The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas

 

Tasha and her husband, Aaron, jump at the chance to spend a week at her sister’s apartment in Venice. While they are away her sister, Alice, and her husband have offered not only to house-sit but to look after their twin daughters too. Things take an ominous turn on the second night in Venice when they are almost mugged. A phone call reveals that things back at home is even worse.

Author Claire Douglas has packed The Wrong Sister with so many twists and turns that you really cannot second-guess what is happening. From the ominous opening page indicating that someone is watching and is about to take away everything you’ve taken for granted there is a sense of unease. The description of red hair means you know that the person being watched is either Tasha or her high-flying sister, Alice, but anything beyond that is vague.

As we meet the sisters and learn a little about their lives I immediately jumped to conclusions. Tasha still lives in the village she grew up in, married her teenage boyfriend and is now the mother of two-year-old twins. Tasha can’t help but be a little bit jealous of her older sister who lives in London, has a high-paying job, a beautiful house and a handsome husband, Kyle. It was Tasha’s slight fixation on Kyle that had me thinking this was going to turn into a story of jealousy and greed. How wrong I was.

The main plot line happens quickly, and I’m glad it did because I liked the characters of Tasha and Aaron and I didn't want to have doubts about them. The couple came across as real people, struggling to figure out how to rekindle the spark that has been extinguished by the arrival of their children. It’s obvious they still love each other but they’re stuck in a rut, particularly Aaron, and simply too exhausted each day to address the issue. Alice and Kyle are also likeable characters. Arriving in a McLaren sports car it’s obvious they have wealth but they don’t try to show off or look down on Tasha and her family. Despite their vastly different lifestyles the sisters share a close bond.

The near mugging in Venice is just the start of the nightmare for the sisters. During what appears to be an attempted burglary Kyle is killed and Alice is assaulted. Rushing home Tasha then receives an anonymous note saying it should have been her that was attacked. Is this a threat, or a warning?

Absolutely everyone becomes a suspect, you doubt the motivation of even the nicest people. It’s almost as if you are watching over your shoulder as you read, waiting for the next blow to fall. This is made even more complex when we discover that Tasha and Alice had a baby sister who was abducted thirty years ago and never found.

Another murder in the small village has you wondering how all the events are connected, or are some of them simply coincidental. As a new narrator is introduced some of the individual pieces begin to fit together and a picture of what happened begins to take shape, but you are still left with an unsettled feeling that everything isn’t as it seems. Claire Douglas has done a fantastic job weaving all the different plots together, however, I felt unsatisfied by the ambiguous ending.

The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas will be published on 14^th March 2024 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Michael Joseph for a review copy.