Who is Georgia Cartwright, and why did she ask her twin sister Amanda to help her when they were separated at birth and have never met?

Georgia has been put into a psychiatric hospital after being accused of murdering her sister Annabelle.

Annabelle is the surprise biological daughter of her adopted family and Georgia’s sister.

Does Georgia need a psychiatric hospital or does she truly know what she is doing? She seems pretty aware.

Actually, how did Georgia find Amanda, and what has she planned as the help she hopes to get from her?

Georgia seems to have some plan and that plan is not to get convicted or stay in this hospital for the rest of her life.

Then Georgia meets Patty - was Patty planted in the hospital?

So many unsavory characters with secrets and one big secret a few are keeping that is causing all that's going on.

THE LOCKED WARD has the main character Georgia speaking in second person which is a bit confusing at first, but you become accustomed to it and focus more on if she really killed her sister Annabelle and what she is up to as well as what the other characters are up to.

It's a good one that will keep you glued to the pages. 4/5

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

The Locked Ward, Sarah Pekkanen, author; January LaVoy, narrator
Honey and Steven Cartwright arranged for a surrogate to birth a baby because they were unable to have their own. During the time of the surrogate’s pregnancy, Honey seemed to miraculously became pregnant, as well. This often happens to women who were told they were unable to have their own children. I have a friend who had two adopted children, and then, 13 years later, she delivered a son. Was that what happened in this case? When the surrogate delivered twins, Honey was overwhelmed. She did not want three children. All she wanted was one child. Now she would not only have her own child, Annabelle, but she would have two more, Georgia and Amanda. She decided to give one away. Steven acquiesced and Amanda was given away to another family to raise.
Georgia was brought up in the lap of luxury in the influential Cartwright family. They hobnobbed with Senators and the rich and famous. Amanda Ravenal was brought up in a family that was hard-working and modest. Her parents eventually opened a bar that Amanda took over after their deaths. Neither of the twins was aware of the other’s existence until Georgia was arrested for the murder of her sister Annabelle.
Georgia had only recently discovered the existence of her other half with the assistance of a private detective. After her arrest, she was placed in the locked ward of a facility for the mentally challenged. She pretended to be totally detached. Her only hope to escape either being incarcerated there for life or being killed, was her sister who had no idea she existed. Because powerful people seemed to want to blame Annabelle’s death on her, she decided to reach out to her twin, even though she was putting her in grave danger, as well. Amanda was her only hope. She had to do it while pretending to be totally detached and noncommunicative. Hopefully, the bond between twins would reignite and Amanda would even comprehend her silent signals. Was Georgia really being framed? Did she murder her sister with the gift she had just given her for her birthday? Should Amanda help her?
Honey Cartwright had never treated Georgia the way she treated Annabelle, her own birthed child. This built sibling rivalry. Georgia’s reputation had been made by the comments of others and her mother. They blamed all altercations on her. No one ever questioned the reason for her behavior, they just judged Georgia even more harshly as time went by, and no one ever even questioned the veracity of those judging her. They just made her the culprit, each time. What would motivate a mother to pit one child against the other, tarnishing the reputation of one, while protecting the other? Indeed, what makes a real mother?
Eventually, Georgia was sent away to boarding school. Annabelle was taken on vacations with Honey and Steven and Georgia was left at home. There was animosity between the two girls that was instigated by Honey. Was Georgia’s known resentment toward Annabelle a reason for her to kill her sister? Was there anyone else with a motive to kill her? The family was very close to a Senator with hopes to become President. It seemed as if there were very powerful forces behind her arrest and the threats she received. Was he involved? Would Amanda agree to help her? Would she even believe they were twins. They were now in their thirties and were obviously not identical? Would she intuit her clues as twins often do find themselves on the same wavelength?
Where is the danger coming from? Can Amanda really help Georgia? She is just a thirty-something young woman who runs a bar. Annabelle was simply celebrating a birthday so who else would have had a motive to kill her?
The story will not knit together until the very end. It will be a surprise. However, getting to that point was a bit of a convoluted path that leaves many unanswered questions. Who was the patient named Patty who befriended Georgia? Who was she really working for? Is Senator Dawson evil? Are his children, Colby and Kyle simply following orders and protecting their family’s reputation? Does the family need protection? Some of the themes seemed disconnected, some of the characters were brought up but not fully developed. Does evil live within all of us? Is vengeance something we should seek or disavow? Will there be another book that deals with retribution for those who never received their just desserts in this book?
As a fraternal twin, I am well aware of the connections twins do have, since i was very intuitively connected to my own brother and he was to me, as well, often sensing each other's needs and feelings, often suffering from the same ailments and on the same medications. Still, I did not feel any camaraderie with Amanda and Georgia’s connections. They seemed a bit contrived and over the top. The novel is about secrets, misperceptions, evil intentions, criminal minds, loyalty, madness, incest, surrogacy, infidelity, identity, choices, ambition and revenge. All of these ideas could be motives for the murder. Are there too many? Did too many cooks spoil the broth? There are some scenes that stretched credibility, that seemed contrived, so that one had to remember that this was fiction, not real life. I challenge the reader to find a likeable character. Hmmm, maybe Scott, Amanda’s bartender?
There are many unanswered questions and it is as if the door has been left open for book two. If I describe the book briefly, I would say it is chick lit. I listen to books with my husband, and he quickly bowed out from this one because it felt contrived and he snickered too often, Really, I disconnected him from the book. Still, if you like this author, it will keep you reading, though perhaps not riveted.