very busy place, as tourists from around the world come for readings, as well as physical, spiritual and emotional healing.  Bella Jordan and her son Max ended up in the town while trying to return a cat to it's owner...who, it turned out was dead.  Bella ended up not only looking after the dead woman's pregnant cat, but also her bed & breakfast, The Valley View Guesthouse.  Bella is a skeptic.


My Synopsis:    (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)
The new season is arriving tomorrow in Lily Dale, and the Valley View Guesthouse will be booked solid for the next couple of months.  The night before all her guests are to arrive, Bella opens her door to a black man dressed in old-fashioned clothing in the middle of the night.  His name is Lemuel, and he needs a room for just the night.  Bella takes him in, but the next morning he is gone.  Left behind is a rather old-fashioned satchel.  Closer examination shows some perplexing items. Bella is sure he was real, but others in town think he may have been a ghost.

Odelia warned Bella to be wary of someone named Barry....but no one seems to know anyone by that name.  Perhaps it's Bella's other strange guest who identified himself as Mr. Stone, but who she overheard on the phone saying it was an alias.

Meanwhile, David Slayton is back in town for the Juneteenth ceremony.  Odelia is not thrilled that her boyfriend Luther asked him to speak, but since Slayton's grandfather was a well-known abolitionist, he was a natural choice.  Calla, Odelia's grand-daughter, is still dating David's son, and Odelia is not thrilled with that.  Calla, too, is having doubts.


My Opinions:
Well, I can't say that either Pandora or Jiffy are growing on me, but the other characters just keep getting better.

The plot was really good, and kept me interested from start to finish.

It was another light, fast read, so if you are interested in a cozy mystery, this series is right for you.  They may not be deep, but they are good.

Publish Date:
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The community of LilyDale NY is populated by people all manner of spiritualists from mediums to energy healers. Bella Jordan, the new manager at the Valley View Guesthouse is the lone skeptic among believers. Bella moved to LilyDale only a year ago with her young son Max and two cats. The night before the season kickoff, a stranger dressed in old-fashioned clothing, arrives unexpectedly at midnight on Juneteenth. The next morning he has vanished as if he'd never existed. Yet Bella is sure there has to be a logical explanation. Her friends offer various explanations - could he be Spirit, a visitor from the past, or did he just skip out? Can Bella figure how it will all tie together?

This one took me a while to finish. The pov as third person was a bit odd until I got used to it. I got part way in and had to go search out the others in the series to read as I felt that I would like the series better if I read them in order. You can start here and be fine, but once I realized it was several books in, I personally wanted to go back and read the others first. I did enjoy it and I love LilyDale!!

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Bella lives in a town know for it's spiritualists. Lots of psychics and mediums. She runs a B&B and expecting a large crowd for the weekend's events. Late the night before the event, she has a lone man come to her door. It's raining and miserable outside. He needs a place to stay. Bella is nervous but lets him rent a room. The next day, he has disappeared. His possessions are still in the room but he is gone. She is concerned and her friend Odelia has told her the spirits want Bella to be careful.

It took me a while to get into this book. At first, if seemed like the author was switching the point of view. Sometimes it felt like third person and sometimes first. Oddly off-putting. Once I became used to the writing style the story started to capture my attention. It was somewhat slow moving. I was as attached to the characters. Again, as I read more, I became engaged. .

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars, I quite liked it.

This one took me a while to finish, but only because I got part way in and had to go search out the others in the series to read first! As the description says, you can start here and be fine, but once I realized it was several books in, I personally wanted to go back and read the others first. Once I got back to it, it was a fun, fast read.

I love the setting of Lily Dale and all the quirky spiritualist characters, along with the main character Bella, who doesn't seem quite sure what she believes. I absolutely know the feeling of, "But if the dead can communicate, why don't my loved ones talk to ME?!"

I hope there will be more in the series now that I have found it!

