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Some of the major plot twists Megan Collins' THE WINTER SISTER may not leave seasoned mystery readers in the dark for very long, but the writing and the characters in this successful debut will have you breathlessly anticipating the second work by this author.
First – a disclaimer: I had a dearly beloved sister that I lost some years ago so this reviewer is always partial to books that describe complicated sibling relationships.
Sylvie is a troubled young woman who has just been laid off from her unsatisfying job when her Aunt Jill calls her to come home to take care of her mother, Annie, who is dying of cancer. Annie, the unmarried mother of two daughters, definitely lives on the wrong side of a relatively affluent town, and has struggled to make ends meet. There is no father in the picture for either girl, and they manage by living in the house that belonged to Annie's dead parents. Sixteen years earlier, her family had fallen apart when Sylvie's older sister Persephone was murdered; the case is still unsolved. Annie retreated into alcoholism, her sister Jill is forced to take on raising her niece along with her own daughter, and Sylvie lives with enormous guilt about the death of her sister. After Persephone's body is found, suspicion falls on her boyfriend Ben, the son of one of the wealthy families in town. Sylvie, whom Persephone swore to secrecy about the relationship, feels enormous guilt over not unlocking the window of their shared bedroom when Persephone tried to return home after one of her trysts with Ben, and blames herself for her sister's death.
When Sylvie returns home and brings her mother in for a chemotherapy treatment, she runs into Ben, who has become a nurse in the intervening years. He proclaims his innocence; unconvinced, Sylvie decides to investigate the case herself and find out once and for all what happened the night of her sister's death. She contacts the police detectives who worked the case basically to find out why Ben was never charged and told his family's wealth and influence had nothing to do with how the case was handled; there was simply a lack of evidence, and the case is still open. The plot focuses on Sylvie's exploration of the past to learn what really happened to her sister and at the same time her process of reconnecting with her mother. It is also a story of sisters – both Sylvie and Persephone, and Jill and Annie – and how each has their own secrets and loyalties.
As we unpeel the layers surrounding the secrets of this family, it is abundantly clear that Megan Collins is a writer of considerable talent who has a real knack for character development. THE WINTER SISTER is not quite a satisfying mystery in the sense that the denouement will come as no shock; it seemed pretty predictable. Yet the telling of the tale was so well done that I had trouble putting it down until the very end.
§ Phyllis Onstad has been a writer, editor, civil servant, teacher and voracious reader. She currently lives in the California wine country.
Reviewed by Phyllis Onstad, October 2018
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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