A Best Book of the Year: Washington Post, Sun SentinelFrom Alafair Burke—New York Times bestselling author of the runaway hit, The Wife— comes another twisty tale of domestic noir. 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?Keep your enemies close and … … but can they escape their past?
Keep your enemies close and your sister closer.
Though Chloe was the younger of the two Taylor sisters, she always seemed to be the one in charge. She was the honor roll student with big dreams and an even bigger work ethic. Nicky—always restless and more than a little reckless—was 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 that 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 teenage 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 was my introduction to Alafair Burke & I’m glad we met. Psychological mysteries are my favorite, when they’re well written & this one was. Love finding a new author who keeps at it!
Quick thrilling read for fans of gone girl or girl on a train
This is my first read of this author and early on in the book I was intrigued. Readers are introduced to the relationship between Adam and Chloe, former in-laws now married. Adam was previously married to Chloe’s sister Nicky and they had a son, Ethan who Adam ended up getting full custody of. Chloe is very successful in her job and makes more money than Adam which she feels he resents. Chloe helps Adam get a prominent job with a fancy law firm and he quits his job as prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s office. But Adam hates his job, for him money doesn’t matter. He feels Chloe pressured him into taking a job he never wanted. So their marriage is not perfect and then Adam ends up dead.
The investigation into Adam’s murder begins and the police quickly zone in on Adam’s teenage son as a suspect. Nicky, Ethan’s real mother now shows up in New York to help out but Chloe who is just his guardian worries her sister will try to take Ethan away from her. Will Nicky want custody of Ethan after all these years? Chloe is sure her sister Nicky has never forgiven her from marrying Adam and raising her son. There is not a lot of trust between the sisters.
Chloe has always been the perfect one. She has the perfect job, the perfect husband, the perfect kid, the perfect life. Nicky on the other hand is the screw-up. Nicky can’t find the right man, she had problems with drugs and alcohol, and she lost custody of her only son. But now with problems like murder, her son dealing with drugs and guns, is Chloe’s life really as perfect as it seems?
The pacing of the book is perfect. I love how the author leads the reader along…slowly revealing tiny pieces of the puzzle. Definitely makes you want to keep reading. I can’t wait to read more books by this author. I loved the legal/courtroom proceeding portion of the book. The build-up of waiting on the jury to come back with their verdict…super exciting! I loved reading how the relationship between sisters, Nicky and Chloe, change throughout the book. Usually I can find at least one negative about a novel but not this one. 5 Stars for sure! Thanks to Alafair Burke and Harper for providing me with a copy of advanced reader edition to review.
Read it in two days. Couldn’t put it down.
Alafair Burke’s latest domestic thriller, THE BETTER SISTER, is a brilliantly twisty tale of family, love, ambition, and duplicity. Perfect for an audiobook and well narrated by Sophie Amoss, Samantha Desz, and Mike Chamberlain. The courtroom scenes were riveting, and the turn of events surprising. The Taylor sisters and their uniquely dysfunctional family will captivate your attention from start to finish. Highly recommend!
This is the tale of two grown sisters: one who is a neglectful mother and one who is responsible and successful. Eventually the “good” sister ends up marrying her former brother-in-law and raising her nephew as if he were her own. When the teenaged boy is accused of murdering his dad, the sisters reluctantly reunite. The plot twists and surprises all the way through.
3.5
Family dynamics and hidden family secrets are the basis of this novel. Chloe Taylor seems to have everything. She is happily married to Adam – a lawyer, with a great son, Ethan, and a successful career as a magazine editor. But then, you find out that all is not what it seems to be on the surface.
Chloe has an odd relationship with her sister, Nicky, who is Adam’s first wife and Ethan’s mother! And then, Adam is found dead. The perfect family presented to everyone starts to unravel. Lots of twists and legal strategy at play. Enjoyable and fast read.
