The Better Sister by Alafair Burke is a domestic thriller published by HarperCollins, coming April 16, 2019.

When a prominent Manhattan lawyer is murdered, two estranged sisters—one the dead man’s widow, the other his ex—must set aside mistrust and old resentments . . . but can they escape their past?

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.

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This is a suspensefully intriguing drama that grips you immediately into the lives of the two sisters. Alafair has a way with the narrative that brings a compelling complex tale to the forefront that had me mesmerized from the beginning to a powerful ending. With twists and turns abound, every time I thought I had a handle on what was going on, the author change direction and once again, the written word captured the essence of the scenes playing in my mind. As the story progressed forward, I can sense something major was going to happened and when it did, all I could say was wow. An intensely riveting tale that will knock you for a loop when all was said and done.
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FTC Full Disclosure – I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss.