From the author of The Marsh King's Daughter comes a novel of psychological suspense as two generations of sisters try to unravel the truth about their murdered parents and the tangled relationships between nature and nurture, guilt and betrayal, love and evil.
While you might see what’s coming and want to yell, 'No, don’t go there!' you know it’s going to happen anyway. But the real mystery in Karen Dionne's The Wicked Sister is in what happens next. And there’s always something happening next. Diana Cunningham is a truly wicked character. And Rachel, the one who sees the best in everyone, does figure it out, but she’s the good sister, which keeps her from totally embracing how wicked Diana is. This is classic good versus evil. A real live cat-and-mouse game. Moreover, it’s an absolutely eerie delight to read.
Dionne...begins with a pleasing, pervasive sense of unease that is unfortunately rife with improbabilities by the conclusion. Moreover, the magnificent setting and convincing character study of a child psychopath are undermined by inconsistent plot details ... Despite the story's few flaws, Dionne knocks out a psychological thriller with a low-grade yet ever-present sense of danger. Fans of Paul Doiron and environmental thrillers may like this book.
Horror movie meets mystery ... horror-movie conventions come into play, as Rachel makes decisions that put her more and more in danger. This is strong on the psychology of guilt and great at creating the spooky, haunted-house landscape, but the absurd, horror-movie plot elements get in the way a bit.
