The Substitute Sister - Lisa Childs

Reviewed by Amanda Roberts on June 27th, 2008, 1:59pm

by Lisa Childs

Format: Print Books

Series: Harlequin Intrigue

This is a 2005 book, but I just got around to reading it while on vacation.  It's a fresh spin on the classic haunted house/ghost story.  And I didn't stop reading it until I found out who the killer was.

Back cover blurb:  Rocking chairs moving to and fro in the night...and an inherited house straight out of the eeriest of ghosts stories.  These were the things Sasha Michaelson found when she arrived on Sunset Island to collect the body of her identical twin..and take charge of her newly discovered niece.

 But even more frightening to Sasha than her sister's shadowy presense in the old house, and the killer still running loose on the small island, was the fact that Sheriff Reed Blakeslee stopped her breath and made her heart pound fast.

But was the brooding lawman's determined search for answers caused by a love that hadn't stopped with death... or by a desire - for Sasha - that he couldn't deny?

Sasha is called out to the island home of her mysteriously murdered sister.  Estranged for years, because Nadine had stollen Sasha's groom-to-be on the very day of their wedding, it's all the more dazing to realize that now Sasha has been named sole heir of Nadine's home and guardian to her toddler Annie.  Bewildered more by the fact that she has a child to look after than by the fact that her sister's body hasn't been recovered (the evidence of death being all the pints of blood found in the house), she is torn to confide in the sexy Sheriff Reed Blakeslee.  Yet, Reed's possessiveness towards the baby and his seeming devotion to Nadine lead Sasha to suspect that he may be Nadine's lover and father to Annie. 

The idea of Reed moving from one twin sister to the other was a definite 'ich' factor for me.  Of course, reading on I realized, along with Sasha, that his relationship with Nadine had been platonic.  Still, he feels desperation to not only find Nadine's body, but to protect Sasha and Annie.  Yet, as the investigation continues, he might be starting to feel more than protectiveness for Sasha.  In fact, drawn into a passionate affair with her, he may be irrevocably in love.  But will that love be enough to save Nadine from a ruthless killer?  And is the killer someone they all know?

This story is packed with elements that'll send chills coursing along the back of your neck.  Rambling house, menacing servants, moving rocking chairs, and voices from the dead... oh, and a couple more murders to boot.  I enjoyed it, though I would've preferred a few more details about the scary house itself.  Still, the overall mystery, and the sadness of Nadine's shadowy life made this book a winner.

The Substitute Sister is a 4* in my rating system of 1 - 5.

"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."

- Mark Twain