Lily, a freelance travel journalist currently on assignment in Spain, receives a call from the New York Police Department informing her that her sister Claudia is dead. She isn't surprised, as her sister was a heroin addict who, on and off, had kicked the habit. She lived in Lily's apartment in New York, that Lily paid for, to ensure her sister would not be homeless. The last time she had talked to Claudia several months before, she was clean. What she found when she got to New York was completely unexpected.
Click here to see the rest of this review...
Upon her return, she went to her apartment and was surprised to find it spic-and-span clean, a cleaning skill her sister had never acquired. She also finds high end apparel her sister could never afford. Cynical as always, she wonders what her sister was doing to be able to afford such attire.
She was surprised by a knock on the door that turned out to be Sarah, the neighbor across the hall. Lily didn't know her since she had moved in after Lily had left, but Sarah knew who Lily was. She offered her condolences and any help Lily needed, including funeral planning. Lily was suspicious but too devastated to dwell on it.
Lily decided to stay with her best friend Jesse, who is a homosexual and freelance photographer. They had bonded in college after learning they both loved old movies from the 40's, references of which abound throughout the story.
She contacts the police to inform them of her arrival and they arrange for an officer to bring her to the morgue. When she gets there, she realizes she has missed a call from Martin, her former fiance with whom she had broken off the engagement a year before. She calls him back and he chides her for not telling him she was in New York. She gets off the phone after a short conversation and meets Detective Norah Renfrew, who had notified her of her sister's death.
She accompanies Lily to the viewing room after telling her that a friend of her sister's reported the suicide. Stunned that her sister would have committed suicide, what should have been a routine identification begins the mystery, when Lily announces that the dead woman is not her sister.
Next Lily meets gruff Detective Detective Bruxton, Renfrew's partner, both of whom question Lily's statement that the deceased is not her sister. She finally proves it to them by mentioning that her sister had tattoos and the woman in the morgue does not. Here is where the main mystery begins.
While the police are trying to determine who the mystery woman is, Lily and Jesse try to find out what happened to her sister Claudia, who may or may not be alive considering the circumstances.
The dead woman was found drowned in Claudia's bathtub, hence the suicide determination, as there was no evidence of foul play, until Lily discovers that the woman was pretending to be her sister, and a 2.5 carat diamond ring is missing from her finger.
Claudia had a friend named Tariq, a wealthy restaurant owner who also had some very shady background deals. Claudia had hinted to Lily in the past that Tariq had been responsible for some deaths. Lily, of course, immediately suspects Tariq but finds he is out of the country when she tries to see him. Once he returns, they meet and he joins in the search for her sister, though Lily is never quite sure why. She still suspects he was involved somehow.
Martin tells Lily that Claudia had asked him for some money to go back into rehab at a very exclusive center with a controversial treatment program. Lily wonders why she asked Martin since she hated him, but is so focused on finding her sister, she keeps this in the back of her mind, now thinking that the rehab center may be related to her disappearance as she checked herself out about the same time the now dead imposter installed herself in Claudia's apartment.
The rest of the book involves Lily trying to make the connections between her sister, the dead woman, her addict friends, her counselor at the rehab center, and the now deceased founder of the rehab center whose book on the subject Lily found at Claudia's.
Lily eventually discovers the identity of the woman who was playing Claudia through her own sleuthing, at which point the two detectives are removed from the case and Claudia becomes simply a missing persons case. Detective Bruxton, whom Lily has grown to like and admire, is told to take a leave due to an incident he is involved in, and, off duty now, helps Lily and Jesse get down to the bottom of what really happened to her sister and whether she is alive or dead.
Best part of story, including ending:
It was written well and moved quickly. The interrelationships were well-presented and I found myself weighing the likelihood of their involvement.
Best scene in story:
My favorite scene was when Bruxton got Lily out of a jam after she was arrested for trespassing on the rehab center grounds. This changed the way Lily looked at him and solidified their relationship, as well as their love for old songs and movies.
Opinion about the main character:
I liked how cynical Lily got whenever she found out something new about her sister - typical addict, but also the guilt she felt about feeling that way.
