The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas

The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas

The Wrong Sister was written by the author Claire Douglas last year in 2024, and was first published by Penguin Random House UK. This is Claire’s tenth book and I noticed that nearly all of her books have houses on the front cover.

This psychological thriller is told through the mindsets of four women, Alice, Tasha, Jeanette and Bonnie, and it is told in Parts 1 to 5. It is about a family being traumatically torn apart when Alice and Tasha’s baby sister Holly, goes missing. Only one person initially knew the truth about what had happened.

The blurb at the back of the book reads:

You think you’ve known her all your life…

Or have you?

Tash and her older sister Alice might look alike, but they couldn’t be more different. Tasha’s married with two children and still living in her home town near Bristol, while Alice is a high-flying scientist travelling the world with her equally successful husband. But each would trust the other with their life.

So, when Tasha and husband Aaron want a break and Alice offers to stay on their home with the kids, Tasha knows that they are3 in safe hands.

But she couldn’t be more wrong.

The call from home is unexpected: Alice and her husband Kyle have been attacked. Alice is in intensive care. Kyle is dead.

Rushing to Alice’s bedside, Tasha finds the police trying to piece events together. She can’t think why anyone would attack her sister. Then the note arrives, addressed to Tasha:

It was supposed to be you…

This is nail-biting material and has readers itching to know everything, but Claire as a journalist knows how to write well and keep readers interested and eager. As readers turn the pages rapidly, and more information was thrown into the mix, the story became more in-depth. There were stories within the story, and each character had their own and with completely different viewpoints.

This book had it all. Hidden secrets and betrayal interwoven with love, loss, desperation, deceit and devastation. The creepy aspect for me was the contrast of the relationships from distant and icy to close-knit and how not only looks can be deceiving, but that you don’t always know what goes on behind closed doors and when facades are lifted.

This was one of the books chosen for one month’s Co-Operative Housing Book-Club ‘The Graduates’. I am definitely going to read more of Claire’s books.