Author: Michelle S. Smith
Publisher: Joffe Books
Publication Date: August 2021
Genre: Mystery / Thriller / Suspense
Description: A beautifully crafted psychological thriller that will have you hooked until the stunning conclusion.
How well do you really know your family?
You should never have left.
This is what Victoria Wharton’s mother tells her every time she calls.
But this time she’s calling to say that Vicky’s twin sister, Becky, has been murdered.
Vicky is one of Chicago’s best police detectives. She thought she’d never return to her tiny New England hometown. But she needs justice for her sister.
As Vicky is drawn inexorably back into her family’s dysfunctional relationships, she finds things aren’t quite as they seem.
When the death threats start, and a local man is beaten half to death, Vicky must look closer to home to find her sister’s killer.
A taut family drama unfolds in this chilling domestic thriller.
My Thoughts: Honestly, I don’t know where to even begin with the hot mess that is this book.
1. Victoria Wharton, a “highly skilled detective” from Chicago PD returns to her hometown after her twin sister, Rebecca, is found murdered and is working with local detective Steve McCade to solve the crime.
- There is absolutely no way any reader can or should suspend disbelief on any level to think that any law enforcement agency would allow a detective to get anywhere close to an investigation involving a close friend or family member. Not going to happen and I find it highly insulting that the author would do this.
2. The author throws a bunch of characters at the reader in rapid succession without any rhyme or reason. Who are all these people and how do they fit into the story?
- Besides Victoria and Steve, who the reader is led to believe are the main characters and have history, the reader is given bits and pieces of Rebecca, Victoria’s mother, Vera, John Gardner, John Gardner’s mother, Victoria’s friend, Janet, Victoria’s father, the Jenkins family and on and on. How does the author expect the reader to develop any connection or bond with the main characters? When the reader is introduced to so many people it feels like I’m lost in Grand Central Station.
3. With so many characters to keep track of, no time is spent making these characters multi-dimensional.
- The reader is given brief glimpses into the characters and their past relationships and current situations but not enough time is spent developing these characters. They felt cardboard to me and as a result, I felt no connection with them.
4. The story structure is very choppy. The plot is all over the place, making it nearly impossible for me to follow, keep up or understand.
- Victoria turned her father in for… (seriously? The author can’t just tell us what he was turned in for? I have to wait several pages for Victoria’s inner monologue to tell me he used to creep into her bedroom?) At this point, if this book were in print format, it would have been a wall-banger.
- Victoria doesn’t like to be touched and demonstrates nervous apprehension around John Gardner. If she’s supposedly a highly skilled detective in Chicago, of all places, I find it completely unbelievable that being in close proximity to a man, even with her background, would cause her to react this way. How did she manage to pass her psych evaluation to get hired by Chicago in the first place if this is the case?
- At the 25% mark, Victoria tells her friend, Janet, that she thinks Steve might be interested in more than friendship, but nothing in the story up to this point remotely suggests this.
- Steve interrupts John Gardner in his veterinary operating room during a surgical procedure. Not only is this beyond inappropriate, but quite tacky and doesn’t fit. Additionally, the reader is led to believe that out of the blue, there’s bad blood and hostility between the two due to Steve attacking John prior to the story beginning. If the author wants to refer to previous events, then build up to it. Please do not throw it at the reader as an afterthought.
- Gavin Jenkins rats out his parents and the bogus lawsuit they filed against the hospital Rebecca worked at and then tells Victora that his father, Maurice, had a thing for Rebecca, and either one of his parents could have been the killer. I get that kids may not always like or even love their parents, but to go to the lengths that Gavin does didn’t ring true for me.
My Final Verdict: Overall, this book did not work for me on any level, unfortunately. The choppy and uneven flow of the plot, one-dimensional characters and pointless red herrings made this book one I cannot recommend to anyone. The only character I did feel the slightest bit of empathy for in the beginning was Rebecca.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of Her Sister’s Killer from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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