Fabulous reads: Psychological thriller fails to impress
Book review - Her Sister's Lie
Her Sister’s Lie, Debbie Howells, Pan MacMillan, ISBN: 9781509834723
I had high hopes for Her Sister’s Lie, a psychological thriller written by Debbie Howells, who is well known for her bestselling novel, The Bones of You. I was expecting an edge-of-your-seat page turner.
However, I found the first half of the book slow and, quite honestly, a little dull.
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Sure, the reader is immediately thrown into the protagonist, Hanna Roscoe’s crumbling life.
She is still reeling in despair from a breakup when she receives a devastating phone call – her one and only sister, Nina has died.
To top it all off, she is has been named the guardian of her late sister’s youngest son, Abe and is forced to take him in.
What’s more, police quickly determines that Nina was murdered and, Hannah starts to get the feeling that the sullen teen might also be dangerous.
This all sounds riveting, however, there are a lot of Hannah’s decisions in all this is not only illogical, but contradicts what you would expect from a person in the situation.
And while it becomes apparent that Hannah is a selfish and self-absorbed alcoholic, who is determined to keep the ominous secret she and Nina shared hidden, a lot of her actions – as well as other people’s actions – seem contrived.
Most of the book is narrated through Hannah and the reader is repeatedly taken on a trip down memory lane as she recalls the painful past – inching closer and closer to this all consuming secret.
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When weird things start happening around Hannah she becomes increasingly paranoid.
While some of the small incidents set off extreme reactions in Hannah. other massive red flags and truly horrific things just barely phase her. The whole story just seemed far-fetched and unbelievable.
While some of the plot twists became pretty obvious towards the end, there is one aspect I did not see coming. – Mariclair Smit
2/5 starts
