BLOOD AND WATER

A robust first novel tells the story of twin sisters Sidney and Frances LaSalle—friends in childhood, always at loggerheads in adulthood. Almost a year ago, Fran moved three hundred miles up the coast from San Francisco—leaving her classes at law school and her husband Peter Estes—to Black Bay, where her mother was mortally ill. Peter joined her some months back; then Sidney arrived from Los Angeles for the funeral—and has stayed on, claiming to be afraid of abusive boyfriend Deke Brenner, back in L.A. One night at the Seahorse Pub, run by raunchy bartender Woody Hanks, Fran and Sid come to drunken blows. The next day Sid’s car is found at the bottom of the cliffs at Pirate Point, her body discovered days later and unrecognizable. Now, in addition to guilt and grief, Fran must cope with the suspicions of the police: blood was found on her sister’s clothes and car, and there’s a lush insurance policy in the offing. Even Peter seems to question his wife’s innocence. Fran herself suspects Sid’s drug-involved boyfriend Deke, but he ends up as victim, not perpetrator. Meanwhile, ever in the background hovers the unsolved two-year-old murder of the sisters” friend April Kaminsky. The solution, a bit too long in arriving, is startling, elaborate, and just barely possible. Fran’s reckless sleuthing expeditions and constantly roiled up emotions grow tiresome before the finish, but the author’s narrative style is leisurely, lucid and lusty. Most readers will anticipate her next venture with curiosity and pleasure.