The Silent Sister

Author: Diane Chamberlain
Genre: Modern Fiction
Type: e-book
Source: NetGalley
Publisher: St Martin's Press
First Published: October 7, 2014
First Line: "All day long, people stopped along the path that ran through the woods by the Potomac River."

Book Description from GoodReads:  In The Silent Sister, Riley MacPherson has spent her entire life believing that her older sister Lisa committed suicide as a teenager.  Now, over twenty years later, her father has passed away and she's in New Bern, North Carolina cleaning out his house when she finds evidence to the contrary.  Lisa is alive.  Alive and living under a new identity.  But why exactly was she on the run all those years ago, and what secrets are being kept now?  As Riley works to uncover the truth, her discoveries will put into question everything she thought she knew about her family.  Riley must decide what the past means for her present, and what she will do with her newfound reality, in this engrossing mystery from international bestselling author Diane Chamberlain.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for providing me with a complimentary e-book copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

My Review:  Diane Chamberlain is one of those authors that is hit or miss for me.  There are some of her books that I really enjoyed (The Good Father) and others that I didn't love as much (Secret Lives, Midwife's Confession).  This book falls somewhere in the middle.  Chamberlain typically has great, intriguing premises that have a moral dilemma and a whiff of mystery.

This book is a solid read with a great premise.  While it kept me interested the storyline had some fairly far-fetched pieces to it and the ending was a little predictable and lacklustre which left me feeling a little disappointed overall.

The character development (except for maybe Lisa) wasn't strong either.  While Riley did show believable grief after learning her family's secrets she often came off as whiny, needy and not as strong as I was hoping.  I would have loved to have seen more from some of the other characters too.  For example, why was Danny so angry with Lisa?  A reason was given towards the end of the book but it didn't seem enough for the amount of anger and resentment he had towards her.  Seeing more into his view of the situation would have helped me get more invested into the storyline.

That said, there were a couple of situations where I thought I knew a certain character only to find out that their intentions weren't what I had predicted.  Well played, Ms Chamberlain.  Well played.  Unfortunately other than those couple of instances this book was fairly predictable.  Still entertaining but nothing shocked me.

In the end, this was a decent, light read that I wish had delved a little deeper into the mystery and effects of Lisa's disappearance/death on her loved ones and given me a more shocking conclusion.

My Rating: 3/5 stars