The book starts with Harper finding her husband dead on the couch. So does she call the police, no she calls her brother to help her stage the scene to look like murder because of what happened before. Intriguing to say the least, but the what happened before is only a small detail that doesn't get mentioned again for over half of the story and then it's relatively anticlimactic.
The rest of the story is about Harper moving herself and her kids into her brother's home, uninvited of course, which creates animosity with her new sister-in-law. The relationship between Harper and Candance flips from friendly confidants to hatred in a moments notice then back again. It is a strange dynamic.
Harper's kids are a little strange too, with talks of murder, death, and ghosts. Sadly Harper is too busy trying to find out about Candance's secrets then trying to be a good parent who helps her grieving children.
As you can tell, this story is all over the place. Harper has secrets, Lane has secrets, Candace has secrets, and even Harper's mom has secrets.The story grabs your attention int the beginning, then gets repetitive and slow in the middle. The ending would be twisty and surprising if the blurb tag line doesn't give it away.
I hated all the characters. I liked trying to figure out all the secrets, even though I thought there were too many of them. I am giving it 2.5, rounded up to 3 stars because I enjoyed reading it but I was wowed by the story. Perhaps you will like it better.

Thanks to Netgalley, William Morrow, and the Scene of the Crime Early Reads for the advanced copy. The opinions are my own.

Harper comes home one night to find her husband dead on the couch in an apparent suicide. In a panic, she calls her brother Lane, who suggests that they stage the scene to look like a break-in/homicide, knowing that Harper and her kids will not receive the insurance payout to live on if the death is ruled a suicide. Cut off from her financial resources while his death is being investigated, Harper and her two kids, moved in with Lane and his new wife Candace. Harper is critical of Candace, and possessive over her brother. In addition, Candace just finds Harper's son, Jackson, creepy. Tensions rise as the two women in Lane's life battle over his attention, and the secrets that all of them are keeping that must eventually come to light.

"The Sister-in-Law" is a fast-paced thriller, told throughout from the differing points of view of Harper, Lane, and Candace. Though predictable, it was none-the-less a fun, fast-paced read. Although this is the first book I have read by Pamela Crane, I am definitely looking forward to reading more by her!

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchnage for an honest review. "The Sister-in-Law" is scheduled to be released on 8/10/21/

The Sister-in-Law by Pamela Crane will keep you in panic mode. I had a hard time relating to any of the characters. In the beginning, Harper is in a panic because her husband was found dead with a suicide note nearby blaming her for his demise. You realize her close attachment to her brother Lane when he decides to help her stage the death as a murder so she can collect the Life insurance money. The whole time you are screaming at them "Just call 911" ...Problems come to surface with that staging....investigation proceeds throughout the book.

Nearly losing her house, Harper and her two children move in with her brother and his newly-wed Candace. Candace is in a panic because her house is invaded by in-laws. Not to mention she comes with a shady past that leaves you second guessing her throughout the book.

"She stole my husband. So I'd steal her life." A scorned woman is the theme. But who is scamming who? A lot of deceit, lies and murder with the warning trust no one in this book.

Told from different perspectives, you humorously find out what each character is thinking about the other. A little iffy on Harper's dark-willed little boy. "He sees dead people." A deadly accident with Harper's two year old daughter is the saddest engaging moment of the whole book leaving you to question the stability of all.
It was just okay for me. The funniest unrelated part of the book is Pamela Crane is my sister-in-law's name and she is opposite of these girls...thank goodness 😂

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

This book was chock full of dysfunctional characters and situations, from an unusually close brother and sister, a creepy kid, a suspicious suicide, a pearl-clutching yet devious mother, and a very unlikable sister-in-law. There are so many things happening, so many sub-plots, but they are all tied together beautifully. Pamela Crane is definitely the master of the dysfunctional. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this e-ARC.

"She stole my husband, I'll steal her life"

I absolutely can not rave any more about this novel. I LOVED IT!!!!!!!

The Sister-In-Law, is haunting, to say the least. I was a huge fan of Pamela Crane prior to The Sister in Law. The style of writing is impeccable, descriptive, and engaging. I will rave about this book to anyone who will listen!

Are you looking for an intense thriller this summer? If so, look no further, The Sister in Law is the perfect summer binge read!

