Sister - Rosamund Lupton (Crown, June 2011) I was pulled in from the very first page of this debut novel and read it in two days. The story begins in New York when Bee, a young English woman, receives a call from her mother in London to say that the younger sister, Tess, has gone missing. Bee flies to London but based on Tess`s history of being flighty, she isn`t too concerned at this point. But soon after, Tess is found dead in a public restroom and we learn she also recently gave birth to a stillborn baby. The police rule her death a suicide-her sister is convinced it was murder. The entire novel is an open letter from Bee to Tess, which is how the reader learns that Tess was receiving anonymous phone calls, that she was seeing a married man and that she was participating in a gene therapy program because their brother died of Cystic Fibrosis. The reviews on this novel range from great to terrible. Personally, I loved the way the story unfolded. I thought the characters were well developed and I liked how the story jumped between present time and the past. This novel has been called a "thriller" but I`m not sure I agree with that term. While it didn`t have me sitting on the edge of my seat, I have to admit that I found it to be a page turner. But it was the ending that made me feel this was a unique and well done novel. The clues were perfectly hidden throughout, but the author had a very clever way of weaving her story and pulling this reader along. I felt the twist that Lupton used at the end was fresh and different. I`m glad I discovered this new British author and I`ll be anxious to read her next one, Afterwards, which will be released in 2012. If you`re looking for something a bit different that has a definite mystery twist and is well written, I can highly recommend this one. Happy reading! Terri DuLong is the NY Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Cedar Key Series. You can visit her website at: www.terridulong.com |