Here goes nothing... "Sister"

*Elvis

AUTHOR: Rosamund Lupton

PUBLISHED: 2011

GENRE: Thriller/Mystery

For your reading pleasure, a recreation:

Me, in the living room, as I turn the last page of this book: “WHAAA?”

My husband, in the kitchen: “What?  What happened?”

Me: “Whoooa.  Whoooa.  That’s NUTS.”

Husband: “What’s wrong?  What did Elvis* do?”

Me: “What? No.  Nothing.  The book.  I’m reacting to the book.”

Husband: “Oh. (Beleaguered sigh.) Okay.”

That’s about as good a reaction as you can hope for with this type of story.

When Bee’s sister Tess turns up dead in a park bathroom, it’s ruled a suicide.  But Bee refuses to believe that her sister would ever kill herself.  What’s more, when Bee last speaks with Tess, she is very pregnant – but the body in the bathrooms isn’t.  Bee’s quest to find the truth quickly becomes an obsession that threatens her own sanity and life, and has her questioning if she ever really knew her sister at all. 

Sister takes place on multiple levels and timelines: present-day actions; flashbacks to conversations between Tess and Bee; recorded interviews between Bee and the police detective taking her story; and letters to Tess from Bee, written after Tess is already dead.  It sounds highly confusing but Lupton negotiates these levels effortlessly.  Lupton’s characters are sympathetic and fully-formed, especially Bee, who struggles through not only the loss of her sister but her own unhappiness with her life choices and a growing sense of loneliness.   Bee’s attempts to come to terms with her loss are recognizable and relatable.  In that way, this story varies a little from the average mystery, in which the quest is all-encompassing.  Bee does become obsessed with finding Tess’s killer – but it’s because she wants to know her sister, not solve the puzzle. 

The story swirls with interesting characters: Tess’s elderly landlord, who misses her almost as much as Bee; the police inspector, who is sure Bee is wrong but still desperately wants to help her; Bee and Tess’s mother, who is set in her ways and unable to grieve her dead daughter or help her living one.  Slowly they are all revealed, in phone calls between the sisters, in interviews with the police, in sidewalk encounters. 

As the story unfolded, I was right there with Bee as she tried to find the truth. As she grew increasingly crazed and reckless, I wanted to shake her and tell her to calm down and think – the book equivalent of yelling “don’t you go in that basement!” at the movie screen.  And when that final twist hit, well, you know.  Unbelievably, this is Lupton’s debut novel.  We can only hope that she can follow it up with something equally as good.

LENGTH: 336 pages

MAINSTREAM OR NOT?: It’s on the main display table at B&N.

SO, SHOULD I READ IT OR NOT?: Yes.  This is an excellent example of taking a risky format and really making it work.