The Better Sister

A Novel

By: Alafair Burke

Narrated by: Sophie Amoss, Samantha Desz, Mike Chamberlain

Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

From Alafair Burke - New York Times best-selling 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?

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 15 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.

©2019 Alafair Burke (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

Good solid book.

I enjoyed this book. The story is an old one; sibling rivalry yet with a twist that isn't unheard of but is certainly uncommon. The ending was handled in a surgical way. Sometimes an otherwise good book can be destroyed by the narration and fortunately this is not the case with "The Better Sister". I recommend this book.

Enjoyed this book!

A few unexpected twists. Was happy to see it wasn’t totally predictable as so many books seem to be these days!

Some Holes

There are some holes in the plot. It reads like peeling off the layers of an onion.

Not bsd

a little anticlimactic but not a bad story. I really enjoyed the narrators. The pace of the book was pretty good too although there were a couple of boring parts.

Twists and turns and surprises

My first Alafair Burke novel but not my last. The story kept me fully engaged, the performance was top notch. Highly recommend.

The Better Sister

I enjoyed this book. The main characters were relatable and the storyline had it's own unique twist on the classic "who done it?" murder mystery. The narrators did a great job giving voice to the characters as well. There were a few twists along the way but nothing over-the-top. I was not terribly surprised by the ending.

I really like the narrative style of this story

This is a great story with a cool style of narration. I was exceptionally attentive listening to each chapter.

Awful narrator

The story is not bad, but the narrator makes everything sound apocalyptic. Too depressing. Cant finish. Everything sounds dooned.

The Better sister, or is it a thing?

So what dictates the better sister? I thought one sister marrying her sisters husband was something, but the story gets better. This book was something else. An abusive father, which was a prominent prosecutor, was killed. They suspected the son did it, but the father was hiding something. The stepmom-aunt had a burner phone as well as the son, but for what? Ethan the son wanted to know about his real mom, but.....he never knew his father and stepmom-aunt committed her so they could be together. Did one of the sister's kill him, the son, or was it the man the sister was having an affair with? I would tell you but you gotta read it.....In the end, blood is thicker than water, right? #book43of2019 #bookworm #whatsnext

Mediocre but not not worth it

it is hard to explain, this book is neither difficult nor easy to pay attention to. I found it somewhat intriguing, but I was still finding myself wishing it was over at the end of each chapter. My advise? Give it a read if you want something interesting with a slight twist at the end. I did not prefer the narrator.