This is a darkly taut psychological thriller told in alternating PoV between two sisters in a small town. Their family dynamic is extremely dysfunctional, with themes of emotional and physical abuse, substance abuse, alcoholism added into a narrative which also contains pedophilia, rape, torture, blackmail, and multiple murders.
The contrapuntal point of view worked very well and the author's use of alternating third person PoV (for the murdered sister, Jenny) and first person (for the living sister, Virginia), was technically flawless. This is a very well written and very readable book. The plot threads are interwoven as the book progresses until they merge into a single twisty denouement and resolution. That the majority of the plot twists were expected before they were revealed is more a consequence of having read hundreds of books in the genre and not because the author lacked proficiency (she's quite adept as a writer).
I didn't find myself really warming to any of the characters, they were all quite flawed. This was undoubtedly intentional on the part of the author. The epilogue and resolution stuck with me all day.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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