The Other Daughter

At nine years old, a little girl with no memory of her past was abandoned in a hospital, and after several months was adopted by the wealthy Stokes family--a cardiac surgeon, his wife, and their son Brian, a family grieving the kidnapping and murder of the Stokes' four-year-old daughter, Meghan, five years earlier.

Twenty years later, Melanie Stokes is happy, confident, loving and loved by her adoptive family. She volunteers for various charities, especially the American Red Cross. On the night of one her major events, a party plus blood donation event plus "donate a rare book" to raise funds, a voice out of the past intrudes. A reporter from Texas, Larry Digger, catches her when she's getting a breath of fresh air, grabs her, and makes show more some alarming suggestions about her past. He says she's the daughter of Russell Lee Holmes, the man who, along with the deaths of six other young children, confessed to kidnaping and murdering the Stokes' first daughter, Meghan. And he says that her parents know. How did she come to be abandoned in the very Boston hospital where Dr. Harper Stokes worked? Why was he there, and not in Texas with the rest of the family, watching the execution of Russell Lee Holmes on that night? Why hasn't she ever recovered her memory of her first nine years? Has she really not remembered anything?

Melanie is rescued from the clutches of the reporter by one of the waiters hired for the party, David Riggs. What she doesn't know about him is that he's an FBI Special Agent, investigating her father for insurance fraud.

The Stokes family and their friends (Melanie's stepfather, Jamie O'Donnell; her boss and friend at the Red Cross, Ann Margaret; her father's younger colleague and briefly Melanie's fiancé, William Sheffield) have a frightening array of secrets, and where Melanie came from and why she doesn't remember her first nine years, is just the tip of the iceberg.

And what Melanie hasn't told anyone yet is that the migraines she's been having are accompanied by frightening dreams, or visions...or memories, of being in a cabin in the woods, where Meghan Stokes is desperately pleading to be taken home. She tries to bury those memories, and certainly doesn't want to tell anyone--but Larry Digger's alarming suggestions fall on fertile ground.

Meanwhile, David Riggs has his own issues. Arthritis killed his baseball career, and as an FBI agent has him investigating insurance fraud, not organized crime, and he feels he's failed his father. And he's lying to Melanie about what he's doing around her family. Even after he admits to being an FBI agent, he's still hiding the fact that he's investigating her father, not her former fiancé, for insurance fraud.

Everyone in Melanie's life, though, is lying to her, about far more important things, and it's all about to blow up on all of them.

It's a large and complex secret that needs to be uncovered, and we get some interesting and complex character development along the way.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook. show less

A serial child murderer was put to death in Texas 25 years ago. His death started a cascade of of events that rippled far into the future. Melanie Stokes had a secret, one that even she was not sure of. She was an orphan, adopted by the wealthy Beacon Hill Stokes family. Her father was a renowned cardiac surgeon, her mother a socialite, and her brother also a doctor. She began having flashes of memories and terrible migraines. It all seemed to be bits and pieces of her unknown past. Who was Melanie? Was she just a Jane Doe orphan adopted by the Stokes family five years after their daughter had been kidnapped and murdered? And why is the FBI circling around her fsmily?

I hadn't read a real murder mystery in some time. This was one of show more author Lisa Gardner's earlier works, but it held together quite well 20 years later. It was a nice taut thriller and mystery. It kept me turning the pages until the very end. show less

I'm conflicted about this one... on one hand, it's a very engaging thriller that definitely kept me reading to the end. On the other, I find much of the story and set-up far-fetched to say the least. Why would morphine erase 9 years of her life? Hey, we've been seeing each other for a month (without saying much) so we should get married! And so on. I also figured out much of the story pretty early on... that said, I still wanted to see how it all fit together.

The Other Daughter

An addictive story you will not want to end.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY

The Other Daughter was published over 20 years ago, but was only now released in audio. Melanie Stokes was nine years old when she was abandoned in a Boston hospital with a narcotic overdose. She was subsequently adopted by a young wealthy couple, who had earlier suffered the tragic loss of their four year old daughter. Melanie’s grew up knowing she was loved by her parents, her older brother, and her favorite uncle. She has no memory of her life before the adoption, but now at age 29, someone wants her to remember. One night she received a threatening message: “you get what you deserve.” As she struggles to figure out who she really show more is, danger is lurking around every corner.

“The truth did not always set you free. sometimes it bound you to dark, bloody deeds and costs you the people you love.”

REVIEW
The Other Daughter was the winner of the 1999 Reviewer’s Choice Award and winner of the 2000 Daphne’s Du Maurier Award for suspense. And I now know why it is being republished in audio. It’s a mystery full of twists that will have you holding your breath till the end. The writing was fluid and listening to the story was addictive. Lisa Gardner’s character development was robust and narrator Brittany Presley did a fabulous job with the various voices. My favorite part was the tension created by Melanie’s amnesia of her life before being abandoned in the hospital, and I really loved the David Riggs character, he was so full of feelings, emotions and strength.

“A parent’s approval always mattered, regardless of age.”

Publisher Brilliance Audio
Published December 2018
Narrated Brittany Presley
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com show less

This book is loosely tied to the Quincy family books that Lisa Gardner has made so popular. Pierce Quincy does make a very brief appearance but over all this is a standalone book and a very good one at that. The suspense is terrific. It hooks you within the first few pages and makes you want to stay up all night to finish it. Although this is one of Gardner's earlier books it doesn't suffer with a new writer feel to it. It made a fan of Gardner out of me.

In reviewing the other reviews of "The Other Daughter: A Novel", I was surprised that the overall rating was only a 3.6! I absolutely LOVED this novel. It had me from the first page to the last. I found the novel to be well-written, intriguing and a mystery until the end. Lisa Gardner did an amazing job of writing a "page turner" plot, with realistic characters. I'm looking forward to reading additional Lisa Gardner Novels. A definite must read!

The Other Daughter (Lisa Gardner).

A psychological suspense Thriller. Melanie Stokes has it all. A prominent wealthy Surgeon father, beautiful loving mother, and a Godfather who dotes on her. She knows she is lucky because she is adopted, and never gave thought to her real parents. She also lives with a family tragedy, one that is never spoken of. Her sister Meagan was murdered 20 years ago, by the child serial killer Russell Lee Holmes.

Melanie starts to ask about her sister, she has memory loss, can not remember anything prior to her adoption. Yet these un-re-memorable memories begin to haunt her. She starts to question her family, coming up on dead ends. She wonders if she really is loved, who are her "parents" and can this crazy man show more be her biological father?

An intense read, with surprises along the way. Lisa Gardner knows how to draw in a reader and keep you hanging on until the last page. All night reading suspense. show less