Let the Dark Flower Blossom — Norah Labiner

“An ambitious, poignant and sharp-tongued novel filled with secrets and ghosts, jealousy and love.” -- Publishers Weekly Sheldon and Eloise Schell are twins, orphans, and the estranged college companions of the rich, scandalous, celebrated Roman Stone. Now Roman is dead, murdered with a pair of scissors in his living room, and Eloise and Sheldon must separately tease out the secrets -- a burning house, a murdered girl -- that were the one story they could never tell. Moving between the muffled plush of wintry Chicago, the fogbound darkness of a Lake Superior island, and the even darker precincts of memory, Let the Dark Flower Blossom is a book about the pull of the closed door. It is about the small pleasure of being right, the tremendous thrill of doing wrong, and the lengths writers will go to -- lie, steal, kill -- to get the perfect story. “As rewarding as it is challenging, this book is a great alternative to a beach read for those who love literary mysteries . . . Recommended for those who thought that even Gone Girl didn't have enough troubled characters and unforeseen twists.” -- Library Journal “[A] puzzle of a book, [Let the Dark Flower Blossom] engages one's attention through staccato prose and a number of interrelated and compelling characters. [T]his ‘existential murder mystery' . . . will reward attentive readers.” -- Booklist “A splendid, leisurely meditation on the meaning of fame, identity, and love.” -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)