The Locked Ward

Georgia Cartwright is glamorous, adopted as a newborn, and accused of killing the biological daughter of the wealthy Southern family that took her in. The case becomes the Crime of the Decade, and everyone has a theory: jealousy, sibling rivalry, plain madness.

While she awaits trial, Georgia is held in a psychiatric institution that houses the most violent offenders. Her estranged twin sister, Amanda, comes to visit. Georgia whispers only two things to her: that she did not do it, and that Amanda has to get her out.

Amanda does not trust her sister. She also cannot leave her in a place so eerie and menacing that it seems to belong to another dimension. Two possibilities pull at her. Georgia may be the victim of a family so depraved that murder is the least of its crimes. Or Amanda may be the one being led toward madness by a master manipulator.

This is a psychological thriller built around the bond between sisters and what happens when that bond is stretched to its limit. The mood is unsettling and suspicious, with a closed, institutional setting and a narrator who cannot be sure whom to believe.