The Second Sister

In our crime fiction book-group we have no real hard and fast rules about the books we read. We simply choose a theme. One of these is what we call ‘Alphabet Soup’ where each of us picks a letter out of a hat (figuratively speaking!) and then we choose books by authors with that letter in their name, or books with that letter in the title. Great fun and always stimulating.

When I landed the letter 'K' I spent some time browsing through the K section of the shelf before choosing The Second Sister by Claire Kendal, an American-born author who has lived all her life in England. Apart from the blurb on the back, two things attracted me to the book: the photo of the hands holding the fading roses, and the title. Why 'The Second Sister' rather than 'The Other Sister', which would, I think, have been the title choice of many other authors? But using the word ‘Second’ rather than ‘Other’ captures amazingly well what this book is about. Read it and see if you agree!

The plot summary is as follows:
'A decade ago, Ella Brooke's older sister, Miranda, vanished without a trace. With every passing year, Ella has come to resemble more closely the sister she lost - the same dark hair, the same piercing blue eyes – and now she's the same age Miranda was when she disappeared. Ella has never let go of her sister. She can still feel Miranda's presence, still hear her voice. She still talks to her. What holds Ella together is her love for her sister's 10-year-old son and her work as a self defence expert helping victims.’

I will not give anything away when I continue: ‘Ella is now actively searching for the truth about her sister’s disappearance. And in doing so she puts herself into peril.’

This is an excellent book. Ella is a great heroine, clever, spiky, relentlessly tenacious and, as we get to know her, we see just how fragile she is and how she holds herself together with sheer willpower. At times I wondered if she was even entirely sane.

I like the style of writing. The story is told mostly in the present tense, something I used to dislike, but which works really well here. Right the way through the book Ella is talking to her missing sister, (and hearing the sister’s replies, no wonder I doubted Ella’s sanity at times!) as if she is telling her the events of the two weeks leading up to the final confrontation. And I did not see that coming; the perpetrator wasn’t even close to who I thought it was.

I can highly recommend this book. I read it almost in one session. Basically, I couldn’t stop reading until I knew what would happen; and I genuinely feared for Ella.

I defy you to read it and not be as caught up by it as I was.
Freyja.