I enjoyed coming back to this unique town. They mystery kept me guessing and I liked how their was a past mystery as well as a current one. I like the characters as well.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting mystery wrapped in a magical place nearby, Lilydale. I believe!! The atmosphere of Lilydale is truly magical, and so well described for those who have never had the good fortune of visiting. Wendy does another great job with characters and the location, along with the true mystical surroundings of this little town.

My thanks to Severn House for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Stranger Vanishes’ by Wendy Corsi Staub.

While this is Book 5 in her Lily Dale Mysteries, there was enough background provided for new readers that I didn’t have any difficulty.

The picturesque lakeside community of Lily Dale is populated by people who speak to the dead. Young widow Bella Jordan is the lone skeptic among believers. She currently manages the Valley View Guesthouse, living there with her young son Max and two gorgeous cats.

Then a Black stranger, dressed in old-fashioned clothing, arrives unexpectedly at midnight on Juneteenth. The next morning he has vanished as if he'd never existed. Yet Bella is sure there has to be a logical explanation. Her eccentric friends offer various explanations - could he be Spirit, a visitor from the past, or did he just skip out?

He has left behind a satchel and in it Bella finds a small, old book marked Diary 1863, written by a farmer’s wife named Lottie. Will this hold the secret to the stranger?

This gentle mystery was a delight, filled with quirky characters and a few wonderful cats. I also admired that it addressed historical issues linked to the Civil War, the Underground Railroad, and racism. So more than an average cosy….

While ‘The Stranger Vanishes’ was my first experience of Wendy Corsi Staub’s writing, it certainly won’t be my last.

The Stranger Vanishes is part of a series in which Bella, a widow with a son, bought a B and B in a rather haunted town. Surrounded by mediums and fortune-tellers the mysteries always feature humor. I love the series so was really excited to get a n ARC for this. The author has done a really good job of painting the scene with a vivid description and you can really picture the small told feel as you listen.

Bella may live in the town of Lily Dale where it seems like everyone is a psychic of some kind but that doesn't mean that she has to believe it. Even if she has seen a lot of unexplainable things in the last year that has often been involved with crimes that have occurred that she unfortunately gets entangled with. Now, the night before the opening of the summer season a man dressed in old fashioned clothes and a formal way of speaking begs to spend the night. But then he just mysteriously disappears without any trace leaving behind a satchel and an old diary. Was he a spirit or has something more sinister occurred.

The author has interwoven historical details, the possibility of paranormal occurrences, and the elements of a cozy into a good story with sensitivity to past injustices and the strength of the human spirit.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest opinion.

The Stranger Vanishes by Wendy Corsi Staub.
In the quirky, picturesque lakeside community of Lily Dale, where the residents can talk to the dead, young widow Bella Jordan is the lone skeptic among believers. She doesn't believe in ghosts . . . but after a year in the village, she would admit that her new friends do sometimes seem to know impossible things. Still, when a Black stranger dressed in old-fashioned clothing arrives unexpectedly at Bella's guesthouse at midnight on Juneteenth, only to vanish the next day as if he'd never existed, Bella's sure there has to be a logical explanation. One that has nothing to do with the strange warning Odelia, the medium next door, delivers from the Spirits: Beware of . . . Barry?! Bella doesn't know a Barry, and she has enough people in her life already, what with her young son Max and their two kitties, handsome vet Drew, a plethora of kind but nosy neighbors and a full house of summer guests. But as the mystery of the missing stranger deepens, she starts to wonder: did the Spirits really mean Barry? Or did they mean bury . . .
A great read. I love a good mystery. Solid characters. 4*.

It's been some time since I fell in love with this series. Lily Vale is an interesting place full of quirky characters and there's always some paranormal side that makes the mix more exciting.
Bella, Max, the cats are as lovely as usual and I liked this well plotted story that kept me guessing and turning pages.
Even it's not the first in the series it can be read as a stand alone as there's a lot of explanations.
An entertaining and compelling mystery, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This is one of my favourite paranormal series and this latest does not disappoint. Great characters, a great setting of Lily Dale and a whodunit that is top notch.
I highly recommend this series and look forward to reading more books in the series.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

An interesting start to what seems to be a new series. Bella, a new widow, has moved to the town of Lily Dale with her son Max and her pets and now runs a B&B. Others in the town talk to spirits but Bella is not a believer until the night a stranger shows up at her door. The man disappears, leaving behind things that suggest he's tied to others in the community and that he might have been- wait for it- a ghost. The paranormal elements are nice done and the storytelling carries you along. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC>. A good read.

