Her Sister’s Keeper: Real Life Crimes Inspire Debut Novel

“I live in a house where blame always finds me,” says Abigail, the protagonist in Paper Roses, the debut novel of Debby Show (Lindstrom), a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and School Psychologist based in California.

Not so, though, for Abi’s younger sister Nikki, whose charm could deflect any kind of trouble. “Anyone who encountered her became either a victim or an enabler,” said Show, a trait the character was said to share with her real life siser.

Though Show’s new book is categorized as fiction, she said it’s inspired by the true story of her sister, Tracii Show Hutsona, a career criminal who served about 18 months of a 51-month prison sentence for embezzlement.

Hutsona’s life as a con artist has been well-documented by The New York Times, CNBC, Hulu, and the podcast Dirty Money Moves.

Show wanted to tell her version of her sibling’s story and did so via this self-published novel that changes names and certain events but she said leaves the bulk of the story to what really happened.

Straus Media sat down with the author to find out why she wanted to weigh in on the family dynamics that contributed to her sister’s unscrupulous behavior, what their relationship is now, and what part of Show’s Moroccan Jewish heritage—a major focus in the novel—played in her ability to heal.

The title is from a country song that Abigail’s dad made her sing for guests. Why choose that as the name of the book?

Why would you want a fake rose when you can have a real one? The song lyrics exemplify that. My sister’s whole life is invented. The idea of the book is that not everything is as it appears. [The main character] Abi uses the song as a euphemism for “don’t be fake.”

You spent four years and significant resources on this book to understand your sister’s actions. So, why a novel rather than a memoir?

I didn’t want to write a burn-it-all-down memoir. It would have made my parents look awful. I love memoirs for some people, but for me, it would have been horrible. It was easier to try to understand my mom’s childhood, my dad’s story, if I told the truth sideways.

There’s an author who once said that with fiction, you can tell the emotional truth. [There’s] emotional truth in my book. And I also wanted to entertain the reader.

Does your sister know about the book, and what’s her reaction now that it’s out?

She probably knows but has not reacted at all. I think she doesn’t want to give me the publicity. Just kind of hoping it will die. We don’t talk. She’s a dangerous person. I didn’t go over it too much in the book, but she’s not safe to have a relationship with. Show said her sister has some psychopathic traits.

What was it like to see your sister go astray?

The first time she went to prison, I was practically baking a cake with a file and decided to help her. I was like, “I’ll see if I can get her into a halfway house.” Within a month or two, she’s living in a mansion, I don’t know how. She just reinvents herself. She owes over a million dollars in restitution, but somehow, she is flying around in a private jet.

How does she do it?

The charm. She can convince anybody to do anything. But the problem is that she can also demonize. If you’re on her list of people to hate, she will completely destroy you.

The book is told from the POV of five different characters, starting with s nanny in Nazi-occupied Morocco. Why did you begin there when your sister’s life of hustling others is the real juice?

Starting with [the character] Nikki—the Tracii part—would just swallow up the whole thing. And the idea was to really figure out the psychological part of it. Also, as much as we’re enamored with the psychopaths, they’re really not that interesting because it’s just wash-rinse-repeat. Her behavior, no matter how outlandish, was repetitive.

For me to write about somebody who has no self-awareness at all, it just falls flat.

How did writing from these multiple viewpoints change your understanding of Tracii? Do you feel sorry for her? Want readers to see her as a victim?

Yes, I do feel sorry for her. I feel like she’s a victim of her DNA and her upbringing, because both of my parents had sociopathic traits. She really got the worst of the genetics. She was definitely neglected and exposed to a lot. I feel for that child.

It’s hard to feel for the adult. Every time she did the horrible things she did, it just came down to narcissism and psychopathy.

I want the readers to understand, but I also want them to be afraid, too.

How has the public scrutiny of your sister’s crimes affected you and your family beyond what readers are exposed to in the novel?

I was working for the Brentwood Union School District when [Tracii’s crimes] came out. Traumatized people either shut down or regurgitate stuff. I [did the latter and] told a couple of people what was happening. Some felt like I might be a con artist, too, or that I came from a bad family, so I must be bad.

People have to use some discernment about who to share things with. That’s the lesson learned.

I left that school because I wanted to go somewhere where nobody knew anything about the story.

How has your heritage, training as a psychologist, or perhaps something else, helped you heal?

There is this part of me that feels this family shame that I have to make right, and that is part of the reason why I wrote the book. It forced me to see what I inherited.

Writing the book did reconnect me with my Jewish Moroccan roots. I ended up wanting to know more.

I think at some point, when you are so lost, spirituality is important.

Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author of the novel “The Last Single Woman In New York City.”