“We all have a little monster in us.”

Missing Sister is the newest thriller by one of my favorite authors, Joshilyn Jackson. My thanks go to William Morrow and NetGalley for the review copies. This book is for sale now.

Penny Albright is a rookie cop, a vocation she chose after her twin sister, Nix, died of an overdose. Nix was raped by a group of three men that she knew; Penny wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, but soon after it happened, Nix’s personality changed. She moved to the city, isolated herself. Before the rape, Nix had never used street drugs. Penny is too late to save Nix, but she hopes to be able to spare others the same horrific fate.

Then she and her trainer, who’s also her partner, are called to a murder scene. The victim turns out to be one of the three men that raped Nix, and Penny forces herself to show no reaction, to keep her cop face on, but inside, she is exultant.  Then, while canvassing the area, Penny inadvertently comes upon the killer, holding the murder weapon and covered in blood. She and the woman lock eyes, and then, rather than arresting her, Penny lets her go. After that, she becomes obsessed with learning the woman’s story; she is certain that the killer had a similar experience to Nix’s, or that the killer had a sister that did. She vows to hunt the killer down in order to find out what happened.

The first half of the book is frustrating. The story is told in the first person, and after hearing Penny’s determined plan to learn the killer’s story over and over again, on a never-ending, somewhat circular loop, I want to smack her upside the head and tell her to get on with it. Leave that dangerous woman alone! She can’t bring your sister back, and you can’t either, I want to tell her. A part of me felt let down, because Jackson doesn’t usually have a weak first half, or any weak part at all in her novels. But just as I’m beginning to think, what a shame, everything changes, and the story becomes a true, grab-you-by-the-hair thriller. The ending is a complete surprise, and what’s more, it makes sense. The second half more than makes up for the first half.

I was lucky enough to have both the digital and audio review copies, and Jackson reads her own story, which makes it even better.

This story smacks of a possible series, and if that’s the plan, it explains why readers have Penny’s motivation beaten into us. That motivation may be the basis for who knows how many books to come; many, I hope! For those that are able to wade through the first half to find the reward in the second, this book is highly recommended.