Dead Letters, Caite
Dolan-Leach
This intriguing mystery had me hooked quite
early on and kept me wondering the whole way through. Identical twin Ava gets a garbled message
from her alcoholic, demented mother that her sister Zelda has died in a
mysterious fire. But Ava refuses to believe it, for it’s much more likely Zelda
is playing a game again, keeping her guessing as to what really occurred.
And that seems to be the case, as emails
from Zelda start to appear. It seems that Zelda is leading Ava through the
alphabet with clues for each letter explaining what has happened over the two
years of their estrangement.
As such, their messy past is revealed. A
dysfunctional, split family with financial problems. Two sisters entwined in
every aspect of their lives, able to love and care completely, yet also hurt
and betray absolutely. For those that prefer a warning - there is a fair amount
of swearing, and a lot of references to alcohol and drug abuse.
It was a well-crafted mystery with a
creative way to tell a story. It’s an
impressive first novel from Dolan-Leach, hopefully she will go on to write
more.
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