Tear Me Apart

Starred review from July 9, 2018
At the start of this outstanding domestic thriller from bestseller Ellison (Lie to Me), 17-year-old Mindy Wright, a championship skier who’s on track to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team, breaks her leg in a downhill race in Vail, Colo. At the local hospital, the girl’s parents, Jasper and Lauren Wright, are at first hopeful that their daughter will be able to ski again. But healing from the injury becomes the least of Mindy’s worries when doctors discover that she has leukemia and is desperately in need of a stem cell transplant. The pressure grows on her seemingly perfect family as her physicians are unable to find a stem cell match. DNA tests show that Lauren, who’s hiding some big secrets, is not her biological mother. Meanwhile, Mindy’s older sister, a DNA tech with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, does some digging and comes up with a startling match with Mindy’s DNA. The intense plot, enhanced by flashbacks that gradually reveal the truth of Mindy’s birth, builds to a stunning conclusion. Ellison is at the top of her game. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group.