Book Review of Missing Sister by Elle Marr

Shayna receives an email that says, “Come to Paris. Your sister is dead.” And not just a sister, Shayna’s twin sister.

This book hits the justice category and the redemption category. It’s told in first person from Shayna’s point of view. She’s about to enter medical school when she gets this email. Off to Paris she goes to try and find out what has happened to her twin sister, Angela.

There is a lot of introspection in this book. Way too much for me. Slows the action to a crawl. Seemed to me Ms. Marr didn’t have enough plot so filled in with extensive thoughts. Oh, and a lot of facial expressions. We see in excruciating detail Shayna’s thought processes. As the book goes on, we see that Shayna is prone to misinterpretation, misunderstanding, and memory distortion. She’s an unreliable narrator, so that redeems the over-thinking some.

Much of the story focuses on the relationship between the twins, Shayna and Angela. In Shayna’s mind, Angela was always the fun one, the one everyone always liked better. This plays a strong juxtaposition against Shayna’s desire to find her sister.

As the book progresses, things happen that plant doubt in both Shayna’s and the reader’s mind that Angela is actually dead. Early on Shayna finds a message written in a childhood script the twins had that Shayna should trust know one. This was seemingly written after Angela had disappeared.

If you like amateur sleuths, you’ll like this one. Shayna is definitely an amateur. She makes dumb mistake after dumb mistake in her search for the truth. It’s amazing she survived.

The reader is treated to some interesting history in Paris about the catacombs that exist beneath the city and run for miles.

Finally, Ms. Marr gives some good misdirection and thus the ending is somewhat of a surprise. And then there’s the ending to the ending. Probably the best part of the book. So, you’ll just have to read it to find out what happens. This is where redemption comes in, by the way.

As for content. One brief scene inside a brothel and one long kiss. Very little violence and it’s not overly explicit. Profanity is scattered throughout. 9 f-bombs. 22 S-bombs, and other words.

Book Rankings for 2021

1. The Water Keeper – continues to stay strong.
2. Choose Me
3. The Suriname Job
4. Missing Sister

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