The Other Sister

SYNOPSIS:  Rivers and Meadow McRaney are fraternal twins.  Though they look identical, their physical appearance is where their similarities end.  Meadow is a perfectionist, an overachiever, and she thrives on the frequent praise she receives when people realize just how superior her intelligence is.  Rivers is dyslexic, and her futile attempts to read and write pale in comparison to her sister’s brilliance.

As the twins approach adulthood, Rivers is overwhelmed by her parents constantly pressuring her to try harder and her sister continually rubbing her nose in her own success.  Rivers threatens to run away from home and never return, and soon afterward, it appears that she’s done just that.  However, her family doesn’t realize that she, in fact, did not leave willingly, but has been kidnapped by one of the nation’s most nefarious child abductors who forces her to live as his prisoner, chained to the radiator in his basement.

Nearly five years after Rivers’ abduction, the police find evidence to connect the crime to another missing girl’s case, and the McRaney family finally realizes their daughter met with foul play.  Armed with their new knowledge, Rivers’ parents will stop at nothing to find her.  In order to regain her parents’ focus, Meadow devotes her career to searching for her missing twin, and in doing so, relishes in the national recognition she receives from publicizing her family’s tragedy.  But as her head swells, she soon forgets about her sister’s predicament as all the attention centers back on her.  Meanwhile, Rivers fights daily to survive the brutality of the madman who captured her.

Hold on tight as you travel through the twists and turns of this psychological thriller, and discover a new spin on the classic “evil twin” scenario in THE OTHER SISTER.

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Word Count: 89,000
First Draft: January 12, 2014 – February 3, 2014
Status: Vaulted
Genre: Psychological Thriller

HISTORY:  In January, 2014, I went to bed wondering what I would write next, and I woke the next morning with a flash of this entire novel.  It literally took only seconds before my feet hit the floor, and I knew exactly how the story would unfold.  Since my adult son was born, I’ve had repeated nightmares of him being abducted in various ways.  Additionally, he is autistic, so there were numerous times he eloped as a child, and I would frantically search for him for hours.  Furthermore, my daughter ran away when she was a teenager and was gone for nearly a month before she was located.  Therefore, I had firsthand experience of the inner turmoil a parent goes through during such an ordeal (not that my family’s experience was nearly as horrific as that of an abducted child).  It was mentally taxing (to say the least), to research human trafficking.  So, because of the intensity of the subject matter, I wanted a strong ending that left the reader feeling good about the whole experience.  I loved the idea of twins, and I also enjoyed bringing the protagonist’s family’s green living to light.

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QUICK PITCH:  Though twins Rivers and Meadow look alike, they’re as different as night and day:  Rivers is a sweet natured dyslexic, and Meadow thrives on the attention she receives for being brilliant.  But Meadow quickly loses her parents’ attention after her twin is kidnapped, and she decides she must do whatever it takes to shift the focus back to herself, in this psychologically thrilling tale of The Good Son meets Shutter Island.

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