Opening Context
Set between glossy Manhattan media circles and the uneasy calm of East Hampton, The Better Sister charts how a single murder exposes a family’s fault lines. Two sisters, long divided by rivalry and regret, are forced to navigate abuse, ambition, and the courtroom glare as buried truths surface and loyalties are tested.
Main Characters
Chloe Taylor
Chloe is the novel’s primary narrator and the poised editor-in-chief of a prominent feminist magazine whose carefully curated life implodes after her husband is found murdered. Driven by control, pragmatism, and a fierce protectiveness born from a chaotic childhood, she tries to manage the investigation and the media while shielding her stepson from suspicion. As secrets about her marriage and past choices come to light, she must reconcile her public image with the private reality of abuse and compromise. Her journey ultimately reorients her bond with her older sister and reshapes her notion of justice, even if it requires bending the truth.
Nicky Macintosh
Nicky is the older sister—once written off as reckless and unstable—who returns after the murder with a steadier sobriety and a blunt eye for truth. Volatile in the past but fiercely maternal at heart, she seeks to protect her son and her sister, cutting through appearances that others cling to. As the narrative reframes her from cautionary tale to moral center, she takes decisive action that both exposes the family’s hidden abuse and shields those she loves. Her final choices force a painful reckoning and an uneasy alliance built on loyalty rather than rivalry.
Adam Macintosh
Adam is the murder victim whose absence dominates the novel, a successful lawyer celebrated publicly while revealed privately as a controlling, violent abuser. Through recollections and evidence, his charm gives way to manipulation, resentment, and a capacity for harm that shaped both marriages and terrorized his son. His frustration with career compromises and clandestine cooperation with federal authorities complicate his image, casting him as both architect and casualty of his own duplicity. In death, he becomes the prism through which every character’s choices are judged.
Ethan Macintosh
Ethan is a sixteen-year-old thrust from teenage distractions into the unforgiving center of a murder trial. Withdrawn yet perceptive, he records what adults try to hide and keeps dangerous secrets in a misguided attempt to protect the people he loves. His online persona and half-truths initially read as adolescent acting out, but on the stand he becomes the conduit for revealing the family’s darkest realities. Acquittal gives him a fragile new start—and the chance to redefine family with both mother and stepmother on honest terms.
Supporting Characters
Detective Jennifer Guidry
Guidry leads the homicide investigation with methodical calm, letting evidence—not impressions—drive her case. Professional and fair, she probes inconsistencies and off-the-record whispers, including unexplained meetings tied to the victim’s firm. Her steady pressure and open-mindedness help undermine a too-neat theory of a teen killer.
Olivia Randall
Olivia is the razor-sharp defense attorney who shields the family in court and in the press while forcing them to confront inconvenient truths. Strategic and unflappable, she builds reasonable doubt by surfacing alternative suspects and leveraging the secrecy surrounding the victim’s work. Her willingness to complicate narratives—especially by spotlighting a law partner—ultimately secures Ethan’s acquittal.
Bill Braddock
Bill is the octogenarian name partner at the victim’s firm and a longtime mentor whose affable exterior masks systemic corruption. When the victim’s notes point to a bribery scheme, Bill becomes both the scandal’s nucleus and a plausible culprit for the murder. His downfall provides a convenient cover for the family’s final act of self-preservation.
Jake Summer
Jake is the victim’s law partner and Chloe’s clandestine lover, offering emotional refuge and insider knowledge of the firm. Drawn into the defense strategy, he becomes an alternative suspect whose Fifth Amendment silence plants crucial doubt. His quiet sacrifice protects Chloe even as it jeopardizes his career and reputation.
Catherine Lancaster
Catherine is Chloe’s stylish mentor and confidante, a savvy guide to the optics of power and the cost of success. Grounded in their shared history, she counsels Chloe on balancing damage control with personal truth. Her presence underscores the novel’s tension between public image and private reality.
Detective Bowen
Detective Bowen is Guidry’s more cynical partner, quick to see guilt in the family and to lock onto the most convenient suspect. His impatience and tunnel vision throw Guidry’s measured approach into relief, amplifying institutional pressure for a clean resolution.
Minor Characters
- Margaret Carter: The headmistress of Ethan’s elite school whose testimony about plans for military school provides the prosecution a clear motive.
- Kevin Dunham: Ethan’s friend in East Hampton whose shifting story widens the window of opportunity and harms the defense.
- Mike Nunzio: The ambitious ADA who crafts a polished circumstantial case and presses hard for a conviction.
Character Relationships & Dynamics
The family triangle—Chloe, Nicky, and Adam—anchors the novel’s tension, with a polished facade masking years of coercion and fear. Chloe’s success and control sit uneasily beside Nicky’s hard-won sobriety, and both are scarred by Adam’s abuse; their rivalry gives way to a bleak solidarity once the truth can no longer be hidden. This evolving bond transforms sisterly competition into protection, reframing them through the lens of Sisterhood and Rivalry.
Parent-child dynamics intensify the stakes: Adam’s punitive expectations erode Ethan’s trust, while Chloe’s protective distance and Nicky’s absence create competing versions of motherhood. Ethan’s secrecy—recordings, burner phone, online posts—reflects a child navigating adult failures, and his testimony becomes the catalyst for reckoning.
Around the family, institutions form competing factions. Law enforcement splits between Guidry’s evidence-first patience and Bowen’s rush to judgment; the defense coalesces around Olivia’s strategy to redirect suspicion and expose the firm’s rot. Within the victim’s workplace, power and corruption converge in Bill Braddock and ripple outward to Jake Summer, whose entanglement blurs the line between ally, suspect, and sacrifice.