The Stolen Sisters by Louise Jensen
Genre: Psychological thriller, Suspense
Read: 4th October 2020
Published: 30th September 2020
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Sisterhood binds them. Trauma defines them. Will secrets tear them apart?
Three little girls missing. One family torn apart…
Leah’s perfect marriage isn’t what it seems but the biggest lie of all is that she’s learned to live with what happened all those years ago. Marie drinks a bit too much to help her forget. And Carly has never forgiven herself for not keeping them safe.
Twenty years ago these three sisters were taken. What came after they disappeared was far worse. It should have brought them together, but how can a family ever recover?
Especially when not everyone is telling the truth . . .
MY REVIEW:
One word - WOW! It's been a while since I've immersed myself in a Louise Jensen thriller and I wasn't disappointed. It's taken me a couple of hours to assemble my thoughts after finishing THE STOLEN SISTERS and I'm still not even sure where to begin my review because I doubt my words could do it justice and illustrate just how bloody brilliant it was!
Meet the Sinclair sisters. Carly was 13 when she and her 8 year old twin sisters Leah and Marie were abducted. For twenty years she has blamed herself - for being too preoccupied waiting for a text from a boy at school, for snapping at her younger sisters, for not taking better care of them. Now she hides herself away in her flat, too afraid to come out, raiding charity shops for bargains and selling them on eBay for a profit. Her issues with trust keep her from forming relationships or having children...though she dotes on Leah's son Archie.
Leah blames herself for not closing the gate properly - with a firm three goes to latch it - from which the family dog Bruno had escaped leading the sisters to go in search of him. Now living with chronic contamination OCD, Leah cannot do anything without wearing cotton gloves to protect her from germs and bacteria, nor completing the "three time" ritual with everything she does. When she discovered she was pregnant she was horrified at the thought of giving birth in a germ-infested hospital, not to mention having another loved one that she must constantly look out for and protect.
But it's Marie that has the biggest regret of them all. Now she drinks to forget whilst waiting for the next acting job to come along. At least when she's playing a part she can pretend she's someone else in another life and she can forget. But it's not just alcohol that has become Marie's demon...and now she finds herself in debt to her dealer.
So when she approaches her sisters about going on live TV for the twentieth anniversary of their abduction, part of it is for the money they will be paid for it but mostly Marie feels that it is time for the truth. Truth? What truth? Her sisters both feel "the truth" means revealing their portion of the blame that each have shouldered alone. What other truth could Marie mean?
When the sisters were taken, there didn't appear to be any rhyme or reason for their abduction. And what followed was several fear-filled days of terror, waiting for what was to come next. From the moment they were bundled into the van, blindfolded and tied up, the sisters huddled together drawing strength from each other. Thrown into a dark abandoned room with bars on the only window and a smelly mattress, they were supplied with an insufficient amount of junk food snacks and cherry Cola - not enough to keep them fed or hydrated. But...why were they here? What did the men Carly nicknamed "Doc" and "Moustache" want with them?
Carly cleverly found an escape as the girls followed their older sister around the rabbit warren of corridors and buildings in an attempt to find their way out. When at last they did, they flagged down a passing car and were recognised instantly as "the missing Sinclair sisters". They were taken to the police station, gave their statements and reunited with their distraught parents. But the nightmare was far from over...what was to come would be even worse than the ordeal they had just survived.
How will they ever move on?
Twenty years later and their nightmare has never gone away. All three sisters are a mess and are shadows of the young innocent girls they used to be. Their family has fallen apart; their parents divorced; the sisters are estranged from them but have remained close to each other. And now the person responsible has just been released from prison. So when Leah begins to find hand delivered notes on her doormat each morning counting down to the anniversary date, she begins to fear he is coming after them again. And this time, he will silence them.
WOW! What an emotional rollercoaster THE STOLEN SISTERS is! Louise Jensen has captured all the emotions from guilt, betrayal, sorrow, fear and an inability to trust like a raging storm ready to burst. As the reader is drip-fed information from the past and the present, the story slowly unfolds building a picture of the abduction, imprisonment and the aftermath through the eyes of Carly, Leah and Marie. There is also an underlying plot through the narrative of Leah's husband George in the present day. Each tendril of the story is cleverly woven together to create a tangled web of secrets, lies, betrayal, guilt and fear.
All the sisters are damaged from their childhood experienced and its aftermath so it is easy to empathise with all of them. They were just children. Children who should have been protected at all costs...not used as pawns in a grubby and unforgiving world. While it is Carly who shoulders the blame of responsibility, it is Leah whom the present day story primarily revolves around with the focus highlighting her struggles with her mental health and contamination OCD. It is clear her fixation on germs, bacteria and the like stem from their time imprisoned in the grubby room. And now it has become a necessity to maintain an element of control. It is because of this that it is Leah I particularly empathise with. She knows it is illogical but she still feels the need to go through her rituals before she can leave the house, drive the car even bathe her son Archie. The portrayal of OCD and mental illness is done sensitively with care.
A twisted emotional psychological thriller, THE STOLEN SISTERS is not your usual child abduction tale with a happily ever after. The story is unique, it is original and it is different. A dark and disturbing tale that will have you going through a range of emotions throughout, I was literally in tears by the final chapters. It really is a sad, sad tale that delivered such ingenuity with a satisfying end.
A gripping read that slowly builds with a palpable tension, THE STOLEN SISTERS becomes a fast paced ride to the end that will leave you breathless.
Perfect for fans of psychological thrillers.
I would like to thank #LouiseJensen, #NetGalley and #HQDigital for an ARC of #TheStolenSisters in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Louise Jensen has sold over a million English language copies of her International No. 1 psychological thrillers The Sister, The Gift, The Surrogate, The Date and The Family. Her novels have also been translated into twenty-five languages, as well as featuring on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestseller’s List. Louise's sixth thriller, The Stolen Sisters will be published in Autumn by Harper Collins.
The Sister was nominated for the Goodreads Debut of 2016 Award. The Date was nominated for The Guardian's 'Not The Booker' Prize 2018. The Surrogate was nominated for the best Polish thriller of 2018. The Gift has been optioned for a TV film. The Family was a Fern Britton Book Club pick. Louise was also listed for two CWA Dagger Awards.
When Louise isn’t writing thrillers, she turns her hand to penning love stories under the name Amelia Henley. Her debut as Amelia Henley, The Life We Almost Had, is out now.
Louise lives with her husband, children, madcap dog and a rather naughty cat in Northamptonshire. She loves to hear from readers and writers.
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