Claire Douglas is an experienced writer of thrillers in which women lead the cast of characters. In her latest novel, two sisters find themselves stalked and threatened by mysterious men. One such hisses at Tasha “you owe me” whilst another physically attacks Alice.
The fear that the women feel, in The Wrong Sister, is heightened by Tasha’s twin daughters, Flossie and Elsie, whose innocence and vulnerability make frightening events more terrifying. How can these little angels be protected? The unease of the situation is further exacerbated by the fact that the sisters have already lost, during childhood, a younger sibling, Baby Holly.
Those who have experienced the loss of a new-born know that the worst can, and does, happen and, for this reason, Tasha and Alice are highly sensitised to danger. Alice is a successful biochemist, whose whole life is based on the rational, but she is spooked by a mist-covered pond beyond the garden of the house in which the twins are being raised.
Along with her husband, Kyle, Alice is babysitting her nieces at the family home, having exchanged her own luxury flat in Venice with Tasha and spouse, Aaron. Although the canals sparkle romantically and the palaces and churches look beautiful in the October sunshine, at night the waterways seem weird: as sinister as they are in the film, Don’t Look Now.
In Daphne Du Maurier’s story, a grieving couple travel to Venice after their daughter drowns in the garden pond. They spot a diminutive, red-hooded figure running over bridges. Eventually the husband corners the small creature. It is not his daughter in her little red raincoat, but a murderer with a slashing knife.
Alice, who laughed that she was life-swapping with her sister, ends up in hospital after an attack in Tasha’s home during which her husband is killed. It seems that the sisters may have, inadvertently, arranged a death-swap, underlined by a hand-delivered note addressed to Tasha stating, ‘it should have been you”.
The three generations, two grandmothers, two women in their prime, and two little girls are at the centre of the novel. They are ably supported by another woman, police liaison officer, D C Chloe Jones.
Around them circle men: Kyle, who seemed to have unexplained riches and Aaron who is mates with local criminal, Shane. Investigating officer, D I Philip Thorne is unsmiling and uncompromisingly suspicious. In France, Eamonn was paying unwelcome attention to Jeanette. In Venice, the strange, blade-carrying man intimidated Tasha.
Interwoven into the narrative are italicised sections which seem to give the viewpoint of a perpetrator. But there may be more to the story than one plotter/killer. Alice and Tasha have similar physiques, and long red hair. Who was the target? One or both? Who is the villain? Is there more than one? Was Kyle’s death an error or a planned murder? And whatever happened to Baby Holly?
The sisters’ mother, Jeanette, travels from France where she has been sheltering, away from her memories of Chew Norton where Baby Holly was born. Returning to Somerset, she competes with Aaron’s mother, Viv, in the who-can-give-the-most-support stakes. Elsie and Flossie, as would be expected, are being shielded from discussions about the violence which took place as they slept upstairs.
Douglas has a page-turning plot which references Don’t Look Now: a garden pond, a child lost, a sojourn in Venice, a handsome husband murdered, a beautiful and elegant widow. But Douglas’s characters do not come alive under her pen in the same way as Du Maurier’s; the dialogue and internal monologues are clunky and unconvincing.
works cited
Douglas, C. The Wrong Sister. Penguin. 2024.
Du Maurier, D.’ Don’t Look Now’. Not Long After Midnight. Gollancz. 1971.
The original version of this review was first published on page 16 of the Irish Examiner on 30th March 2024. It is reproduced here by permission of the Editor.
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