Mar 19, 2007 By Tawni O'Dell 3 min read

If you’re the eldest kid in the family, you’re going to remember this: “Watch out for your little brother / sister.” Or: “You can go, but only if you take your brother / sister.”

Or: “No, you can’t go. You need to stay with your brother / sister.”

You probably grumbled then and vowed to escape from the little brat (and vice versa). Chances are, though, you see one another as a pretty decent people these days.

But what if your sib disappeared somewhere between “grow up” and “grow together”? In the new novel “Sister Mine” by Tawni O’Dell, a woman’s missing sister suddenly comes home. Can things ever be right between them?

Life in the mining town of Jolly Mount, Pennsylvania wasn’t easy. Coal was King there, and most of the town’s families owed their livelihoods to it. But working long days underground can be dangerous, and that sometimes makes a man’s mood as dark as the mine he toils in.

Two days after her mother died from complications of childbirth, six-year-old Shae-Lynn Penrose took responsibility for her baby sister. Shae-Lynn bathed Shannon and comforted her, dressed her in clean clothes and read bedtime stories. And when the girls’ father was in a rage, Shae-Lynn took the beatings so Shannon would be safe.

As soon as she was old enough, Shae-Lynn planned their escape. She would move to a bigger city, taking her toddler son and her sister. She would go to college, raise Clay to be a good man, and get Shannon out of danger.

But then Shannon disappeared without a trace, and Shae-Lynn feared her father killed her sister. If Shannon was alive, wouldn’t she have tried to call? For eighteen years, Shae-Lynn lived without knowing, while she tried to set her life straight. She moved back to Jolly Mount and started her own business; adjusted to life in a small town and tried to forget her former days as a cop and her former best friend, whom she fell in love with when they were kids.

Then, someone from the past shows up. It’s Shannon, and she’s pregnant.

She’s also being tailed by a snooty Big City lawyer, a frantic Connecticut mama-wanna-be, and a Russian mobster with a gun. Has Shannon’s soul become as black as the coal that comes from the nearby mines?

I really like novels like this one. I liked that author Tawni O’Dell doesn’t give everything up early-on and that she offers little plot surprises all the way to the end of her book. I liked that the main character is someone you’d want in your corner and that she’s flawed a little, which makes her even more appealing. And I truly enjoyed O’Dell’s writing: the vivid descriptions of Pennsylvania coal-mining regions, the unapologetic brutality of life she depicts, and the confusion of someone who loves deeply but hates that she does.

If you’re looking for a novel that you won’t want to put down, dig this one up. You’re definitely going to want to make “Sister Mine” yours.