BOOK REVIEW: Sister: A Novel

It is rare to find a good crime novel written with great style and intelligence. There have been some, but as I said they are rare. Rosamund Lupton’s SISTER: A NOVEL is an example of how it should be done.

Bee is living in New York when her mother calls to tell her that Tess is missing. Bee arrives in London expecting to scold her younger sister about the importance of telling someone her plans before taking off.
Tess has always been the free spirit of the two, and the more practical Bee feels that she knows and understands her sister extremely well. Thinking that there are no secrets between them, Bee learns that among other things, Tess has hidden the fact that she was pregnant to one of her married professors.
When the police find Tess’s body in an abandoned public restroom and dismiss it as a suicide, Bee knows that they are wrong. This starts her hunt for who would want to kill Tess and why.

The plot has many unexpected turns and brilliantly leads the reader from suspect to suspect. In the process the reader is treated to side characters with great depth, a study of the relationships that are formed---especially between sisters, and a moral issue that may hit each of us.

I enjoy reading “who done it”s and love to figure out what is happening along the way. I was often way off base with this one.

This book is so much more than a typical murder mystery. I felt that two things made it stand ahead of the pack:
1. The characterizations are developed by Lupton extremely well. Not only do we see growth in the main characters, but people that we meet along the way become real.
2. Lupton’s use of the English language is beautiful. She can turn a phase without it ever sounding artificial. This alone would have made me a fan.

SISTER: A NOVEL is a first novel and I am eagerly awaiting to see what Rosamund Lupton does next.