Book Review: Missing Sister

If you like a slightly dark thriller about sisters, family dynamics, and revenge, then you should check out Missing Sister by Joshilyn Jackson.

Penny is a former chef turned cop. She is still in training when she arrives at a murder scene. What she sees there surprises her; the victim is someone she knows, someone she hates, and someone she has wished for revenge, because they hurt her twin sister, Nix. As she goes to secure the scene, down a dark alley, she finds someone holding a weapon; that person whispers the word “Sisters,” and in that moment, Penny makes a decision she might come to regret. She lets the woman leave.

Missing Sister is a novel of suspense and women’s fiction. The opening scene makes you think you will be reading a police procedural, but you’re not. There is a lot of time for character development, relationships between sisters, and family dynamics in the book. However, it still has a fairly fast pace once you are engrossed in the book. After the first few chapters, I was hooked. I feel like Penny’s moral dilemmas and search for justice vs. the law were portrayed well.

The book became progressively darker as it goes on, which made it hard for me to read at times, but I also really wanted to know what would happen. Check the trigger warnings; I included some at the bottom of the review.

 Penny desperately wants to find out about the killer’s motivation and what it has to do with sister’s and she will put herself in dangerous situations in her search for the truth. Readers will also see how the fall-out has affected the rest of Penny’s family and her ex-boyfriend, Michael.

One of the twists (beginning of third act) was out there, but believable enough for me. Overall, I wanted to know more about Nix (Nicolette’s) personality and maybe see memories of Penny interacting with her sister when she was alive. I think that would have made the book more satisfying for me personally. If you like a slightly dark thriller about sisters, family dynamics, and revenge, then you should check out Missing Sister by Joshilyn Jackson.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

 Trigger warnings below

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TW: drug overdose (off-page), description of murder scene, description of past child abuse and child trafficking, sexual assault. (these stood out to me; there may be other trigger warnings). Check content warnings on Storygraph from a few readers who reviewed the book.