#TheBetterSister #AlafairBurke
It is said that when there are two siblings in a family, they will be opposites. The Taylor family was no exception. Chloe, the younger sister, was the honor roll student with a strong work ethic, while Nicky was restless and reckless. Nicky changed jobs and men, and never left Cleveland, while Chloe graduated from an Ivy League college, moved to New York City, and made a name for herself in publishing, winning awards and achieving fame with her series focused on the aftermath of the #MeToo movement.
Nicky seemed to settle down. She married Adam Macintosh, a prosecutor, and they had a beautiful little boy, Ethan. But happiness was short-lived.
Fifteen-plus years later, Chloe is married to Adam and the two of them are raising Ethan, with Nicky pretty much completely absent from their lives.
But Adam is murdered at the couple’s swanky East Hampton beach house, and Chloe must reluctantly permit Nicky back into their lives. She comes to New York City to stay with Chloe and Ethan, and they achieve a tentative truce. But the police quickly deem Ethan a suspect, forcing the two sisters unite in order to save their son. In order to do so, they must confront and finally deal with their family history and long-buried secrets.
Alafair Burke has constructed a contemporary, timely story about a dysfunctional family with a complicated history. Nicky did not manage to remain settled for long after Ethan was born. She quickly reverted to her old patterns, and, according to Adam, that included irresponsible behavior that prompted him to seek full custody of Ethan. He went so far as move to New York City to keep Ethan away from Nicky, ostensibly to ensure Ethan’s safety. And his proximity to Chloe resulted in the two of them falling in love & deciding to marry. Chloe was already devoted to her nephew, so it was a natural transition and Ethan began thinking of and referring to her as “Mom.”
But over the course of the past couple of years, Ethan’s behavior has been troubling and his relationship with his father deteriorating. As Chloe’s success and fame magnified, so did problems in her marriage to Adam. He left his job a a prosecutor and joined a large law firm, but was never happy there.
When Adam is murdered, Chloe has no choice but to notify Nicky. After all, Chloe has no claim to Ethan — while she may be his stepmother, she is petrified that, despite a clause in Adam’s will asserting his desire that Chloe continue raising him, Nicky will regain custody. Thus, when Nicky arrives in New York, Chloe is motivated to at least develop an amiable relationship with him — for Ethan’s sake and to, hopefully, ensure that he is able to remain in her care. But when the police focus their investigative efforts on Ethan and, worse, he is charged with murdering Adam, the two women must band together in order to save the boy that both of them love.
Burke’s characters are fully developed and empathetic. Nicky was always troubled and, in Chloe’s estimation, blamed her problems on their parents. Their father was abusive, and their mother did not stand up for herself or her girls. But Chloe’s judgmental attitude toward Nicky is not helpful when the two of them are trying to ensure that Ethan is not wrongly convicted of murder. Gradually, the sisters manage to believably forge a new relationship. This time it is founded upon a mutual goal. But in order for it to work, they will have to trust each other.
As Ethan spends long months awaiting and then standing trial, Burke deftly portrays Chloe’s search for the truth about her husband’s death, as well as the secrets she has been keeping about the true state of Ethan’s relationship with Adam, and their marriage. Burke injects clues about the identity of Adam’s killer and that individual’s motivation, but also expertly keeps readers guessing until the very end of the story. In the process, readers learn exactly what happened between Nicky and Adam, and the myriad ways in which the reality of Chloe’s life has been at odds with outward appearances.
Burke is a master storyteller and The Better Sister is another example of her creativity and ability to translate modern themes into a compelling mystery. She employs Chloe’s first-person narrative, along with a third-person account of the detectives’ investigation, and the social media posts focused on Chloe, to full effect, unwinding a fourteen-year history through Chloe’s recollection. Ultimately, The Better Sister is a sometimes blistering but always moving exploration of the unique relationship of sisters, as well as motherhood, and the lengths to which a mother will go to save her child.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader’s Copy of the book.
