Secret Solving Sisters

The Sisters

Title: The Sisters

Author: Dervla McTiernan

Publisher: Audible

Run Time: 3hr 8m

Genre: Mystery/Crime

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Two sisters climbing the ranks of Dublin’s criminal justice system. A murder case that could change their lives forever.

In this prequel to the international best seller The Ruin, set 10 years prior, bright-eyed Carrie Ryan is at the very start of her career. When she has a hunch about an ongoing murder investigation, she knows it could be her only chance to prove herself and truly break into the “boys’ club’ of Dublin’s police force.

Carrie uncovers this make-or-break moment in a case file that her sister Aifric, a newly qualified barrister, leaves on their kitchen counter: Robert Collins has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend after a fight in a local pub. All signs point toward a guilty verdict, but both sisters quickly begin to find evidence that complicates the story. All the while, Carrie is very aware that she’s crossed a line--if the detective sergeant running the investigation finds out she’s been messing around with his case, her career will be over before it has begun.

It has been a while since I broke from my reading habits of romance novels and classical books. (These are the only things I tend to read during the school year; one for class and the other to unwind.) This book was a breath of fresh air and subverted a few of my expectations. In many other crime/mystery stories that I have read, they are all about finding a killer or hiding secrets. The fact that this story begins with someone already in prison for the crime that was committed, and where everyone and their brother is completely convinced they are guilty. Something that makes this story unique from other shows or novels I have read that have similar storylines is the doubt that Aifric starts to have after one of her second meetings with the man who was accused. The backstory of Aifric and Carrie’s brother also added an interesting layer to the entirety of the story.

A City I Lived In

One thing I thoroughly enjoyed about this book was where it was set. I am just coming off of a semester studying in Dublin, Ireland and reading a book set there for the first time after I called the place home was a fun experience. Locations that were mentioned in the story that before would have just been names without any context, are now concrete visualizable places in my head. It was like a fun memory treasure hunt to read this book. I found myself saying (out loud cause I do talk to myself more often than I care to admit) “I know where that is! That’s where …” fill in the black with some anecdote about my semester abroad. It helped to solidify the setting in my mind as a real place and made me want to go back for a visit already.

Other than that, I truly do not have much to stay about this book. It was short and sweet and aggressively average. I would not say it was a bad story by any means, but having watched a lot of crime dramas growing up so there was very little that surprised me about this novel. The work was well written, the characters were strong, but the story wasn’t anything new to me. I did enjoy the extra attention that Carrie working in a “man’s field” was given because it enhanced her storyline and made her character stronger than Aifric’s, but even that wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen done a million times before. This book also fell into the same trope issue that I had with the last duel POV book I read (See post on The Christmas Pact for details). So, even though I finished this listen having enjoyed the time I spent in this world, I wasn’t changed by the story or very impressed with it.

Now I want to hear your opinions! What did you think of The Sisters? Did you have any prior crime story knowledge to base this story off of? What do you think of their backstory?

Thanks for stopping by and keep it Peachy!