REVIEW: My Sister Is Going to Kill Me – A Whitewater Whodunnit of Murder, Secrets, and Danger on the Grand Canyon by Nina Simon
What’s a family vacation without a little murder?
Liv and Mandy Chisholm’s yearly sister trip is a sacred tradition, an attempt to bond as their lives increasingly diverge. Liv, the ever-practical older sister, packs the color-coded itineraries. Mandy, a bedazzled human tumbleweed, brings the spontaneity.
This year, the sisters take off for a rafting adventure through the breathtaking depths of the Grand Canyon with a group of strangers. But beyond the terrors of whitewater rapids, sibling squabbles, and rogue reptiles, the ferocious beauty of the river carries a darker undercurrent, and an unexpected guest: a murderer in their midst.
When a fellow traveler is found dead and another corpse hits the water, the rafting trip flips from idyllic sister vacation to high-stakes murder investigation. Every suspect has a secret, every clue is drenched in mystery, and Liv and Mandy can hardly trust each other, let alone their own instincts. With the river raging and danger around every bend, the Chisholm sisters must work together to catch a killer—and keep their relationship from capsizing—before it’s too late.
Dear Ms. Simon,
Two sisters with opposite temperaments solve two murders while on a Grand Canyon rafting trip. There, that plus the blurb are all I’m going to describe about the plot. Two years ago I enjoyed “Mother-Daughter Murder Night” and this book has several similarities, namely sometimes antagonistic family relationships and women working together to discover whodunnit.
This is a fairly lengthy story that takes readers on a rafting trip down the Colorado River. There are two murders and an abundance (too many?) of possible suspects and characters. The mystery is one that I didn’t solve until right near the end. It relies on careful attention but there are so many details given in the book that it’s hard to know which ones are actual clues and which are red herrings so brava for that. And even until the very end, I wondered if perhaps my “aha!” moment was just about another red herring. Still I have to confess that so much detail sometimes overwhelmed me, I had to pause every so often to refresh my memory about what went with whom and why, and one or two things about how people acted sometimes stretched credulity.
The main draw for me actually turns out to be the sister relationship between Liv and Mandy. The two are polar opposites and are described with verve that brings them alive. Their thoughts about the other are often not positive despite their obvious affection. These are kind of a “She’s my sister and I’ll defend her through thick and thin but sometimes I want to kill her.”
Their different temperaments and skills at times seem to clash but then one will contribute just what is needed in a situation. A contribution that the other sister can only marvel at as she doesn’t possess the talent to unearth or deliver it. Each is aware of their differences, sometimes annoyed by them but truly sees the value in them – eventually. I loved reading the moment when the sisters began to see through the other’s POV. This is how I’ve come across to her all these years. This is why she sometimes rolls her eyes, huffs in annoyance or sighs at what I do. The revelatory scenes were great.
I also like that in the epilogue, it’s mentioned that the overall investigation is still ongoing. There are lots of moving parts so this makes actual sense when held up against the real world and how long things can drag out. Mandy and Liv have changed some, but not totally. Fair warning to those who like to play along at home, it really will take until near the end of the book for all the subtle clues to get put together. Would I ever do a rafting trip like this with my sister? Nah, probably not but reading about the beauty of the area as well as solving a tricky murder mystery was fun. B
~Jayne
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