This is a complex tale of two sisters. There is a murder, but the secrets these two are hiding complicate things. The twists keep you interested in the story. I kept turning pages just to see what happens to the son who is accused of murder. I read this in one day, that’s how much I liked it. Never disappointed with Alafair Burke’s books.
/ 5 (4.5 / 5) rounded up
I was a HUGE fan of The Wife by Alafair Burke so I kinda had high expectations going into The Better Sister. Let me tell you, Burke did not disappoint me!!
What it’s about: Nicky and Chloe are sisters… not that you can tell. Nicky has always had issues holding a job and holding a man, plus ongoing problems with substance abuse. Chloe is the polar opposite; hard working, overachieving, plus Chloe managed to become famous during the #MeToo movement working in publishing. Oh, and did I mention she is also married to Adam, Nicky’s ex-husband, and raising their son Ethan as her own? Needless to say, they have basically become estranged, only talking every so often about Ethan. But when Adam is murdered in their East Hampton beach home, the sisters must come together again and face not only their family secrets, but the reality of who murdered Adam.
I LOVE ALAFAIR BURKE! There, I said it. I will read anything this woman writes, and somehow I just know I am going to love it even though this is only my second time reading anything by her. I love that she included a character I saw in The Wife, which was the criminal defense attorney Olivia Randall. I know she is in The Ex as well, and it always makes me happy when I see an ongoing character in different books.
I also liked that The Better Sister had somewhat of the same structure that The Wife had. There is a domestic drama, a court case, and social issues all rolled into one captivating novel. I think Burke’s inclusion of the #MeToo movement in regards to Chloe and her job was a great way of talking about it more, and I liked how she tied it into the book.. Plus in managing to point out how prominent nasty comments on social media are when you are dealing with rape and abuse. This being said, the book is a little crude at times because of these comments Chloe reads, so be aware of that.
I also really enjoyed seeing Nicky and Chloe come together again, and the subplot of the two sisters and their relationship. While a lot of it was hard, especially in regards to how they grew up, there still ends up being such a loving relationship there and I really connected to them.
Final Thought: I am actually very surprised at all of the negative and low reviews for The Better Sister. I know not every book is for everyone, but I had a hard time coming up with anything I really didn’t like about it. I think Burke’s writing is 100% solid as usual, and although I wasn’t TOO surprised at who actually killed Adam, the book still left me guessing and I finished it in one sitting, in just a manner of hours. I highly recommend to lovers of novels that include both courtroom dramas and domestic drama all rolled into one, and anyone that read and loved her last book The Wife.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy of this book!
Read my review on the New York Journal of Books: https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/better-sister-novel
3-3.5 stars
The first book I read by Burke was last year’s blockbuster, The Wife. Burke blew me away with her writing style and the twisty-ness of it all. Needless to say, I was beyond excited when I saw she had come out with a new book. And while The Better Sister is written in the same, effortless style, it seems to be missing that little something extra that made The Wife a standout.
The story moves along at a very fast pace and the plot most definitely kept me engaged. The way Burke writes, it is hard not to lose yourself in the book. Chloe, Ethan and Nicky are well developed, but the story just didn’t quite live up to my expectations.
I would still recommend giving The Better Sister a chance, especially if you haven’t read anything by Burke yet. She has become one of my go-to authors and I will read anything she writes, even if it doesn’t always live up to my expectations.
Thank you to Harper Collins for my copy of this book via Edelweiss
I’m torn on The Better Sister. It was going well and I was enjoying it, especially the courtroom scenes, but suddenly it’s like there were one too many twists or maybe more, but I got lost. Not lost as in I couldn’t follow the plot, but lost as in come on, really?
I enjoyed the characters quite a bit and Ethan was a favorite, but it seemed as every single character blamed other people for their issues, which I really dislike. And once the courtroom scenes begin, the twists just keep coming, but they seem as if they don’t really fit.
I will read another book by this author again. I think she just tried to hard this time. It was enjoyable, as I said, but at a certain point I was just lost.
Thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for approving my request for an ARC. My thoughts in this review are my own.