Bella’s B&B will be fully booked from tomorrow, but she lets a late night arrival stay overnight. He’s a young black guy, dressed for the 19th century. Next morning he’s gone before Bella wakens, possibly just gone for a walk because he’s left behind his satchel, also like something from the 19th century. When he doesn’t show up she looks for a clue to his identity, but the only thing in the satchel is a diary dated 1863. Ordinarily one might assume that he was just an eccentric traveller, possibly a hobo, but this is Lily Dale a gated lakeside village in New York State – “the place where people talk to dead people”. Almost everyone here is Psychic, except Bella, her young son, the local vet and a retired detective. Visitors come from all over to get messages from their deceased relatives. So was the visitor, Lemuel, an apparition? Bella doesn’t see ghosts, and anyway he was a solid three-dimensional man and the satchel and diary are real. All possible say the mediums and mystics but Bella remains sceptical, even in the face of apparent clues from beyond. The diary was written by a young farmer’s wife – does it contain a clue to the disappearance? Is there a connection with Juneteenth, the annual commemoration of the Emancipation of Slaves in 1865, since that was the day Lemuel arrived? Or perhaps with the Underground Railway, the secret organisation which had helped escaped slaves to travel from the South to Canada before that event? By coincidence a local celebrity, David Slayton, is preparing to stand for Congress, partly on the back of his famous ancestor John who had been a hero of the Railway. So a complex background to the mystery. Assuming there is a mystery.
Although based in what would seem to many to be a fantasy village, and hence detecting things by supernatural means, this is not the case. The identification of a crime, it’s detection and resolution by Bella, is absolutely normal; it could have happened anywhere. The setting makes it an entertaining story in the cosy crime genre. This is the 5th outing for Bella and I anticipate there will be more. The author is one of the most prolific and versatile writing today, producing standalone stories, different series, collaborations, adaptations, sometimes three or more a year and in different genres. This is, I think, her 81st book, and number 82 is already on the way. There is no real challenge in the story for mystery addicts, but it fits together smoothly and efficiently and I enjoyed it.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

This series is a delightful paranormal series with likable interesting charcters, fun setting and always a well crafted sleuth. This is the fifth in series. Thank you to the publisher, Net Galley and the author for the opportunity to review. My review opinions are my own. The paranormal aspect is done in this series to perfection.

Lily Dale is the picturesque town setting which is a unique place where the residents talk to the dead. Bella Jordan is not a belliever. She runs a B & B with her son, Max. When someone enters the B&B and disappears soon after Bella does not believe its a ghost but the townspeople are convinced. The mystery deepens and soon Bella is involved in solving this mystery and learning to believe that ghosts do exist. This was a fun return to the series with quirky charcters, a delightful cat and a well crafted sleuth. I look forward to the next in series.

A cozy mystery full of surprises and maybe a ghost or two. Lily Dale is a lakeside retreat where everyone talks to the dead but skeptic Bella. When a guest enters her inn and suddenly disappears everyone tries to convince her it could have been a spirit but Bella still questions it.
The characters are eccentric but most are likeable and willing to help solve the problem of the missing guest. An enjoyable read and I can't wait to read more about Lily Dale and her residence.

I thought this was a good twist on the typical paracozy! Instead of having a magical witch or someone coming into their powers, you have a regular person, sans supernatural abilities, trying to navigate in the magical world. But not over the top magical. Just ghosts. It reminded me a lot about Ghost Whisperer where there's just enough magic to make it special but not too much where it's just ridiculous.

I'm definitely going to read the second book!