Kate Palmer’s life has been blighted with tragedy. Her sister Emily died at the age of thirteen in a freak accident. Her parents could not cope with the grief and subsequently divorced leading to her mother living in America and her father suffering a breakdown. Years later, she is married to Rob and struggling to cope with being a new mother to two month old Mathias. Kate’s always been the sensible one whereas her younger sister, Anya, has always had a tendency to run away from her troubles and has never managed to settle down. Therefore, it should come as no surprise to Kate that Anya has taken off once again and has gone diving in Mexico. That would have been OK but Anya is now missing.
| Little Sister by Lucy Dawson | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Jo Heffer
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| Summary: It’s the phone call in the middle of the night that everyone dreads – your sister is missing and is most probably dead. That is the call that Kate receives one night telling her that her sister Anya has disappeared in Mexico after going off on a diving trip. Things don’t add up though. Anya is too experienced at diving so maybe something more sinister has occurred. Will Kate get anyone to believe her though and will there be time to rescue Anya before it really is too late? | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 388 | Date: October 2012 |
| Publisher: Sphere | |
| ISBN: 9780751542516 | |
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The way that Kate finds out is awful when she receives a call in the dead of night informing her that Anya has disappeared from her hotel but her passport is still there and her clothes have been found near a cenote which is a large open water pool of which there are many in Mexico. These are quite dangerous but shouldn’t cause any problem to an experienced diver like Anya. The lawyer who calls her thinks that it is an unfortunate accident but Kate is worried that Anya may have been abducted. The problem is that while police are searching the cenote for her body, no one will be looking for her elsewhere. Kate needs to do as much stirring as possible to ensure that Anya has every chance of being rescued before it’s too late.
The story is tense and keeps the reader in suspense about just what has happened to Anya and whether she will be found. As well as the thrilling suspense, there is also an emotional family drama that unfolds as the reader learns about the family’s tragic past and why both sisters are wracked with guilt about their younger sister’s death. This aspect of the book is powerful and traumatic and is probably the strongest element of the story. In contrast, I found the search for Anya and the subsequent events a bit anti-climactic and I was left feeling slightly short changed by what happened.
Having said that though, there is much to enjoy in Little Sister. It’s well paced and moves seamlessly between events in the present and the past. The pace builds up well and I wanted to keep reading on to find out what had already happened and how it would all turn out in the end. I liked getting to know Kate who was a very strong but troubled character. She is the main story teller although sometimes Anya takes over. However, this caused me some confusion as, although all chapters are written in the first person, there is no indication as to who is telling the story. Sometimes I would start a new chapter expecting to be reading Kate’s version of events only to realise after a couple of paragraphs that it was Anya and then I would have to go back and re-read. It would have been better to head each chapter with the name of the sister who was narrating.
Overall though, this is a well paced suspense novel which I enjoyed although I did not find it quite as dark or gripping as the quotes on the back cover led me to expect.
Why not also take a look at The Ugly Sister by Jane Fallon
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You can read more book reviews or buy Little Sister by Lucy Dawson at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Little Sister by Lucy Dawson at Amazon.com.
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