The Second Crack

Anne, a Portland, Oregon coffeehouse owner, fights the city over an on-ramp that threatens her beloved Bean as she tries to regain closeness with her twin, Suz, who, inspired by her hero Mandela, abandoned their enterprise to do humanitarian work in the townships of South Africa. As the novel opens, Suz has returned home for Christmas, but then disappears after the twins celebrate with a drunken night out. Anne, her brother and father try to find Suz but Anne's memories of their last night together are hazy. When she reports her sister missing, the police shrug it off but later suspect Anne. She resorts to hiring her own investigator, plastering posters around the neighborhood and calling news stations. Though she frequently 'syncs' with Suz, suddenly able to inhabit her twin's body, it's of little help. In the search for her sister, Anne also hacks into Suz's laptop, discovering through her journal entries not only the remnants of apartheid and Suz's attachment to a family of women devoted to each other, but also her sister's betrayal of her. And yet, Anne finds that it is facing her own betrayal that leads to Suz's rescue.