“Beatrice Hemming investigates her sister's apparent suicide, refusing to believe that the Tess she knew, pregnant with her first child, would ever take her own life. Bee follows any potentially suspicious acquaintance she can discover, finding along the way that she isn't as different from her younger sister as she always thought. Bee has always been very careful, choosing the safest path through life while Tess lived by "the sacrament of the present" - living in the here and now and unconcerned with the past or future. The author uses an interesting technique - Bee tells parts of the story to her lawyer in preparation for a trial and parts of the story to Tess. Somewhere between testimony and an apology, Bee's story unravels the various mysteries and inconsistencies that surrounded Tess, her friends, and the gene trial she undertook to cure her child of cystic fibrosis in utero. Lupton builds the case slowly - too slowly at times - but the layered plot, the effective storytelling device, and Bee's character development combine into an intriguing and unique reading experience.”
bookappeal wrote this review Wednesday, February 15, 2012.
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