Diane Chamberlain's suspense novel, The SIlent Sister, follows a story told by Riley MacPherson - a school counselor returning to her childhood home to tie up loose ends of her deceased father's estate. Riley is presented as a young woman accustomed to the strained relationship w/ her brother, Danny, and reminiscing about her younger years with her pre-deceased mother. A major tid-bit to the storyline would be Riley's old sister, Lisa, who committed suicide when Riley was around two-years-old. A mere figment in her memory. Riley dives deep into her father's affairs, moving through estate sale items, years of paperwork and photographs of a once put together family when Riley was a mere blip on their radar. Among the cluttered chaos, Riley is met with a disturbed thought based on her father's collection of bluegrass CDs and band posters in his abandoned RV in the trailer park -- could Lisa be... alive?
Riley spends countless time throughout the days of tying together her father's loose ends piecing together what happened over twenty years ago to her once pristine family. The novel is broken up into 3 sections, each introducing the reader to different POVs - one from Riley's and one from... Lisa's. A great suspense novel wouldn't just have someone merely commit suicide after committing murder all within the first 25 pages and not have a plot twist such as this! I was able to successfully predict that Lisa hadn't taken her own life and I was fully prepared for most of the family to have known about the circumstances, but determining it was only her father who'd taken the initiative to hide her left me a little surprised. However, given his background in the Marshals services would make sense in his decision to keep Lisa's actions tightly sealed, despite a previous co-worker's actions in taking her further across the country. I appreciated the depth given to the characters, between Tom and his wife (two individuals looking for their fair share of money), Danny (a stubborn, frustrated, disturbed brother), Lisa (aka Jade, a woman just trying to protect those she loves no matter any devastating cost), even Jeannie (Riley's father's lover, a lifelong family friend who knows more secrets about Riley's family than she gave her credit for).
Chamberlain's writing style is straightforward, filled w/ just the right amount of detail for settings and the amount of dialogue between characters. I was taken aback, but feel as if I probably could've put two and two together at some point, that Riley was Lisa's DAUGHTER. I wasn't expecting it, however, I believed there to be something more than just the presumed reasoning for Lisa killing her former violin teacher, Steven Davis. I couldn't fathom someone so supposedly dedicated to her craft but so loving to her family kill someone for writing a shitty character letter.
Between getting pregnant as a teenager, losing her ability to play to her fullest extent, then killing someone in defense of her unexpected result from years of sexual abuse, I believe Lisa withstood all odds with tremendous strength. It was pivotal to show how her character changed from a scared young woman to a put together adult, alongside Riley realizing who she is as a young woman and how she plans to be in the future. With all this in mind, I am NOT a fan of Danny. In fact, I kind of almost hate him. I don't find myself hating characters too often, with a passion, but he irritated me. Regardless of the fact that Lisa killed a man outright, not necessarily in a self-defense manner but in recognition of protecting her daughter's future, Danny should've been more supportive to HIS FAMILY than a rapist. Danny underwent horrible circumstances when serving in the military and obviously had a bad childhood with the aftermath of what Lisa left behind, but I think he should've put himself in HER shoes and thought about her circumstances. Although, this might've been Chamberlain's point to write Danny this way - then bravo for her in making me despise a character.
All in all, 5/5 stars!
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