Unfortunately this book didn't make it to me in time to read for the release date, but I thought you should know about it regardless.
Diane Chamberlain has a long history of writing books that grab,grip, refuse to let go. I'm sure this follows it's predecessors with it's intrigue, pace and intensity.
Don't forget to keep reading this posting - there's the book prologue below and also tour dates!
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The SILENT SISTER
a novel
Diane Chamberlain
(St. Martin’s Press; On-sale October 7, 2014)
Riley MacPherson was five when her sister committed suicide, 25 when her dad dropped dead on the floor of the Food Lion following a massive heart attack. As executrix of his estate, Riley’s returned home to New Bern, North Carolina to sell his house and finalize his affairs. Her father’s attorney warned her against digging too deeply into his personal things. “When someone dies unexpectedly the way your father did, they don’t have a chance to clean everything up,” she’d said, but Riley didn’t listen.
In THE SILENT SISTER, international bestseller Diane Chamberlain proves some family secrets are too dark, too explosive to ignore. Riley had spent her entire life believing her sister Lisa drowned herself at the age of 17, paddling her yellow kayak into the Potomac River, never to surface. But, as Riley cleans out her father’s house, she stumbles upon evidence to the contrary. Lisa is alive. Not only is she alive, she’s living under a new identity.
But what caused her to go on the run all those years ago, and what secrets are still being kept? As Riley works to uncover the truth, her discoveries 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.
A propulsive mystery crackling with suspense and shocking revelations, THE SILENT SISTER is an ingenious exploration of what happens when the long-submerged secrets of the deceased bubble to the surface.
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Prologue
January 1990
Alexandria, Virginia
All
day long, people stopped along the path that ran through the woods by the
Potomac River. Bundled in their parkas and wool scarves, they stood close to
one another for warmth and clutched the mittened hands of their children or the
leashes of their dogs as they stared at the one splash of color in the winter
gray landscape. The yellow kayak sat in the middle of the river, surrounded by
ice. The water had been rough the night before, buffeted by snowy winds, rising
into swirling whitecaps as the temperature plummeted, and the waves froze in
jagged crests, trapping the kayak many yards from shore.
The
walkers had seen the kayak on the morning news, but they still needed to see it
in person. It marked the end of a saga that had gripped them for months. They'd
looked forward to the trial that would never happen now, because the
seventeen-year-old girl—the seventeen-year-old murderer, most were sure—now rested somewhere beneath that rocky expanse of
ice.
She took the easy way out, some of them whispered to one another.
But what a terrible way to die, others said.
They
looked at the rocky bank of the river and wondered if she'd put some of those
rocks in her pockets to make herself sink.
They wondered if she'd cried as she paddled the kayak into the water,
knowing the end was near. She'd cried on TV, for certain. Faking it, some of them said now as they moved on down the path. It was too cold
to stand in one spot for very long
But
there was one woman, bundled warm, gloved hands in her pockets, who stood at
the side of the path for hours. She watched as the news chopper collected fresh
aerial images, its blades a deafening dark blur against the gray sky. She
watched as the police milled along the banks of the river, pointing in one
direction and then the other as they considered how they'd retrieve the kayak
from the ice . . . and how they would search for the girl's body beneath it.
She
looked at the police again. They stood with their hands on their hips now, as
though they were giving up. This case was closed. The woman pulled her jacket more tightly
around herself. Let
them give up, she thought, pleased, as
she watched a police officer shrug his shoulders in what looked like defeat.
Let them wrest that kayak from the river and call it a day.
Although
a yellow kayak stranded in ice proved nothing.
They
were fools if they thought it did.
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Diane Chamberlain is the international bestselling author of 22 novels. She lives in North Carolina
with her partner, photographer John Pagliuca, and her shelties, Keeper and Cole. Visit her online at www.dianechamberlain.com.
Meet
Diane Chamberlain…
Tuesday, October 7/Raleigh, NC
Quail Ridge Books
3522 Wade Avenue
Raleigh, NC 27607
Wednesday, October 8/Durham, NC
The Regulator Bookshop
720 9th Street
Durham, NC 27705
Friday, October 10/Greenville, SC
Fiction Addiction’s Book Your Lunch
City Range
615 Haywood Road
Greenville, SC 29607
Tuesday, October 14/Chapel Hill, NC
Flyleaf Books
752 Martin Luther King Jr.
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Saturday, October 18/Topsail, NC
Quarter Moon Books
708 South Anderson Blvd.
Topsail Beach, NC 28445
Sunday, October 19/Wilmington, NC
Books-A-Million
3737 Oleander Drive
Wilmington, NC 28403
Friday, October 31/Pawleys Island, SC
Litchfield Books’ Moveable Feast Luncheon
Location TBD