“It’s the crime of the decade! The early-morning headline explodes across my iPhone as I scan it through bleary eyes. I read the first few paragraphs: A woman from a wealthy, socially prominent family is accused of bludgeoning her younger sister to death at the family estate in Charlotte, North Carolina - just ninety minutes away from my one-bedroom apartment, but essentially in another world.”
That’s a passage from Chapter Two of Sarah Pekkanen’s psychological thriller The Locked Ward. The speaker is Mandy Ravenel who inherited a bar when her parents died. Shortly after she reads about the murder, she gets a call from the public defender on the case who tells her that the alleged murderer, Georgia Cartwright, who is being detained in a locked psych ward, wants to meet with her. Mandy meets with her out of curiosity only to discover that she is Georgia’s twin, separated at birth.
The chapters alternate in voice between Mandy and Georgia. Georgia is pretending to be psychotic to keep out of prison and enlists her twin sister’s help to find the real murderer. There’s a wealthy, high profile family and Senator involved that make it hard to know who to trust. With the trial only two days away, Georgia tells her twin that she didn’t commit the murder and begs her to find out who did. As the book jacket says this is “a psychological thriller about the complex bonds of sisterhood - and what happens when they are stretched to the breaking point.”
If you’re looking for a new “who-done-it” to solve, then you must read The Locked Ward by Sarah Pekkanen.
