O'Dell's first two novels ("Back Roads, "Coal Run") won critical praise and a loyal following . "Sister Mine " has plenty of the tart dialogue and mordant humor her fans love. The setting is another down-at-the-heels Pennsylvania coal-mining town, where violence, poverty, domestic abuse, and corruption are as common as coal dust.
Shae-Lynn Penrose, who narrates the story, left Jolly Mount for Washington, D.C., an unwed mother barely out of her teens, with her 5-year-old son Clay in tow. After 18 years in law enforcement she's back in Jolly Mount, where she drives the only cab in town. At 40-odd, Shae-Lynn dresses like a "middle-aged cowgirl," in Frye boots, a pink Stetson, and a wardrobe of mini-skirts. She's tough, righteous, and randy. O'Dell's first female protagonist is a free spirit, sort of, but her hard shell hides a collection of psychic wounds and physical scars.
Shae-Lynn has always believed that her younger sister, Shannon, was murdered at 16 by their violent father. Shannon disappeared when Shae-Lynn was living in D.C. Now, almost two decades after Shannon vanished, a New York lawyer arrives in Jolly Mount looking for her. Then a wealthy Connecticut woman appears saying that Shannon has stolen her baby. Then Shannon, very pregnant, turns up in Shae-Lynn's kitchen. It seems she's in the womb-for-hire business and her latest baby-making deal has become extremely complicated. The story sprawls all over the place as Shae-Lynn recalls the past and comes to grips with long-held secrets and questionable characters. The plot is, in part, improbable, and so is Shae-Lynn, but O'Dell's affection for her own creations is convincing. At its heart, "Sister Mine" is a tough, tender, sympathetic story of working-class family life in a dying coal-mining town.
