One of my favorite greeting cards has a cute cartoon girl on the cover, and she is saying “Happy Birthday to my darling sister who I love very much.”
When you open the card, inside it says:
“Mom made me say it.
Don’t laugh.
She’s going to make you say it to me on my birthday, too.”
I knew from the moment I was three years old and my newborn little sister was carried through our front door that my life would never be the same. Because there are few things in the universe where the hierarchy is more instantly set and the conflict more powerful than in the sister-to-sister relationship.
The older sister has the experience. She knows how the parents think, and she’s learned what pushes their buttons, and how to get what she wants. For a while, she is the only child, with the showering of affection and attention that comes from that. Then—the new sister shows up.
The usurper. The contender for the spotlight.
Then—the family dynamics change. The older sister is still vying for attention. But she’s told: Your new sister is a baby. We have to focus on her. You’re the big girl. You can take care of yourself. And she’s your sister, too, you are required to love her! And you have to share. Everything.
Meanwhile, the little sister is the new kid. She’s got to learn the ropes, and learn the system, and calculate how much she can get away with. Will she become her older sister’s biggest fan? Or her biggest enemy?
In the best of all possible sisterhoods, and I was lucky enough to have those, the sisters become a team. In my childhood world, my younger sister and I supported each other, stood up for each other, covered for each other, and didn’t care when the other one got magic marker on their new bedspread. (Just saying. It’s fine. No problem.)
In my new thriller Mother Daughter Sister Stranger, sisters Eliza and Beatrice Ramsey are intensely devoted to each other—especially since they are the sole survivors of a terrifying private plane crash that killed both of their parents. They would do anything for each other, they vow, and are bonded in their grief.
The story begins eleven years later. On the very anniversary of the tragic plane crash, Bea mysteriously disappears. And it’s no mistake. She’s left behind her preteen daughter in Eliza’s care.
Something is very wrong. Bea would never abandon her daughter. But Eliza has no idea where she’s gone. Or why.
A missing mom, a terrified daughter, and a determined sister on a desperate search for a happy ending. But someone—a stranger?—knows the deadly key to their family’s deadly legacy.
Where sisterhood goes wrong, there’s nothing darker. The depth of connection—emotional and genetic and physical and geographical—can become a raging cauldron of envy and jealousy and rivalry. Would you do anything for your sister? Or…would you do anything to destroy her?
The possibilities for manipulation, power grabs, and gaslighting within the family home—and outside it—create instant intensity, the deepest of emotions, and the highest of stakes.
And that’s why crime fiction authors love sisters. Here are some stellar examples.
My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
An instant classic. Take the most gruesome of possibilities: that your sister is a serial killer. Add to that, her pattern of killing her boyfriends. Add one more element: she’s got a crush on the man you love. And it looks like he’s next. It’s touching, tragic, insightful, and absolutely hilarious. Yes. Hilarious.
My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon
(How many times have we all said that, sisters?) The supremely clever Nina Simon sends two very different sisters in a life-long love-hate relationship on a super-dangerous white-water rafting trip. Where, they discover, one of the travelers is certainly a murderer. But who? And who’s next? It’s a locked-river thriller about ambition, influence and power—but the fun is watching the sisters try to out-do each other.
Beth Is Dead by Katie Bernet
Super-meta about sisters, because this is the iconic March sisters from Little Women gone contemporary. In this ingenious and clever version, Beth is murdered. And Jo, now a famous author, is on the trail of the killer. Or is she? In fact, she might be the guilty one. Or—it might be her sister Meg. Or her sister Amy. You are not required to have read the original to have fun with this—but it’s a treat if you have.
The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict
You can’t think about sisters without thinking about the Mitfords, the controversial beautiful, brilliant and well, eccentric, women who scandalized England between the wars. The Mitford Affair is a riveting novelization of this shocking story of complicated choices and crashing personalities.
The Socialite by J’nell Ciesielski
The Socialite is an imagined version of this stranger-than-fiction saga. Ciesielski told me “I wanted to capture this almost antagonistic relationship between siblings where they’re as different as night and day, but that sisterly love never falters. How far would they go for one another?”
Big & Lily by Lisa Roe
All they wanted was a sisterly trip to get away from it all. But when sisters Big and Lily accidentally sign up for an extreme Alaskan survival trek, they are forced to confront the elements, their tangled past, and the realization that the only way forward is together. Big & Lily is a cleverly touching novel about second acts, resourcefulness, determination and how when sisters are lost, they may truly find each other.
Sister Dear by Hannah Mary McKinnon
This one truly surprised me! With McKinnon’s classic suspense and deeply felt emotions, this riveting domestic suspense takes a sisterly relationship and twists it and twists it again and twists it again. I burst into applause at the ending. I never saw it coming.
The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas
Oh, and don’t miss the gasp-worthy The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas—did someone target one sister, but murder the other instead? What a terrifying idea!
The Better Sister by Alafair Burke
And Alafair Burke’s The Better Sister—as always, Burke is insightful, twisty, and spins a knife-edged commentary about society’s expectations when murder mixes with family secrets.
Bottom line, let me ask you: have you ever kept a secret from your sister? Well, what if she’s keeping a secret from you? Yes, she may be your best friend. But—could be—she’s not telling you all she knows. And that slice of relatable life is what makes a terrific novel.
