Alafair Burke | THE BETTER SISTER

Plot (via Goodreads):

Though Chloe was the younger of the two Taylor sisters, she always seemed to be in charge. She was the honor roll student with big dreams and an even bigger work ethic. Nicky was always restless . . . and more than a little reckless—the opposite of her ambitious little sister. She floated from job to job and man to man, and stayed close to home in Cleveland.

For a while, it seemed like both sisters had found happiness. Chloe earned a scholarship to an Ivy League school and moved to New York City, where she landed a coveted publishing job. Nicky married promising young attorney Adam Macintosh, and gave birth to a baby boy they named Ethan. The Taylor sisters became virtual strangers.

Now, more than fifteen years later, their lives are drastically different—and Chloe is married to Adam. When he’s murdered by an intruder at the couple’s East Hampton beach house, Chloe reluctantly allows her teenaged stepson’s biological mother—her estranged sister, Nicky—back into her life. But when the police begin to treat Ethan as a suspect in his father’s death, the two sisters are forced to unite . . . and to confront the truth behind family secrets they have tried to bury in the past.

Review:

Everyone has always recommended Alafair Burke novels to me and for some reason, I have never found the time or gotten distracted in another read. When The Better Sister was announced and I saw that haunting and wickedly inviting cover along with the sinister plot, I knew this was going to be my first novel by Burke no matter the sacrifice. Instead, on a chilly Sunday afternoon, I opened my ARC in hopes of reading at least a half of the novel before completing the rest after work on Monday and all hell broke loose. I read this novel in one sitting. 

The plot to this novel is not only addictive and irresistibly stunning, but equal parts murder mystery, courtroom drama, and a tale of two very different sisters wrapped up in one disturbing domestic drama. This could have been a novel about who ate the last gummy bear and I would have still devoured this read just to enjoy the relationship between Chloe and Nicky. Full of beautifully written friction and some witty banter, I guarantee you'll get so wrapped up in these characters and invest so much care in what they go through that you won't even notice the page number increasing. Through in some other secondary characters and one hell of a backstory and you've got a perfect character-driven novel that flirts with your anxiety and leaves you breathless throughout its twists and turns. Burke is not one to mess with when it comes to telling her stories in parts, each one a different vibe than the last and only a hint of what is to come in the next; I was kicking myself for not picking up a novel by this masterful storyteller prior to me receiving this title. 

While I was invested in the characters, I was equally intrigued by the plot and the main mystery at the heart of this novel. As the plot progressed, I couldn't help but find myself drifting dreamlessly along with Chloe and Nicky and often found myself distracted (in a great way) by their relationship and had to remind myself to focus on the fact that there may be a killer on the loose and I have to keep an eye on every character that graced the pages of this twisted tale. Toward the end of the novel with the big reveal, I won't say I was disappointed, but more shocked and devastated with the turnout. 

Cinematically stunning, a brilliantly weaved character-driven drama with spectacular elements of crime fiction, and a prose that is worth committing a crime over, The Better Sister is not one to let slip by. 

Special thanks to Harper Books for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 5/5