Sister by Rosamund Lupton
SISTER
ROSAMUND LUPTON
Nothing can break the bond between sisters …When Beatrice gets a frantic call in the middle of Sunday lunch to say that her younger sister, Tess, is missing, she boards the first flight home to London. But as she learns about the circumstances surrounding her sister’s disappearance, she is stunned to discover how little she actually knows of her sister’s life – and unprepared for the terrifying truths she must now face.
The police, Beatrice’s fiance and even their mother accept they have lost Tess but Beatrice refuses to give up on her. So she embarks on a dangerous journey to discover the truth, no matter the cost.
review
A moving account of a sister’s struggle to prove her younger sister did not commit suicide and was in fact murdered. The relationship between the sisters is at the very heart of the novel and as Beatrice finds out more about her sister’s life, she begins to immerse herself in it. Beatrice moves into Tess’s flat, wears her clothes and meets her friends. At first she is scornful of the way Tess lived her life but as time goes by, Beatrice begins to realise she has misjudged her sister and her old life in New York begins to look hollow.
As Beatrice strives to find out who killed her sister and why, the thriller part of the novel is probably the weakest aspect. The killer is transparent but Beatrice fails to see it and soon becomes the next victim, setting up a dramatic twist at the end of the novel which you will either love or hate. Personally, I loved it.
I liked how the book was narrated by Beatrice as if she was talking directly to her sister and this emphasised the closeness between them. It was an easy read, with some slow passages, but I read it mostly in one sitting which I think helped. All in all, a very good debut novel and I’m looking forward to reading Rosamund Lupton’s future novels.
