The Silent Sister

The Silent Sister (2014) is a psychological thriller and family saga by the international best-selling author Diane Chamberlain. Chamberlain has written numerous novels focusing on family dynamics and secrets, including the bestsellers Necessary Lies (2013), Big Lies in a Small Town (2020), and The Last House on the Street (2020). The novel follows Riley MacPherson, who, while settling her late father’s estate, discovers that the sister she has always believed to be dead is actually alive and living under a new identity. This revelation launches Riley on a quest to find her sister and unravel the painful secrets that tore her family apart decades ago. The novel explores themes including The Corrosive Nature of Family Secrets, The Role of Memory and Subjective Truths in Shaping History, and Redefining the Bonds of Family.

This guide refers to the 2015 St. Martin’s Griffin trade paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of child abuse, child sexual abuse, rape, graphic violence, mental illness, death by suicide, death, and emotional abuse.

Plot Summary

In January 1990, an unnamed woman watches police investigate a yellow kayak frozen in the Potomac River. The kayak is believed to belong to a 17-year-old girl, an accused murderer who is now presumed to have died by suicide. The woman, however, believes the police are fools for thinking the kayak proves the girl is dead.

In June 2013, 25-year-old school counselor Riley MacPherson travels to New Bern, North Carolina, to settle the estate of her recently deceased father, Frank. She stops at a post office to inquire about a card that was sent to her father’s address but addressed to a “Fred Marcus.” She learns that someone with Frank’s handwriting did open this PO box, but Riley does not think the box can really belong to her father. Still, she takes the single piece of mail inside.

Riley visits her older brother, Danny, an Iraq War veteran with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who lives in a trailer on the edge of their father’s RV park. Danny refuses to help clean out their father’s house. All he wants from the estate is the land his trailer is on. When Riley mentions Lisa, their violin prodigy older sister who supposedly died by suicide, Danny becomes enraged, claiming that the family was always fixated on Lisa. Later that night, Riley opens the envelope from the PO box and finds a postcard inside, advertising a band called Jasha Trace.

Riley meets with Frank’s attorney, who reveals several surprises in the will. Frank’s valuable pipe collection is left to Tom Kyle, a resident of the RV park, and his piano and $10,000 are left to Jeannie Lyons, an old friend of Riley’s late mother, Deb. An old life insurance policy shows Frank once worked for the US Marshals Service, a fact Riley never knew.

At the RV park, Riley informs Tom Kyle about the pipes. Tom seems ungrateful, but his wife, Verniece, is warm. Verniece shocks Riley by insisting that Riley was adopted, claiming Riley’s mother confided this to her years ago. Riley denies this.

Riley has lunch with Jeannie Lyons, who reveals that she and Frank were in a secret romantic relationship for six years following the death of Riley’s mother. Jeannie finds it odd that Frank left his valuable pipe collection to the Kyles, claiming Frank disliked Tom. She offers to help Riley with the estate sale through her daughter, Christine.

Back at the house, Riley finds a box of old family photographs, including pictures of Lisa with a close friend, a boy named Matty. She also finds two VHS tapes of Lisa performing. After a tense visit with Danny, Riley explores Frank’s old RV. Inside, she finds bluegrass and country CDs, music Frank never listened to, and another ad for the band Jasha Trace. She also finds a VHS player and takes it. Watching the tapes later, Riley is struck by Lisa’s talent but also sees a profound unhappiness in her expression, particularly in footage from a 1987 trip to Rome with her teacher, Steven Davis.

Jeannie and Christine arrive to organize the house. Riley catches Jeannie snooping in Frank’s bedroom and finds her clutching a white box. Riley opens it and is horrified to discover newspaper clippings revealing that Lisa was accused of murder. Jeannie confesses the family’s long-held secret: Lisa was awaiting trial for the murder of her violin teacher, Steven Davis, and her death by suicide was a way to escape prison.

