THE LAST WILL OF MOIRA LEAHY

First-time novelist Walsh uneasily combines a romantic adventure about a missing dagger with the psychological story of an adolescent sibling rivalry.

In Betheny, N.Y., 26-year-old Maeve buys a Javanese dagger called a keris at an auction because it reminds her of the one she lost during her childhood in Maine. Back then, she was a redheaded, saxophone-playing musical prodigy inseparably close to her identical twin sister Moira. But after Moira was hit by a car nine years ago, Maeve put away her sax and become a bleached-blonde workaholic professor. Soon after her purchase, Maeve begins receiving mysterious messages. A Javanese stranger wants her to meet him in Rome to discuss the keris. Encouraged by her father and her childhood friend Kit, Maeve heads to the Eternal City, where she is met by Noel, a best friend from Betheny who has been living in Paris. Together they search for the elusive keris expert. Interspersed with Maeve’s present story is a narration by 16-year-old Moira. Less adventurous and musically talented than her twin, Moira is an engagingly troubled teen with a dreamy romantic crush on Kit’s older brother Ian. He has a crush on Maeve, and when he mistakes Moira for Maeve one day, she doesn’t correct him. They begin a secret romantic/sexual relationship, and Moira’s confused emotions—envy, guilt, passion and regret as she deceives the boy she loves and usurps her sister’s place—are delineated with heart-wrenching believability. In contrast, Maeve’s Roman adventures with Noel are heavily plotted and artificial. Seeking the keris expert, the pair encounter danger in all the expected places. They gradually admit their love, but it’s lukewarm even at its most passionate. In a bit of spiritual hokum, Maeve discovers that the keris has powers that not only save her physical life but also unite her spirit with her sister’s.

Most alive when it focuses on the supposedly mousy twin.