Crane narrates this story from multiple character point of views. Lane, Harper and Candace all take turns narrating. Harper comes home to find her husband dead of an apparent suicide, scared that she wont be able to claim the insurance money she impulsively calls Lane to help her stage the scene to look like a burglary gone wrong.

While awaiting the insurance check, Harper is forced to move in with Lane and his new wife, Candace. As most women can relate, no one wants another woman living in their house, especially while they are expecting. This is where the drama begins and poor Lane is thrown in the middle of these two women.

Be prepared for a HUGE twist that will leave your jaw on the floor. If you are a fan of domestic thrillers, you will love the sister in law!

Thank you William Morrow and Netgalley for the opportunity to preview The Sister-in-law by Pamela Crane.

This story centers on a woman, Harper, who is going to have a really bad day. She finds her husband has committed suicide (oddly stabs himself to death), and it appears he blames her for taking his life. Harper is beside herself so she moves in with her newly married brother. Harper thinks her brother has married a gold digger and the drama begins.
The story goes back in forth with these two women battling it out and who will be the best "woman" if they don't kill themselves in the meantime.
Reminded me alot of real housewives with the main characters not very interesting or likeable. This is a good beach read - fast, furious, and done.
3 stars.

2.5. This book started out pretty good but quickly lost me. too much drama, unbelievable storylines and unlikeable characters and just continued on like that. While all the loose ends were tied up, it still felt like what was the point of this story

What do you get when you add a wife to a close sibling relationship... suicide or murder?

Harper loves her husband, but when she finds him dead on her living room couch with a note explaining why he did it, she turns to the one person she knows she can truly trust.

Lane, a nurse who wants to do everything in his power to protect his younger sister, but who also needs to focus on his new found love of his life and her growing belly.

Candace is a deeply misunderstood woman who has grown up with nothing but pain in her life. All she wants is to keep a firm grasp on the love she finally found.

In Pamela Crane's "The Sister-in-Law", you will be quickly entwined with the chaos of her characters. You will move through the nuances, quirks, bitterness, pain, revenge, and unknowns thinking you have it all figured out, just to have another wrench thrown in to your theory. Her writing keeps you guessing all the way to the end.

Harper and Lane are extremely close siblings and are dedicated to helping and looking out for each other. Harper finds her husband dead on the living room couch with a knife in his chest. There is a note claiming suicide. She turns to Lane concerned about a no-suicide clause in their insurance. Lane stages a break in. Lane is newly married and brings Harper and her two children into his home temporarily until everything is settled. Harper and Lane's wife are exact opposites and are totally at odds with each other. This domestic psychological drama novel is about broken people living with secrets and lies. It's difficult to sort out who is the villain, the victim and the victor until the very end.

Harper come home to discover her husband stabbed to death in an apparent suicide, according to the scathing letter he left her, telling his wife she is to blame for everything, even him taking his own life. Because Harper is a stay-at-home mom and all their assets have been frozen with the investigation, she moves in with her brother, who has just quickly and secretly married a way younger woman, who Harper feels is only there to use her brother for all he has.

The story started out with a bang, but then whimpers through many chapters, with namely 2 unlovable characters who change chapter to chapter, Harper and her sister-in-law, Candace. You never know which version you are getting today of either one of them. Honestly, the only character who is genuine is Lane, Harper's brother and Candace's husband.

I enjoyed the premise of the book, but just felt it was sloppy in many ways. Harper in one chapter talks about how she has lost her faith in God. A couple chapters later, that ideal has been forgotten and she is a true believer.

Thank you Sam Glatt, Scene of the Crime, William Morrow for the free ebook. In the end, it's still worth a read.

This book was a hot mess from beginning to end. The characters were hypocritical, whiny and pretty much just awful human beings. Not flawed, just awful. There didn’t seem to really be any plot at all, beyond sisters-in-law Harper and Candace hating each other. The story seems to meander from place to place – Harper’s husband dying, Candace being pregnant, Harper’s husband not being who she thought he was, Harper’s husband being exactly who she thought he was, Candace not being who the reader thought she was (or being exactly who the reader thought she was – because the more outlandish, the more likely it is to show up in this book), Harper suddenly having a fixation on a loss before her husband and hating her son, a blast from Harper’s past showing up, a murder investigation taking an unexpected turn, and a plot twist that you probably won’t see coming. This could be because by this point you either don’t care about this part of the storyline, or because, really, anything is plausible in this story. Frankly, it’s overkill and exhausting. Maybe if the characters were compelling it could overcome a story that veers off constantly into the latest drama the author has dreamed up, but they plot, snoop, blackmail, lie, tattle, undermine, fight and whine with no regrets. The most recent book that I couldn’t wait to be done with, and probably would have never finished if I hadn’t been reading it for review.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book! WOW toward the end!!!! I did want to know how everything was going to unravel from the beginning and I love that! But it still took me a little longer to get sucked in with this one, but I am glad I finally did! I will be reading her other books for sure! I recommend this one for those who like sister-in-law banter, family drama and trying to figure out who dun it!!!! Thank you again to NetGalley!!

