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LIFE SENTENCES is Alice Blanchard's second novel, following the success of 2003's THE BREATHTAKER. Daisy Hubbard's younger brother Louis is robbed of life by a vicious rare disease --- a genetic death sentence called Stier-Zellar's --- and Daisy grows up to become a scientist bent on finding a cure. She's passionate about her work with mice in the lab, finding little time for a social life. Nearing a breakthrough in therapeutic treatment for those infected, Daisy is elated with the success of her research. Dr. Truett, her boss in the Boston lab, sees her as his shining hope for the future.
Her secure world turns chaotic, however, when she receives a phone call from her mother Lily in upstate Vermont. Anna, Daisy's younger sister, has moved to Los Angeles and disappeared. Lily pleads with Daisy to fly to the west coast and find her. Anna is schizophrenic and is presumed to have gone off her meds. It's a pattern repeated often but not with the usual ends. Anna has always managed to surface, calling Lily to ease her mother's anxiety. But not this time. So Daisy leaves Boston for the place Anna now calls home, worried but not frantic.
Blanchard writes her characters with a gifted pen. Descriptions are explicit, from freckles, red hair and greasy fibers to genetic predispositions, mannerisms and crime scene panoramas. Her artful use of simile makes for realistic pictures when Daisy and Detective Jack Makowski of the LAPD search the clueless labyrinth that Anna has left. From his "trollish dad" to "walls painted nicotine yellow," Blanchard imprints indelible word paintings in the reader's mind. Rooftops that are "a checkerboard of pastels shimmering in the sweltering heat" are further descriptive techniques she pens with ease.
A number of additional missing persons further complicates the web of intrigue Daisy and Jack encounter when looking for Anna. A common thread weaves into the scheme. Anna, it seems, has copied Daisy's research article about Stier-Zellar's, become acquainted with carriers of the genetic marker Daisy researched, and befriended Roy Gaines, a fellow of dubious background. The trail turns cold but heats up when one of the men in the genetic carrier group is murdered, then soon another. Both have been strangled and buried in a forested area outside the Los Angeles vicinity. Daisy becomes entangled with the probable killer, Gaines, when she fears that he's murdered Anna. Jack plays the role of protector.
Daisy's childhood baggage travels with her. She and Anna carry distorted memories of mistreatment by Lily's live-in lover. Their brother's father is an unknown quantity, not sharing their same parentage. But Mr. Barsum, the live-in, is not his father, and Lily has refused to divulge the name of Louis's parent. Daisy rebuts her troubled childhood by overachieving and Anna turns to psychotic fantasy.
LIFE SENTENCES is entertaining and keeps the reader's attention through one twist or turn after another. Louis's tragic death, with Daisy's subsequent research, is the motivating force behind the story's action. Alice Blanchard becomes a unique addition to a new group of medical thriller writers.
--- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad
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