My Sister's Bones

May 15, 2017
War reporter Kate Rafter, the narrator of Ellwood’s affecting debut, is more comfortable with mortar shells dropping in Aleppo and Fallujah than she is back in London, freshly returned from an assignment in Syria that has left her with nightmares and hallucinations. Kate got word of her mother’s death too late to make the funeral, thanks to her alcoholic younger sister. She comes home to seaside Herne Bay in Kent to a house empty, except for memories of a miserable childhood with her alcoholic father, who beat her mother and blamed his wife for the death of Kate’s brother. Chapters devoted to a long police interrogation of Kate for an unknown offense make it clear that her mental state is not what it should be. She becomes convinced she’s seen a little boy in her garden, raising the question of whether Kate’s losing touch with reality or something more sinister is happening. Ellwood portrays the horror of witnessing war in a compelling psychological thriller. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Literary, TV & Film Agency (U.K.).

June 1, 2017
Kate, a battle-scarred war reporter, returns to England from assignment in Aleppo when her mother dies. A doer by nature, Kate plans to keep emotions at bay while she pays respects and deals with estate business. That's wishful thinking, considering that her homecoming is plagued with hallucinations of a young boy she saw killed in Syria, memories from her abusive childhood, and her sister's alcohol-fueled rage. When she sees a battered young boy in her mother's garden late one night, Kate is certain that the woman next door is abusing her son. But the police find no evidence of a child, and Kate's desperate efforts to help the boy are hampered by accusations of stalking and detectives' dismissals of her claims as an obvious case of PTSD. Kate's analytical, decisive voice creates a gripping portrait of PTSD, making reminders of her likely untrustworthiness all the more unsettling. A winner for those drawn to murky psychological suspense, like that of Ruth Rendell, Karin Fossum, and Flynn Berry in Under the Harrow (2016).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)