Once Two Sisters

Starred review from June 29, 2020
Zoe Hallett, the narrator of Warburton’s arresting debut, believes she has been humiliated by her older sister, Ava, an author who has based any number of unflattering characters on her in several bestselling thrillers. Three years earlier, Zoe cut ties with her family, maintaining that her cold, clinical psychotherapist parents wouldn’t care if they never saw her again. Now living under an assumed name in Houston, Zoe is happily married and a doting stepmother to a precocious four-year-old girl. When Ava goes missing from her home in Arlington, Va., the story makes national news and Zoe figures her sister is just after publicity. In fact, Ava has been kidnapped, and she wonders whether Zoe is behind her abduction. When it appears that Zoe recently sent Ava threatening emails, Zoe travels to Arlington to look into the disappearance and prove her innocence. A breathless energy imbues the strong plot, which alternates between Zoe’s tense family relationships and Ava’s claustrophobic captivity. Warburton delves deep into the psychological underpinnings of her believable characters in this highly entertaining domestic thriller. Readers will eagerly anticipate her next. Agent: Melissa Jeglinski, Knight Agency.

July 15, 2020
Warburton's first novel uses a high-speed action plot to explore the deeply troubled relationship between two sisters. How close is Zoe Hallett to her older sister, author Ava Hallett, who's based every one of her bestselling thrillers on easily recognizable versions of Zoe? About 1,500 miles, ever since Zoe, wailing, "She stole my life," changed her name three years ago and moved from Arlington, Virginia, to Houston, where she married widower Andrew McPhee, moved in with him and his 4-year-old, Emma, and did her best to ignore the displays of Ava's latest triumph in every bookstore window. Now the news of Ava's mysterious disappearance has put Zoe, or Lizzie, in the spotlight again, and the public release of her years of angry emails to her estranged sister and the news that she had an affair with Ava's boyfriend, agent Glenn Melcher, shortly before he returned to Ava and married her has painted a target on her back. Drawn to return to the Beltway, Zoe can find no comfort from her parents, clinical neuroanalysts Walter Hallett and Nancy Renscoe-Hallett, whose attitudes toward her have always been pretty clinical. So she puts aside her obsession with asking, "Why does she keep writing about me?" to team up with Glenn in the hope of tracking Ava down. Besides enjoying the juicy premise and the edgy thrills, you'll feel much more relaxed about your own family reunion.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.