cover image The Secrets Sisters Keep

The Secrets Sisters Keep

Abby Drake, Avon A, $14.99 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-187832-9

At the start of Drake's funny and wise family soaper, successful Broadway producer Edward Dalton vanishes shortly before the arrival of his unhappy nieces, four sisters, at his big 75th birthday bash in Kamp Kasteel, N.Y. Afraid that gay Uncle Edward could have run off to Connecticut to marry his partner, Henry, and leave them out of his will, the nieces all want to be at his party: historian Ellie Dalton, "the most stable one of the bunch"; "Park Avenue socialite" Amanda Dalton Delaney, who's married to an unfaithful architect; Naomi "Babe" Dalton, a movie star "wed to yesterday's top-box-office, action-flick man"; and black sheep Carleen, who 20 years earlier unintentionally burned their home down with their parents inside. Drake (Perfect Little Ladies) depicts the search for Uncle Edward and the bumpy quest for family harmony with wit and style as the sisters try to make peace with the past. (Oct.)