The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers

Book Description
Lulu and Merry's childhood was never ideal, but on the day before Lulu's tenth birthday their father propels them into a nightmare. He's always hungered for the love of the girls’ self-obsessed mother; after she throws him out, their troubles turn deadly. Lulu had been warned not let her father in, but when he shows up drunk, he's impossible to ignore. He bullies his way past Lulu, who then listens in horror as her parents struggle. She runs for help, but discovers upon her return that he's murdered her mother, stabbed her five-year-old sister, Merry, and tried, unsuccessfully, to kill himself.

Lulu and Merry are effectively orphaned by their mother’s death and father’s imprisonment. The girls’ relatives refuse to care for them and abandon them to a terrifying group home. Even as they plot to be taken in by a well-to-do family, they come to learn they’ll never really belong anywhere or to anyone—that all they have to hold onto is each other.

For thirty years, the sisters try to make sense of what happened. Their imprisoned father is a specter in both their lives, shadowing every choice they make. One spends her life pretending he's dead, while the other feels compelled--by fear, by duty--to keep him close. Both dread the day his attempts to win parole may meet with success.

My thoughts
Lulu and Merry’s father killed their mother. He was sent off to prison and they were sent into the foster-care system since none of the family wanted anything to do with the murderer’s daughters. Throughout their lives, Lulu wants nothing to do with her dad, while Merry is the one who visits him and is the good daughter.

This story follows the lives of the girls for some thirty years from their childhood until their dad is released from prison. We learn what effect this incident has on them and how society threats these two and the secrets they keep. It is a magnificent story of betrayal, anger, disillusionment and survival. I was enthralled in the lives of these two tormented girls. A beautifully written debut novel.

Disclosure: I borrowed this book from my local library.