Book Review: Sister

Long before I started working on my first Nanowrimo novel in 2009 (a novel which is told through a series of journal entries), I began to search for other novels written in an epistolary format.  I suppose, for me, the idea of writing a novel in letters was appealing because I have always enjoyed writing personal letters.  I assumed a good letter writer would find the epistolary novel an easy task.  Alas, it is hard work to make a novel gel well with snippets of letters, let alone telling the whole tale in one long letter.

Rosamund Lupton has done just that.  Her debut novel, Sister, is one long letter from an older sister to her younger, deceased sister.  Beatrice Hemming longs to talk to her little sister, Tess, but death has snatched her away, so Beatrice resorts to writing a letter explaining her reaction to Tess's disappearance and death.  Returning to London from her new home in America, Bee expects to find her sister and play the big-sister role she has honed so well.  Unfortunately, the police discover Tess's body and declare it a suicide.  Bee is convinced that Tess would have never killed herself and she becomes determined to follow all possible leads to find her killer.  The possibilities keep the suspense building as she explores a variety of suspects from Tess's married lover, an obsessed stalker, a dismissive psychiatrist, to a group of genetic scientists who were hoping to find a cure for cystic fibrosis

I think this author has done a remarkable job of creating a voice for the main character.  Sadly, I didn't really connect with the main character however.  I don't know why I didn't care for the main character, but she struck me as obsessive and unhinged.  It seemed incongruent that this character would be desperate to find the truth about her sister's death and yet be trifling with romantic thoughts in the midst of this. 

The writing was certainly outstanding.  I wanted to keep reading to figure out what happened to Tess and whether or not Bee eventually solved the crime or if it turned out in the end to have been suicide after all.  It was a good mystery, but I had a great deal of trouble with the ending.  It seemed like the letter concept broke down because the final pages reveal actions and elements which could not be put down in a letter (I'm trying hard not to provide a spoiler, so this may not make sense).  There is a resolution, but I found it to be disappointing.  Perhaps, I wanted a happy ending.  Perhaps the denouement just left me with too many bad feelings.  Perhaps my own lack of a close sister relationship made it difficult for me to connect with the characters and actions.  For whatever reason, despite enjoying the book, it didn't sit well with me in the end.