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Life just isn’t easy for Brooke Rawlings. As if being a single woman raising the teenage son of her deceased sister isn’t difficult enough, the boy begins having troubles at school, his grades dropping and his teachers believing he’s taking drugs. When Brooke visits his teachers, she finds them accusatory and unbending, and seemingly against her and her nephew. But when her newspaper-reporter instincts kick in, she discovers that falling grades may be the least of her nephew’s problems.
A SISTER’S SECRET, by Lori Derby Bingley, takes the reader on a breath-holding ride as Brooke investigates allegations behind the disappearance of a student five years earlier, her sister’s so-called “accidental” death, and the strange behavior of the teachers in her nephew’s life. Her nephew, Jeremy, is indeed troubled and acting more strangely than she’s ever seen, but is tight-lipped about what’s happening to him. Try as she might, Brooke just can’t break through.
Brooke’s job gets even more difficult and dangerous when people around her begin turning up dead, and Jeremy is accused of murder. And then there’s Jeremy’s abrasive and hostile teacher, Matthew Grant, who just won’t leave Brooke alone. What’s worse, Brooke can’t help but feel attracted to Matthew and, though he infuriates her, she can’t help but feel safe when he’s around.
As the story unfolds, Brooke is torn by what she’s learning about her sister and wishes that she’d taken a more active interest in her sister’s life. The mysteries that she uncovers about her sister break her heart and cause her to grieve anew. Still, her allegiance to Jeremy is forefront and she puts everything, even her life, on the line to solve the mystery and save his life. Will Matthew Grant back her up?
A SISTER’S SECRET is a tight mystery with so many twists and turns as to make it impossible to predict the end, a quality rarely found in mysteries these days. It is a refreshing love story with sweltering love scenes that weave into the storyline rather than distract from it and nail-biting suspense that keeps the reader turning pages. Ms. Bingley is a master of ending chapters with a bang, keeping her readers up all night, unable to put the book down.
Ms. Bingley creates characters in Brooke, Jeremy, and Matthew, as well as others, who are engaging and clearly likeable or hated. Using this ability, she deftly throws the reader off the track of the real killer by skillfully pointing questioning fingers throughout the novel. A true romance to the end, she creates chemistry and tension between Brooke and Matthew that have the reader crossing her fingers in hopes that the two of them will end up together.
A SISTER’S SECRET is a great summer read, full of suspense and mystery, and chilling till the very end.
Reviewed by Jennifer Brown
for The Road to Romance
June 22, 2005
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