My Sister’s Daughter and Silent Echo

Bestseller Constantine (Don’t Open Your Eyes) delivers a lopsided pair of domestic suspense novellas. In the superior “My Sister’s Daughter,” the sudden death of Ashley Bowers’s troubled sister, Courtney, forces Ashley to adopt her 13-year-old niece, Serena. Tensions naturally arise between Serena and Ashley’s 12-year-old daughter, Luna, but they soon escalate into a frightening series of near deadly accidents. Ashley must then try to determine whether Serena suffers from the same dangerous tendencies that drove Ashley and Courtney apart. The wobblier “Silent Echo” focuses on busy executive Charlotte Fleming, who dismisses her four-year-old son Sebastian’s stomachache and sends him to school, only to be plunged into a yearlong depression when he dies in a school bus accident. Then Charlotte discovers evidence online that Sebastian may have miraculously survived the crash only to be abducted. She engages in a game of cat and mouse with his possible kidnapper, a development that asks for more suspension of disbelief than the story’s 100 pages can handle. Thankfully, any disappointments readers might feel about “Silent Echo” are more than made up for by the crisp plotting and clever twists of “My Sister’s Daughter.” Even though this diptych isn’t Constantine’s best work, it’s still worth a look. Agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency. (Nov.)