Sunday Books & Culture - Fiction
Family, police work, and a murderer who gets away makes for a great beach-read page-turner.
MISSING SISTER
by Joshilyn Jackson
Published by William Morrow (March 3, 2026)
Hardcover $23.52
Audiobook $14.99
Reviewed by Penny A Parrish
People join law enforcement agencies for different reasons: the excitement, the power, the opportunity to be involved in different situations every day. For Penny Albright, it was to help people. That is what her twin sister, Nix, wanted – to make the world a better place. But Nix has been dead for five years from a drug overdose. As this story opens, Penny is in her final days of rookie training when she is sent to her first murder scene. She’s with Deliliah, her field training officer and mentor. The dead guy is Danny Bowery, one of three men Penny blamed for the death of her sister.
Trying to control her emotions, Penny is sent to put up crime scene tape in the area, which includes a mall. When she smells something she wanders around looking for the source and finds a woman covered in blood with a box cutter. At this point Penny should be on her radio, calling for backup. She threatens to take the stranger into custody. But that woman tells Penny this is not an incident about cops, it’s about sisters. Hearing that, Penny tells the killer to run.
All of this happens before page 20 in this book. From then on, Penny is keeping a secret which would have her tossed out of any police agency. She bows out of the program and tries to find the woman again and understand the situation. The more she uncovers, the deeper she is drawn into a labyrinth of death.
Readers meet other characters – Penny’s ne’er-do-well brother, her niece, her parents, her boyfriend – but she is driven by the voice of Nix in her head. Letting a killer go means the end of her police career. But it also means she may find out what really happened to her sister and who is responsible.
The term “page-turner” is often overused, but it’s a good label to put on this book. The writing truly reflects police conversations, and the plot is clever. The story touches on family, sisterhood and revenge in equal doses. I recommend it as a good beach read for the summer. The audiobook, read by the author, might also be a fascinating way to hear this story.
Penny A Parrish is a local writer and photographer. See her pictures.
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