Dead Letters

Starred review from January 16, 2017
When news of Zelda Antipova’s death reaches her buttoned-down twin sister, Ava, the latter returns home to her family’s central New York vineyard from Paris. She helps her ailing mother and estranged father with funeral arrangements, yet Ava is suspicious of her townie sister’s supposed demise in a barn fire, and it isn’t long before she begins to receive email messages from Zelda, who claims to have faked her own death. Following a series of clues left by Zelda, Ava begins to piece together her sister’s troubles, from massive debt to drug addiction. Along with her old high school boyfriend, Wyatt, she immerses herself in Zelda’s world, hoping to find her sister at the end of the puzzle. Dolan-Leach’s debut is a smart, dazzling mystery with a twist that not only shines a new light on the novel’s title but also leaves the reader hunting for the next clue. Dolan-Leach revels in toying with both Ava and her audience, placing small hints and red herrings throughout her text, and the result is captivating.

Starred review from April 3, 2017
Actor Marie provides a pitch-perfect reading of this twisted tale set on a vineyard in central New York. After the death of her twin sister Zelda, Ava Antipova returns home to everything she was trying to escape: a failing family business, a mother slowly sinking into dementia and alcoholism, an emotionally distant father who had abandoned the family, and a complicated relationship with an old beau. Following a series of clues left by Zelda, Ava begins to piece together her sister’s troubles, from massive debt to drug addiction. When reading Ava’s first-person narration, Marie moves the plot along while fully inhabiting both the melancholy and resolve of a grieving sister determined to uncover the mysterious circumstances surrounding her sibling’s supposed death. When reading Zelda’s e-mails, she uses an upbeat, almost taunting style of delivery. The balance between the two sisters and their respective narrative devices will keep listeners utterly captivated from beginning to end. A Random House hardcover.