The Better Sister

The Better Sister (2019) by Alafair Burke is a psychological thriller that blends domestic noir with legal drama. The novel opens with the murder of attorney Adam Macintosh in his East Hampton vacation house, and the investigation identifies his son Ethan as the prime suspect. To defend him, Ethan’s stepmother, high-powered magazine editor Chloe Taylor, must join forces with her estranged older sister, who is both Ethan’s birth mother and Adam’s ex-wife. The story explores themes including The Complexity of Family Dynamics, Public Image Versus Private Truth, and The Corruption of Law and Justice. Burke’s novel was adapted into a 2025 Prime Video limited series, starring Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks.

This guide uses the 2019 e-book edition published by Faber & Faber.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of substance use, addiction, emotional abuse, physical abuse, child sexual abuse, mental illness, illness/death, bullying, and sexual violence/harassment.

Plot Summary

Chloe Taylor and Nicky Macintosh are estranged sisters. Chloe, the novel’s protagonist, is self-possessed, wealthy, and successful. The chief editor of Eve magazine, she has become a feminist icon due to her “#ThemToo” campaign exposing everyday sexual abuse and harassment in the workplace. In contrast, Nicky, her older sister, has led a chaotic life, the downward spiral of which ultimately led to losing custody of her son, Ethan, to her ex-husband, Adam MacIntosh.

When Ethan was two years old, he almost drowned when Nicky, who had a substance use disorder, passed out in their swimming pool. In the aftermath, Chloe helped Adam gain sole custody of Ethan by signing an affidavit attesting to her sister’s unstable behavior. Chloe also helped her brother-in-law relocate from Cleveland to Manhattan, and a few years after divorcing Nicky, Adam married Chloe.

Now, Chloe, Adam, and 16-year-old Ethan lead an outwardly idyllic life, alternating between their luxurious Manhattan apartment and a house in the Hamptons. However, there are secret tensions in Chloe’s marriage. Adam resents his wife for encouraging him to leave his job as a federal prosecutor and become a partner in the private law firm Rives & Braddock. Chloe also suspects that her husband feels emasculated by her greater earning power and high-profile success.

One night, Chloe returns to their home in the Hamptons to discover Adam has been stabbed to death. Despite raising Ethan, Chloe is not his legal guardian, and she anticipates a custody battle with her sister. Although Chloe tries to discourage her, Nicky moves in with Chloe and Ethan in Manhattan.

Chloe believes Adam’s murder may be connected to his movements in the days before his death. While her husband claimed he was meeting with clients from the Gentry Group, she did not believe him. Adam’s murder is investigated by Detective Jennifer Guidry and her partner, Detective Bowen. When questioned by the detectives, Chloe depicts her marriage as happy and monogamous, and she claims that Adam and Ethan were close. She conceals that she was having an affair with Adam’s colleague, Jake Summer, and that Adam was enraged by Ethan’s marijuana use and inability to conform to his expectations.

Detective Guidry realizes that Adam’s murder is an inside job. The killer knew the security system code and staged the scene to make it appear that Adam had interrupted a break-in. Ethan lies to the police about his whereabouts on the night of his father’s death and is arrested for murder. He spends six months in a detention center while he awaits trial.

In the lead-up to the trial, Chloe and Nicky are united by their desire to save Ethan. Chloe is forced to reassess her perception of her sister and their mother as she and Nicky discuss their conflicting memories of childhood. She realizes that as the youngest child, she was protected from witnessing the violent abuse their father, who had an alcohol use disorder, inflicted on their mother.

Chloe hires criminal defense attorney Olivia Randall to defend Ethan, but during the trial, the prosecution presents an increasingly convincing case against him. The prosecutor, Mike Nunzio, reveals that the items Ethan claimed had been stolen in the break-in were later found in his closet. Furthermore, the teenager contributed to online forums where users expressed misogynistic views about his stepmother, claiming Chloe was not the strong feminist she purported to be.

Nunzio argues that Ethan killed his father because Adam was threatening to send his son to military school. A video from Ethan’s laptop shows Adam furiously accusing his son of being an addict and mentally unstable, just like his biological mother. Under cross-examination, Ethan finally reveals that Adam physically abused Chloe, but she did not want anyone to know. Chloe confirms that this is true.

Olivia advises Chloe that Ethan’s revelation has harmed his defense. The jury will likely believe that he killed his father to protect her. Olivia suggests that to save Ethan, they need to introduce an alternative suspect to the narrative. Chloe admits that she was having an affair with Jake Summer, and in her court testimony, she lies, claiming that Jake found out Adam was abusing her, which may have motivated him to commit murder. Ethan is found not guilty.

When Ethan returns home, he tells Chloe and Nicky the truth about the night of Adam’s murder. After coming home and discovering his father’s dead body, he staged the break-in, as he believed Chloe was responsible.

Later, when the sisters are alone, Nicky admits to Chloe that she killed Adam. She explains that Ethan had secretly been contacting her on a burner phone in the months leading up to the murder. Learning how Adam was abusing his wife and son, Nicky drove to East Hampton to confront her ex-husband. Although she did not plan to kill Adam, Nicky stabbed him as she recalled the way he physically and emotionally abused her during their marriage.

After obtaining the police report of the incident where Nicky and Ethan almost drowned in the swimming pool, the sisters realize that Adam lied about the events to gain custody of Ethan. Chloe also finds documentation confirming that before his death, Adam became an informant for the FBI. The file’s contents expose corruption within the Gentry Group and prove that Bill Braddock, the senior partner at Rives & Braddock, was involved in these crimes. On the pretext of a social call, Chloe plants the knife Nicky used to kill Adam in Bill Braddock’s home. She then delivers Adam’s file to Detective Guidry.

Nicky moves to Manhattan permanently, and she and Chloe co-parent Ethan. Thanks to Bill Braddock’s arrest, Ethan believes that his father was murdered for standing up to corruption.