Sister — R.J. Ellory

In Three Days in Chicagoland, his most ambitious effort yet, R.J. Ellory tackles the story of a brutal murder from three radically different perspectives. It's 1956, and though Chicago's gangland days are long over, it remains a city drenched in violence. Its latest victim is Carole Shaw, a young woman who had no enemies -- except, that is, The Killer who strangled her to death and left her body on her kitchen's cold, linoleum floor.

The Sister is the story of Carole's short life and tragic death -- and of the dramatic trial that followed. Our narrator Maryanne Shaw, Carole's grieving sister, counts down the seconds until the execution of Lewis Woodroffe, the man convicted of murdering Carole. Gripping all the way through its shocking final lines, The Sister is a bold and hard-boiled introduction to this remarkable mini-epic.