Sister Mine

This novel is a mixed bag. The main plot, involving the return of a pregnant sister presumed dead, is straight out of "Law and Order." As listeners, we might not know the whole story, but we've guessed at the circumstances long before the novel moves on to them. Even the surprise ending seems more sappy than believable. The secondary story, about a small coal mining town attempting to recover from disaster long after the rubber-necking public has moved on, is fascinating and well written. Renée Raudman narrates with youthful exuberance, trusting that listeners are hanging onto every word. We're not--but we're unable to stop listening any more than we can turn off those late-night TV reruns. R.R. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

Starred review from January 1, 2007
O'Dell, whose debut, Back Roads
(2000), was an Oprah pick, returns with a terrific third novel set in a Pennsylvania coal country of broken families, altercations and smalltown coping. Policewoman-turned-cabbie Shae-Lynn Penrose, a little over 40 and back in Jolly Mount after a rent-a-cop stint in Washington, D.C., raised son Clay (24 and the town deputy) on her own. For the past 18 years, she has believed that her sister, Shannon, was killed by their abusive father while Shae-Lynn was at college. (Their mother died of complications after giving birth to Shannon; their father was killed much later in a mine explosion.) When a New York lawyer turns up asking for Shannon Penrose, whom he seems to have seen recently, Shae-Lynn is shocked; when Shannon herself suddenly turns up, very pregnant, Shae-Lynn's reaction is primal and tactile. As O'Dell slowly unspools Shannon's very-much-of-her-own-doing predicament, O'Dell demonstrates her mastery of set-piece dialogue, reeling off stingingly acute encounters that are as funny as they can be crushingly sad. Ne'er-do-well Choker Simms (and his two kids, Fanci and Kenny), lawyer Gerald Kozlowski, mine owner Cam Jack, Shae-Lynn's nonboyfriend E.J., Shannon's sort-of-boyfriend Dmitri and others are all wonderfully drawn through Shae-Lynn's keen observations. Family saga O'Dell-style crackles with conflict and a deep understanding of the complications and burdens that follow attachment, sex, love and kinship.