A Better Ending

A Brother's Twenty-Year Quest to Uncover the Truth About His Sister's Death

De: James Whitfield Thomson

Narrado por: Fred Sanders

“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.

©2025 James Thomson (P)2025 Simon & Schuster Audio

Wow

Wow. That’s what I said out loud at least half a dozen times as I listened to this book on Audible. A powerful, intimate memoir that is both true crime and a family saga, it will be on my mind for a long time.

Excellent

Very well written, highly enjoyable listen. A surprising true crime book. I am curious as to why the author doesn’t reflect more on how his parent’s marriage affected he and his siblings subsequent marriages.

Kept us rapt!

This was a great listen! The writing and sequencing paces like a mystery who-done-it. We listened on a road trip and it kept us rapt. Comically glued in our seats at a few stops to get to the end of a chapter. Losing a sibling is like losing a limb - they hang on in a vestigial way. This was an engaging and fascinating read/listen.