Sisters

April 1, 2013
On returning home to Chichester, Mass., Alex Woods learns a dark secret about her late mother in this well-plotted domestic thriller from Edgar-finalist MacDonald (Missing Child). As a teen, Alex’s mother had an out-of-wedlock daughter whom she put up for adoption. Alex tracks down this long-lost sister, Dory Colson, who’s serving a prison sentence for the murder of Lauren Colson, the sister in her adopted family. Dory insists she didn’t kill Lauren, but her adopted parents believe otherwise. They warn Alex of Dory’s violent juvenile record, yet Alex remains convinced of her innocence, helping Dory’s lawyer to secure her release and retrial. Once out of prison, Dory begins to display signs of being deeply unstable, and Alex is forced to reexamine her assumptions about a sister she hardly knows. MacDonald’s characters are born solely out of their situations, but constant twists and the lingering question of Dory’s innocence make for an engrossing read. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency.

April 1, 2013
A letter from her late mother turns a would-be curator's world upside down. Returning to the Boston suburbs after graduate school seemed a natural step for Alex Woods--or would have seemed natural had both her parents not died in a car crash shortly before her graduation. Now Alex is back, cleaning out her childhood home and looking for work in one of Boston's many galleries. Her parents' attorney has quite a surprise for her. Her mother left a letter for Alex, an only child, telling her that she had a baby when she was a teenager. Mr. Killebrew agrees to have a private detective search for the child, given up for adoption shortly after her birth. But the results of the search shock Alex: Her half sister Dory is in prison for the murder of Lauren, the natural child of her adoptive parents, Garth and Elaine Colson. Stunned, Alex visits Dory and finds her half sister bitter and guarded. Marisol Torres, a law student working with the Justice Initiative at New England Law School, believes that Dory may have grounds for an appeal; her public defender advised Dory to plead guilty without attempting to gather any evidence that might have exonerated her. Alex helps Marisol find evidence that Dory was misrepresented. Getting her conviction overturned, however, is not the same as proving Dory innocent. As the sisters come to know each other, Alex wonders whether she made the right decision to find Dory and help her. Is she putting herself, her new career and her blossoming friendship with college professor Seth Paige at risk for a sister she lived 26 years without knowing she had? The latest from MacDonald, a longtime specialist in family potboilers (Missing Child, 2012, etc.), won't disappoint her fans.

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April 1, 2013
After her parents die in a car accident, Alex Woods is shocked to learn she has a half-sister, a child whom her mother, then a teenager, placed for adoption. Alone in the world, Alex has her lawyer trace her sister, and he finds Dory Colsonserving a sentence for the murder of her sister, an up-and-coming country music singer. Alex feels compelled to meet Dory. When Dory is freed because of her public defender's incompetence during her trial, she has nowhere to go (her adoptive mother wants nothing to do with her), prompting Alex to invite Dory to move in with her. While Alex wants to believe Dory is innocent, her behavior makes Alex nervous. Then Alex is stabbed in her own home. Is Dory guilty, or has someone been framing her all along? This fast-paced novel of psychological suspense with numerous plot twists pulls the reader in and keeps the pages turning.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)