137. Chosen for Death (Thea Kozak Mystery, 1) - Kate Flora, Forge Mystery, July 1995 (c1994), ISBN: 0812534298, 288p.
Featuring: Thea (Theadora) Kozak
Synopsis (from back cover):
First in the Thea Kozak series, CHOSEN FOR DEATH us a haunting novel about adoption and a quest by those who yearn to find a part of themselves that was "given away" at birth - a search that sometimes brings disasterous results.
Carrie thought that by finding her "real" parents she would discover who she was and finally get on with her life.
But all it seems to have led to is her death.
The police have no leads and almost everyone seems willing to accept the murder as one of life's tragedies.
But one person can't let it go: Carrie's big sister Thea. Thea embarks on a quest tofind Carrie's killer and confronts ugly facts that suggest she didn't know Carrie at all.
And that the Norman rockwell foundation of their lives might be one horrific lie.
CHOSEN FOR DEATH is a gritty and powerful first novel about love and loss, with a tough yet vulnerable heroine tailor-made for the nineties.
Comments:
I wasn't in the mood to read this... at first. Once I actually started it, I was quickly drawn in. I really liked Thea. The ending was very sudden, though. Fortunately and unfortunately, this is the first of a series. Fortunately, because that means I can read more about Thea. Unfortunately, because that means I have to find the other books in the series (as if I didn't have enough)... I know; how can more books be unfortunate? 
The great gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap [Hah! It most certainly is not!], it consoles, it distracts, it excites. It gives knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is moral illumination. ~ Elizabeth Hardwick
