A Better Ending - by James Whitfield Thomson (Hardcover)

About the Book

"For fans of We Keep the Dead Close and The Night of the Gun, a ... memoir about a brother's decades-long investigation into the circumstances surrounding his sister's tragic death and his own journey to forgiveness and closure"--

Book Synopsis

"Haunting and heartfelt...meticulously recounted with powerful suspense and hard-earned wisdom." --Robert Kolker, author of Hidden Valley Road

A propulsive and "deeply human" (The Minnesota Star Tribune) memoir about a brother's decades-long investigation into the circumstances surrounding his sister's tragic death--and 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 his brother, Keith, the loss was unexpected and devastating. Only twenty-seven years old, Eileen had been living in California with her high school sweetheart, Vic, a cop, surrounded by a circle of close friends and working at a job she loved. It seemed unfathomable that she would kill herself, but as the family gathered in Pittsburgh to say goodbye, more details emerged that seemed to explain the tragedy: Eileen had confided in her parents that she had been suffering from depression, and her storybook marriage had been plagued by bitter fights, infidelity, and guilt. When Jim eventually sat down with his brother-in-law to talk about the final hours of Eileen's life, Vic looked him in the eye and explained that he had stormed out of the room during a volatile argument. Moments later, a gunshot went off. Sensing no lies or evasion, Jim believed him. He recounted the story to the rest of the family, and they got on with their lives as best they could.

Twenty-seven years later, with all of his family passed away, Eileen's death began to nag at Jim. Now a writer, he wanted to fill in the blanks of her story and answer the questions that were plaguing him. What had the final months of Eileen's life been like? Why had she not told him about her troubles? How had the infidelity in her marriage brought her and Vic to that fateful day, and who else had been a part of it? What other demons had she been battling?

Determined to uncover the truth, Jim hired a private investigator to help him. Together, they tracked down Eileen's old friends and clandestinely obtained copies of police reports, which revealed that Vic and Eileen's relationship--and the sheriff's investigation that followed her death--was much darker and more complicated than they had imagined. Torn by doubt, Jim began a two-decade journey that took him from the streets of Pittsburgh to the hills of San Bernardino, leading him into a tangled web of secrecy, deception, and shifting stories that forced him to reconsider everything he thought he knew about Vic, Eileen, and himself--and to confront the chilling question of whether his sister had really taken her own life.

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.

Review Quotes

"Thomson weaves the mysteries surrounding his sister's death with his own self-examination, taking a clear-eyed approach to his shortcomings. Reexamining the circumstances that led to her death won't bring Eileen back, Thomson knows. But as he pursues a better ending, he revisits the sister he knew and reckons with his own guilt, anger, and memory." --BookPage

"Compelling . . . A personal and highly readable account. . . . Was Eileen's death a suicide or murder? A Better Ending answers that by descending into the unknowable." --Pittsburgh Quarterly


"An oh-so-compelling read for true crime fans, lovers of memoirs, and anyone who's lost a sibling in unresolved ways. . . . See if you're not left shaken." --Terri Schlichenmeyer

"A Better Ending feels like reading the words of someone you know, a pal who has a remarkable story that somehow has never come up in conversation. His calm, questioning prose suits the story, which is surprisingly easy to relate to, despite its shocking elements: A brother wants to know more about his loved one's death and, 50 years on, wonders if he could have done anything to prevent it. Those impulses feel deeply human." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

"An ultimately provocative read . . . The book's arguments about the nature of truth and the dread of uncertainty . . . give this memoir a depth lacking in many true-crime stories." --Kirkus Reviews

"A brave and meticulous investigation of not only a death, but a life, A Better Ending reveals the destruction wrought by silence and asks whether we can ever truly know the people we love. Written with great feeling and structured like a mystery, this book is a beautiful monument to a lost sister and a lost time." --Sarah Perry, author of After the Eclipse and Sweet Nothings

"Murder or suicide? James Thomson seeks the truth of his sister's death in A Better Ending. His journey will take us across the country and across the decades, into the heart of darkness and out the other side. It's powerful and personal, a riveting true-crime page turner, destined to become a classic of the genre." --William Martin, New York Times bestselling author of Back Bay and December '41

"Gutting. A Better Ending is a heartbreaking work that examines how grief and tragedy ripple across decades. I cannot imagine the courage James Whitfield Thomson had to summon in order to face the brutality and ultimately the truth of his sister's sudden death. His book does the seemingly impossible: for the briefest of moments, he brings her back to life." --Rachel Louise Snyder, author of Women We Buried, Women We Burned and NBCC Finalist No Visible Bruises

"A haunting and heartfelt meditation on personal loss, James Thomson's memoir is meticulously recounted with powerful suspense and hard-earned wisdom." --Robert Kolker, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Valley Road

"Toggling artfully between past and present, Thomson's account of his belated search for the truth of his younger sister's death is both adrenaline-boosting whodunit and tender family memoir. But what impressed me most about A Better Ending was its author's honesty as he followed the twists and turns wherever they led and learned along the way, not only about his sister's death but also about himself." --George Howe Colt, bestselling author of Brothers and The Big House

"James Thomson's chronicle of his dogged search for answers that may or may not be findable lays bare a family's evasions, intimacies, and impenetrable mysteries. A heartbreaking and mesmerizing book." --Joan Wickersham, author of the National Book Award finalist The Suicide Index

"James Thomson's masterful and meticulous storytelling--part mystery, part elegy--is 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 of While You Were Out

About the Author

James W. 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 in business. 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.