The narrative flashes back to January 1990 and switches to Lisa’s perspective. Her father, Frank, has orchestrated a plan for her to fake her death. On a snowy night, Lisa dyes her hair, leaves the note, and, with Frank’s help, sets her kayak adrift in the Potomac. Frank provides her with a new identity: Ann Johnson. He makes her memorize the address of an emergency PO box in Pollocksville, North Carolina, that he has opened under the name Fred Marcus. He makes her promise never to play the violin again. Frank drives her to a rest stop where she is handed off to his US Marshals colleague, Tom Kyle, whom Frank is extorting. Tom drives her to Philadelphia, where she will take a train to California.

Back in the present, Riley confronts Tom Kyle, who tells her that Lisa did not die by suicide, claiming there were two sets of footprints at the scene. Intrigued, Danny hacks into Virginia State Police records and confirms that this detail was withheld from the media, proving Tom knows more than he is letting on. Believing Lisa is a murderer who escaped justice, Danny becomes determined to find her and turn her in.

A series of flashbacks reveals Lisa’s new life. She arrives in San Diego and assumes the name “Jade.” She gets a job at a record store owned by a man named Grady. Desperate for connection, she calls her old home and finds the number disconnected. She eventually meets and falls in love with Celia Lind.

In the present, Riley visits Caterina Thoreau, Lisa’s final violin teacher. Caterina reveals that during Lisa’s mid-teens, she supposedly went away for a year to study with a “mystery teacher,” after which her playing deteriorated. Caterina says this teacher gave Lisa the white jade pendant she always wore. Later, Tom and Verniece Kyle admit to Riley that Frank masterminded Lisa’s escape.

A flashback reveals that Lisa fled San Diego after a private investigator hired by Steven Davis’s widow came to the record store.

In the present, Riley finds her own birth certificate, which lists her place of birth as Asheville, North Carolina, where Jeannie used to live. Riley confronts Jeannie, who reveals the entire truth: Lisa is Riley’s biological mother. At 14, Lisa became pregnant, giving birth at 15. She was sent to live with Jeannie in Asheville, and Frank and Deb adopted Riley, inventing the “mystery teacher” story to explain Lisa’s absence during her pregnancy. Jeannie gave Lisa the pendant, which has symbols for “mother” and “daughter.”

Riley finds an ad for the band Jasha Trace, whose violinist, Jade Johnson, wears the jade pendant. In Frank’s RV and on his old computer, she finds the band’s CDs and e-mails from Celia Lind, confirming that Frank had been in contact with Lisa for years and even attended her wedding to Celia. Meanwhile, Danny also discovers Jasha Trace and plans to have his police officer friend, Harry Washington, arrest Lisa at her upcoming New Bern concert. Desperate, Riley tells Danny that Lisa is her mother, but he remains unmoved.

Riley drives to Chapel Hill, where Jasha Trace is performing the night before the New Bern show, and brings Lisa’s original violin, “Violet.” After the concert, she has an emotional reunion with Lisa and warns her about Danny’s plan. Hurt by what she perceives as a lifetime of abandonment, Riley confronts Lisa, and the meeting ends badly.

Celia, desperate to save Lisa, goes to Riley’s apartment and reveals the final, critical secret that explains the murder: Steven Davis was Riley’s biological father. He raped Lisa in Italy and had been sexually abusing her for years. On the day of his death, he came to the house, threatening to sue for custody of Riley. Seeing him holding the toddler, Lisa snapped and shot him to protect her daughter. After hearing the story, Riley is in shock. She immediately starts driving back to New Bern to tell Danny but crashes her car.

Riley wakes up in a hospital. Jeannie and Danny are there, and Jeannie has told Danny the full story. Lisa and Celia arrive. Danny, moved by Riley’s plea and the truth of what Lisa endured, relents. He tells Lisa he will not inform the police. Alone with Riley, Lisa expresses her profound love and regret, and Riley accepts her mother.

One year later, Riley has moved to Seattle to be near Lisa, Celia, and their children. Danny remains in North Carolina, but his love for Riley keeps Lisa safe. Riley accepts her family’s painful past and embraces the new family she has found.