A rare 5 stars from me. This book was a puzzle from beginning to end, A to Z. Being Caite Dolan-Leach's first novel, I look forward to what she has in store for the future. This was truly unlike anything else I've read. You never quite knew what was right and what was wrong, or where you were going to end up. It had me guessing and trying to figure out the ending the entire time and I was not expecting where we finished. I could hardly put it down.

All in all, if you like dysfunctional family drama, puzzles, suspense, or whodunit novels, you will like this. If you liked Gone Girl or are a fan of Riley Sager or Tana French you will probably enjoy this. ( )

I will state up front there is a slight problem with the marketing of this book. Since Gone Girl was so popular, every book company seems to be stating their book is "just like Gone Girl!" This book does the same and it is nothing like Gone Girl at all, but that doesn't mean it isn't a fun book.

Dead Letters by Caite Dolan-Leach is a fun book. I want you to keep that in mind when reading this book- it is a fun book. It isn't a thriller, borders a mystery, but it is an experience filled with characters that are pretty much unlikable. The good news is they are unlikable in a good way in that they have very little morals and values, but that makes the book fun.

Ava and Zelda were twin sisters born to their mother who is a drunk and may or may not have dementia and their father, who attempted to start a winery, but abandoned the three of them for his new wife.

Ava and Zelda played lots of games as children, often bordering on torturing one another mentally. They also fought over the same guy when they were teenagers. Ava dated the guy and Zelda was jealous due to losing Ava's attention. Something happens and Ava decides to take off for France.

It is years later, when the book takes place and Zelda has died in a tragic fire where it seems like she was locked in a barn. Ava returns from France, but finds Zelda's death too much like Zelda's personality. It is also too coincidental that she died the same exact way as her namesake- Zelda Fitzgerald. Ava finds Zelda's cell phone and starts to received e-mails from Zelda, who is supposed to be dead. Ava must find out what happened to her sister, while dealing with her parents, the town she escaped, and must face the guy they fought over. Ava follows clues left by her sister to find out what happened that fateful night.

I'll go back to what I stated- this is a fun book and should be read as such. The reason being is there are plot holes everywhere, things that seem too convenient, and a reveal that will take a bit of a leap to accept. If it is read as fun, those things will not bother you as much as the story draws the reader in, the women have a unique relationship with one another, and the family problems are crazy.

The story does drag a bit, but that has to deal with the reveal, so I cannot write more on that. After the reveal, it makes a bit of sense why the story needed to drag, but it didn't help it. The book got caught in its own device.

I did enjoy the characters of Ava and Zelda. Their relationship is really what this book hangs on and the good news is it works. Ava and Zelda both love and seem to resent one another at the same time. Their relationship is complicated and not trite.

I wound up giving this one 4 stars. ( )

I love this book!!!! I listened to it and was glad I couldn't skip to the end. I laughed and I cried. One of the best books I've read in a long time. ( )

The Alphabet Kills the Author

At the outset of this puzzling journey of Ava Antipova to determine if her identical twin sister Zelda is really dead, victim of a murder or suicide, or running an elaborate gaslight to torment Ava and slip out from under a mountain of debt, debut author Caite Dolan-Leach provides insight into why she chose the alphabet as the structure of her novel. Seems Ava has been away, escaping the grasp of her dysfunctional family in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York to study, among other things, the OuLiPo movement in Paris. Simply, OuLiPo is a method of writing that places constraints upon the writer. These might be as challenging as writing a piece without, say, using a letter or series of letters (a lipogram). Or, as with this novel, writing a twenty-four chapter novel, starting each chapter with a letter of the alphabet, and having each chapter contain a clue. While a clever way to write a mystery novel, it can, and in this case does, force the author to come with a long series of clues from the supposedly dead Zelda that can leave readers sighing in exasperation. Perhaps if the payoff at the end had been a dramatic twist, persevering would have been worth it.

So, the story goes, Ava returns from Paris when she learns of her twin’s death in a barn fire on the property of their family’s winery. This event forces Ava to return to a family she has always wanted to escape from, particularly after her sister beds her boyfriend Wyatt Darling (yes, unbearably cute), who comes across as milquetoast left too long in warm milk. Ava again has to face this, as well as a father who walked out on the family, a mother in the last throes of deadly dementia, a tragic family history, a history of alcoholism and drug use, and a mediocre winery now weighted down with debt, stumbling like a drunk to its demise. Can’t blame her for putting an ocean between herself and constant aggravation.

Each of Zelda’s clues brings back memories and in dribs and drabs fill readers in on the dark family doings (here think another twin’s death, matricide, irresponsibility, and the like). Then there’s the currency of the clues giving the idea that Zelda’s watching and cackling over the helter-skelter of Ava, and readers, trying to figure out if Zelda is alive or truly dead. In short, it all gets to be just too much.

While an interesting effort, it’s not a particularly satisfying one. And if you need the alphabet prominent in your mystery, well, you might want to give Sue Grafton a look. She’s closing in Z, you know. ( )

The Alphabet Kills the Author

At the outset of this puzzling journey of Ava Antipova to determine if her identical twin sister Zelda is really dead, victim of a murder or suicide, or running an elaborate gaslight to torment Ava and slip out from under a mountain of debt, debut author Caite Dolan-Leach provides insight into why she chose the alphabet as the structure of her novel. Seems Ava has been away, escaping the grasp of her dysfunctional family in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York to study, among other things, the OuLiPo movement in Paris. Simply, OuLiPo is a method of writing that places constraints upon the writer. These might be as challenging as writing a piece without, say, using a letter or series of letters (a lipogram). Or, as with this novel, writing a twenty-four chapter novel, starting each chapter with a letter of the alphabet, and having each chapter contain a clue. While a clever way to write a mystery novel, it can, and in this case does, force the author to come with a long series of clues from the supposedly dead Zelda that can leave readers sighing in exasperation. Perhaps if the payoff at the end had been a dramatic twist, persevering would have been worth it.

So, the story goes, Ava returns from Paris when she learns of her twin’s death in a barn fire on the property of their family’s winery. This event forces Ava to return to a family she has always wanted to escape from, particularly after her sister beds her boyfriend Wyatt Darling (yes, unbearably cute), who comes across as milquetoast left too long in warm milk. Ava again has to face this, as well as a father who walked out on the family, a mother in the last throes of deadly dementia, a tragic family history, a history of alcoholism and drug use, and a mediocre winery now weighted down with debt, stumbling like a drunk to its demise. Can’t blame her for putting an ocean between herself and constant aggravation.

Each of Zelda’s clues brings back memories and in dribs and drabs fill readers in on the dark family doings (here think another twin’s death, matricide, irresponsibility, and the like). Then there’s the currency of the clues giving the idea that Zelda’s watching and cackling over the helter-skelter of Ava, and readers, trying to figure out if Zelda is alive or truly dead. In short, it all gets to be just too much.

While an interesting effort, it’s not a particularly satisfying one. And if you need the alphabet prominent in your mystery, well, you might want to give Sue Grafton a look. She’s closing in Z, you know. ( )