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. A beautifully written, compulsively readable debut, The Murderer's Daughters is a testament to the power of family and the ties that bind us together and tear us apart. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

This solid novel begins with young Lulu finding her mother dead and her sister wounded at the hands of her alcoholic father, who has failed at killing himself after attacking the family. Meyers traces the following 30 years for Lulu and her sister, Merry, as they are sent to an orphanage, where Lulu turns tough and calculating, searching for a way into an adoptive family. Eventually, Lulu becomes a doctor specializing in "the almost old," though her secretiveness about her past causes new rifts to form in her new family. Meanwhile, Merry becomes a "victim witness advocate," but her life is stunted; she's dependant on Lulu, drugs and alcohol, and she can't find love because she "usually want[s] whoever wants me." In the background, their imprisoned father looms until a crisis that eerily mirrors the past forces Lulu and Merry to confront what happened years ago. Though the novel's sprawling time line and undifferentiated narrative voices-the sisters narrate in rotating first-person chapters-hinder the potential for readers to fall completely into the story, the psychologically complex characters make Meyers's debut a satisfying read. (Jan.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Lulu and Merry, ages ten and six, respectively, live with parents for whom marriage is a permanent battleground. One summer day in 1971, their father fatally stabs their mother in their Brooklyn apartment near Coney Island. Merry is also attacked but survives. When their father goes to jail, the sisters are shuffled from relatives to a group home to foster care. Lulu forever blames herself for her father's crimes, and Merry inexplicably continues to carry a torch for her father. How will they come to terms with their horrific past? Readers will follow them well into adulthood, hoping for the best. Verdict First novelist Meyers draws on the eight years she worked at a batterer intervention program. Much like Janet Fitch's White Oleander or Jacqueline Mitchard's The Deep End of the Ocean, her book takes readers on an emotional roller-coaster ride. Readers, get out your handkerchief and prepare to care.-Keddy Ann Outlaw, Houston Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Adult/High School-When she was only 10, Lulu watched her father kill her mother and critically injure her sister. Her overwhelming guilt at letting her father into the apartment that day, despite her mother's warning not to, drives her to protect her sister fiercely for years to come. The girls first stay with their mother's sister, but are soon sent to a home. Though conditions are deplorable, Lulu is determined to make a better life for Merry and is able to manipulate Mrs. Cohen, one of the teachers, into taking both of them into her family as foster children. Even though the sisters are taken care of physically, they aren't loved like the grown children in the family, and Mrs. Cohen's death brings an end to any feelings of belonging they once had. Throughout it all, Merry visits her father in prison, but Lulu refuses any contact and in fact covers up his existence. As the girls grow up and graduate from college, they stay close physically and emotionally. Only Lulu's husband knows the truth about his father-in-law; even their children are unaware. But as his release date grows near, tensions rise and the truth finds its way out. Meyers's strength is in her descriptions of the heartbreak of the sisters' situation as children and their continued struggles as adults, as well as the clarity and individuality of their voices.-Kelly Jo Lasher, Middle Township High School, Cape May Court House, NJ Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information