Review: Her Sister’s Lie by Debbie Howells

Title: Her Sister’s Lie by Debbie Howells
Publisher: Kensington
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 320 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

In this riveting psychological thriller, the international bestselling author of The Bones of Youweaves a compulsive story about one woman’s death and the web of duplicity and fractured relationships that unravels around it . . . 

Remember the script. Sisters look out for each other.  

It’s been ten years since Hannah Roscoe saw her older sister, but that distance fades to nothing when she receives a call from the police saying Nina is dead. As a teenager, desperate to leave home and make her career in music, Hannah moved into Nina’s cottage in the English countryside. In that secluded setting, Nina was trying to give her children the freedom that she and Hannah never knew growing up.

Now Nina is gone, and Hannah is left to care for her young nephew, Abe, who’s remote and moody in the wake of his loss. But worse is to come, as Nina’s death, first ruled an accident, becomes a murder investigation. Hannah is drawn back into her past, forced to confront the ghosts of their unhappy childhood and the reasons she and Nina finally drifted apart. Nina’s dream of creating an idyllic existence didn’t quite work out for her two older children, Summer and Jude. As for Abe, Hannah suspects he’s hiding something, but whom is he trying to protect?

Through it all, Hannah can’t shake the feeling that someone else knows all about the secrets she and Nina shared—and the ones they kept hidden, even from each other. Perhaps Nina’s death is not a tragic ending after all, but the beginning of a new and twisted nightmare . .

Review:

Her Sister’s Lie by Debbie Howells is a suspense-laden mystery that is chock full of tension and secrets.

Hannah Roscoe is still dealing with the emotional fall-out from the inexplicable end of her relationship with her boyfriend, Matt when she learns her estranged older sister, Nina Tyrell, is dead. The two sisters were once extremely close but they have not been in contact for ten years.  Hannah suddenly finds herself the guardian of Nina’s fifteen year old son, Abe, and the two are soon uncomfortably sharing a home. After Abe moves in, Hannah gets the eerie  feeling someone is watching her and her fear intensifies after discovering a stranger lurking nearby. She grows more fearful after the police rule Nina’s death a murder and raises an interesting question: are the events occurring in Hannah’s life connected to Nina’s death?

Hannah and Nina’s childhood is an absolute nightmare of abuse and cruelty at the hands of their parents. Nina escapes as quickly as possible and she, along with her children, Summer, Jude and Abe, live a very unconventional and isolated life. Hannah, too, leaves home at a young age and Nina’s home becomes her refuge as she sorts out her future.

In the present,  Hannah is less than forthcoming about the rift between her and Nina. She is quickly frustrated by Abe’s moodiness and disdain for her and their relationship quickly deteriorates. Hannah manages to alienate just about everyone in her life and even when it is her best interest to tell the truth, she clings tightly to the pact she and Nina made before their estrangement.

Unfolding through Hannah’s point of view, a series of letters, and passages from other different characters’ perspectives, Her Sister’s Lie is an intricately-woven, riveting mystery. Hannah gradually becomes such an unreliable narrator that it is virtually impossible discern whether her version of events can be trusted. Abe is grieving, sullen and resentful as he thrust into life with a virtual stranger but is there more his antipathy than meets the eye?

With plenty of clever twists and shocking turns, Debbie Howells gradually peels away the mistruths and prevarications and exposes the stunning secrets the sisters have kept hidden for years. Savvy mystery readers will most likely guess some of the surprises that are revealed at the novel’s conclusion, but the ending is still quite satisfying. A well-written domestic mystery that fans of the genre will enjoy.