The Better Sister

Alafair Burke is an Edgar Award-nominated crime novelist. She is the author of the Ellie Hatcher series, featuring a New York City homicide detective, and the Samantha Kincaid series, which features a Deputy District Attorney. She also co-authored the Under Suspicion series with Mary Higgins Clark. Her standalone novels include Long Gone, If You Were Here, and The Note. Burke is the daughter of the acclaimed mystery and detective fiction author James Lee Burke. She is the first woman of color to be elected as the President of Mystery Writers of America.

While The Better Sister is a standalone thriller, the novel is thematically connected to Burke’s earlier novels, The Ex (2016) and The Wife (2018). Burke describes this trilogy as exploring “the complexity of female relationships and the diverse roles that women play in contemporary society” (313). All three books are narrated primarily by a strong yet flawed female protagonist and depict legal conflict within the context of intimate domestic relationships (marriages or families). Olivia Randall, a supporting character in The Better Sister, is the protagonist of The Ex, defending her former fiancé when he is accused of murder.