A Better Ending: A Brother's Twenty-Year Quest to Uncover the Truth About His Sister's Death

(Hardback)

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For fans of We Keep the Dead Close and The Night of the Gun, a propulsive and moving memoir about a brothers decades-long investigation into the circumstances surrounding his sisters tragic deathand his own journey to forgiveness and closure.

On a summer evening in 1974, Jim Thomson arrived home from a baseball game to the news that his younger sister, Eileen, had taken her own life. To Jim, his parents, and brother, the loss was unexpected and devastating. Only twenty-seven, Eileen had been living in California with her high school sweetheart, Vic, a cop. She had a circle of close friends and a job she loved. But details soon emerged that Eileen had been depressed, her storybook marriage plagued by infidelity and guilt. On the day of her death, Vic later explained, he stormed out of the room in the midst of a bitter argument. Moments later, a gunshot went off. The revelations were deeply troubling, but Jim and his family believed him. The police ended the investigation and the Thomsons moved on as best they could.

In 2001, his parents and brother all dead, Jim often found himself thinking about Eileen. What had the final months of her life been like Why had she not told him about her troubled marriage What other demons had she been battling Frustrated by how little he knew, Jim hired a private investigator to help track down Eileens old friends and the police reports from that fateful afternoon, beginning a two-decade journey through a tangled web of secrecy, deception, and shifting stories that would force him to consider the unthinkable: Had Eileen really committed suicide

Told with the precision and pace of a whodunit and the searing emotion of a family saga, A Better Ending is an unforgettable tale about the love between siblings, the murkiness of truth and memory, and the path to acceptance.

Reviews

"James Thomsons chronicle of his dogged search for answers that may or may not be findable lays bare a familys evasions, intimacies, and impenetrable mysteries. A heartbreaking and mesmerizing book."JoanWickersham, author of the National Book Award finalistThe Suicide Index
"James Thomsons masterful and meticulous storytellingpart mystery, part elegyis a gift for us all. This brave and unflinchingly honest book grabs you from the first page and does not let you go until the very last word."Meg Kissinger, author ofWhile You Were Out

Author Bio

James Thomson grew up in Pittsburgh and attended Harvard College on a scholarship, after which he served as the navigator of a Navy ship off the coast of Vietnam, then earned a PhD in American studies. After a brief stint in academia, he had a successful career as a salesman and business consultant. His novel, Lies You Wanted to Hear, received wide acclaim. Jim and his wife live outside of Boston. They have five far-flung children and eleven grandchildren.