Blood Will Tell

Middle school teacher Frankie Barrera, in small-town California, would do almost anything to protect her fiercely independent, impulsive younger sister, Izzy, creating an increasingly dysfunctional dynamic that puts them both in grave danger in this deeply felt if flawed sophomore effort from Chavez (No Bad Deed). Out of the blue, Frankie sees a description of her car, a vehicle to which Izzy is the only other person with access, on an Amber Alert concerning the kidnapping of a 17-year-old girl. She stonewalls police inquiries, then has little more success herself questioning Izzy. But Frankie starts to fear that this incident might somehow be related to the night five years earlier when she rescued a drunk, distraught Izzy, then 17, who had just crashed their mother’s car after a party near a ghost town from which another teenage girl never returned. As Frankie scrambles to investigate, extended flashbacks fill in pieces of that fateful evening. While some plot twists are unconvincing, the author paints a moving portrait of sisters stumbling toward an adult relationship, perpetually driving one another crazy, but also loving each other deeply. Psychological thriller fans will find much to enjoy. (Apr.)