Welp, I hated this. It was a slog to get through and mainly because there wasn't a single likeable character. Harper was grating, Lane was a milquetoast, and Candace was completely off-putting. The only concept I liked was the different POV chapters as it allowed the audience to see how these different characters perceived the same situation or interaction. Unfortunately, that is not enough to make a good book. You have to be invested in the character's journeys, and I was not. I didn't care what happened to any of these people. Other issues: I guessed the twist once the description of the mistress was given, it has a very strange ending, and the writing was too simple. I wished for a little more complexity. I do not recommend.

This is a good thriller with characters I absolutely loathed at times, leading to a lower rating.

Harper comes home one night to find her husband dead from an apparent suicide. She calls her brother Lane in a panic, and he helps stage the scene so it looks like an interrupted robbery/murder. This is important to Harper, so she can collect his life insurance, which doesn't pay in the event of suicide.

However, several weeks later, Harper and her two kids still are waiting for the payout and for their accounts to be unfrozen, and so Harper decides it is best to move in with Lane for the time being. But Lane's new wife, Candace, isn't found of this idea at all. She wants Lane all to herself, and wants to spend her time getting ready for the baby she is expecting. This begins a war between the two women, with Lane stuck in the middle.

The story is told from the viewpoints of Harper, Lane and Candace, and this muddies the water quite a bit. One of the things that frustrated me the most was that often what the characters said or thought in those chapters didn't line up with how they acted and said in other chapters. Some of that can be explained by the fact that we may think one thing, but be spurred by anger to react in a different way, but there was still a lot of dissonance that made the story harder to read.

I also did not like these characters. Lane comes across as wishy washy, Harper as a Type-A control freak harpy, and Candace as a gold digging, possessive, user of people. While this got better by the end of the book, and the story explained why these characters were this way, I still didn't like them or understand their motives for certain actions.

There is a big twist at the end, of course, and then the book ends with a happily-ever-after ending that seems to sweep a lot under the rug. This isn't a bad book, but it wasn't my favorite, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to readers looking for a summer thriller.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy of this book!

Pamela Crane did it again! I loved her last thriller and I loved this one too. All kinds of unreliable narrators and secrets and a somewhat ?!?!?! ending. Its five stars from me!

Thank you to the publisher, author, and Netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for honest feedback. I think that this book was a great read. Some of the strengths of this book were the writing style/utilization of multiple POV for story telling. The plot/characterization is quite interesting in a thriller. It was one of those reads were you're not sure what to believe, who to follow. The twists were not overly predictable. Therefore, I would highly suggest this to thriller/suspense fans who want to add to their TBR a domestic thriller.

This book was a pretty good thriller that made picking a side difficult when you see things from both points of view. Who doesn’t love a bit of dysfunctional family drama? Actually I’ve been reading a lot of those lately. My first read by the author but won’t be my last.

This book was totally predictable and I couldn’t stand any of the characters which made it hard to get through. Things were slow at times and I just didn’t love it.

The perfect who dun it thriller! Looking for a book with amazing characters and twist and turns coming out of everywhere? Read this beauty! I loved everything about TSL. It's can addictive read.
This book was gripping and it will have you wanting more!

There was a time many years ago, when me and my brother's wife did not get along, but it was nothing compared to Harper and Candace! Granted my brother and I are no where near as close as Harper and Lane were.

I have to admit, I felt for Harper. I really did. Right from the first page, she really had a rough go of things with her husbands death and her basically having no skill set at all. She is so use to depending on her brother Lane, that once Candace comes into the picture, its puts her over the edge.

However, I have to admit in some twisted way, I felt that Harper and Candance had a LOT in common. I owuldn't say I liked them, but I did have some sympathy for them.

All in all this was a good read, with a lot of twists that I didn't see coming!

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion