The Better Sister by Alafiar Burke

Synopsis :

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

Author's Note :

I know readers often want to learn more about the originating idea behind a novel. Believe it or not, I sometimes have a hard time recalling the inchoate conception of a book by the time it is finished. That’s not the case with The Better Sister, which, following The Exand The Wife, completes what I see as a thematic trilogy of novels that explore the complexity of female relationships and the diverse roles that women play in contemporary society.
As we juggle busy lives, we often show different faces to our spouses, exes, children, parents, siblings, and coworkers, all while trying to know and be true to ourselves. The Better Sister, specifically, is about sometimes conflicting connections between adult siblings. I hope it might also provoke some thoughts about the often gendered nature of threats, abuse, and violence in our culture. Mostly, I hope you enjoy it.

This is what I say :

I decided to insert the author's note above to show the connection that the author intended for the three titles that she wrote starting from The Ex followed by The Wife and now The Better Sister.

Indeed all three titles are good titles and having read them within weeks apart, the stories are still pretty fresh in my mind.  All three feature Olivia Randall but she was just the lawyer for  hire in The Wife and The Better Sister whereas The Ex features her story.

Alafair is a wonderful story teller with great ability to bring readers not just along with the ride but also pretty emotionally vested in what she wrote.  In reading her books, readers must always be alert that her protagonists are not necessary who they are and a single world of sentence by the author can break that illusions into thousands of pieces.  That, is what I discovered and enjoyed in her titles.

This author gets a yes from me and I will now be on the lookout for her titles that I have yet to read.