ADULT,  FICTION,  MYSTERY,  NETGALLEY,  SUSPENSE,  THRILLER

BOOK REVIEW : THE MISSING SISTER BY ELLE MARR

TITLE : The Missing Sister

AUTHOR : Elle Marr

GENRE : Adult/Thriller/Mystery/Suspense

FBRC RATING : 3 stars

PUBLISHING DATE : 1 April 2020

BLURB :

In Paris, her twin sister has vanished, leaving behind three chilling words: Trust no one.

Shayna Darby is finally coming to terms with her parents’ deaths when she’s delivered another blow. The body of her estranged twin sister, Angela—the possible victim of a serial killer—has been pulled from the Seine. Putting what’s left of her life on hold, Shayna heads to Paris. But while cleaning out Angela’s apartment, Shayna makes a startling discovery: a coded message meant for her alone…

Alive. Trust no one.

Taking the warning to heart, Shayna maintains the lie. She makes a positive ID on the remains and works to find out where—and why—her missing sister is hiding. Shayna retraces her sister’s footsteps, and they lead her down into Paris’s underbelly.

As she gets closer to the truth—and to the killer—Shayna’s own life may now be in the balance…

FBRC REVIEW :

DISCLAIMER : I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with an ARC of this book.

The Missing Sister is a story of a sister who rushes to Paris to figure out what happened to her twin after she gets a vague call from the officer running the investigation and a man claiming to be her ex-boyfriend. Shayna is confused and doesn’t understand what happened to her sister Angela and in her quest to find out the details she becomes entangled in a bigger mystery than she was expecting. Her life is upturned, her sister has left clues for her to find her and a message to not trust anyone around her. Her stay in Paris takes her to the most unusual places, comes in contact with wary characters, and finds herself in the the underbelly of Paris with no idea as to how to move forward.

The story was interesting and kept the mystery and suspense aspect of it intact in my opinion. The thriller aspect was not very well executed, as the story and the pacing was slow. I wouldn’t call this book a page-turner, but the book and the way it was told made me want to know how it was going to end. I was curious about the direction it would take. The pacing is what made the book difficult to feel and stay connected. The story also dragged at some points, which also made it longer to reach a conclusion.

The characters and their role in this story is something that didn’t make sense in certain parts of the story. There were some things and references to events that didn’t have an impact on the storyline. The main character Shayna was all over the place and often times would do things stupidly that made it difficult to connect with her. The Angela in Shayna’s words and the Angela we get through her emails were two different. I felt Shyana was self-absorbed and refused to look past the obvious things to have a better understanding of her sister. Their relationship is complicated and the way it was described didn’t make me feel like they were truly connected to one another. I felt there were more emotions and love from Angela to Shayna than the other way around. There were inconsistencies in their character presentation.

The clues mentioned in the book, that was meant for Shayna to follow weren’t very clear. I loved the idea of their secret language and how they used their coded language and script to communicate. There was a lot of potentials for the story to be great and thrilling. The police system and the official systems at work felt lacking and not dependable. The quest was too long and some elements just confused me as to their significance to the plot. 

There were a lot of moments were some of the histories were mentioned and the way society reacts to people of mixed ethnicity and the feeling of others and how racism affects our communities. Those were good and makes us think of how we view and deal with them.

The setting of this book was Paris. The author did an amazing job of the descriptions that were amazing and so vivid that I could picture myself there. I felt Paris was a character in this book. The setting was great and definitely one of the high notes of this book. I wasn’t happy with the thrilling aspect but the suspense and mystery were very well done, keeping the readers curious about how things are going to turn out. The book had a main focus on twins and their bond but wasn’t explored or used very well. I liked the story, but it could have been better. So my rating for the book is 3 stars.

If you love mystery and suspense that are slow-paced and books that have complicated relationship between siblings, serial killers, Paris, the catacombs and history you will enjoy this book. If any of these interest you then check the book out. It will be released on 1st April 2020.

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