Four novels that show the power of siblings in mysteries & thrillers

Margot Douaihy is the author of the lyrical crime novel Scorched Grace, which was named a Best Crime Novel of 2023 by The New York Times, The Guardian, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, CrimeReads, and BookPage, and one of the most anticipated crime books of the year by THEM and LGBTQ Reads. The second book in the Sister Holiday Mystery series, Blessed Water, was named a most anticipated crime book by BookRiot and Apple Books. She is also the author of Bandit/Queen: The Runaway Story of Belle Starr, a true-crime poetry project, and Scranton Lace, a documentary poetry collection about a lace factory.

At CrimeReads Douaihy tagged "four novels [that] show us how sibling relationships can be much more than backdrops or backstories in crime fiction, supercharging narratives with primal terror and emotional range." One title on the list:

My Sister, the Serial Killer

Oyinkan Braithwaite’s narrative is a case study in scalpel-sharp dark humor, inventive scene work, and sisterhood reimagined. The bond between sisters Korede and Ayoola is constantly tested, not by quotidian squabbles, but by a string of boyfriends who end up dead (murdered in cold blood, in fact). Braithwaite keeps this tensile book alert with vital questions of loyalty and survival, threading gender and societal commentary into an incredibly tight ripper. The novel doesn’t just entertain, which it absolutely does; it dissects the very essence of “sisterly duty,” drenching a crime narrative with resonant explorations of PTSD, where and how trauma is stored in the body, and complex ethical decisions. I teach this book in my “Plotting the Perfect Crime” course, a plot-centric crime writing class at Emerson College; it’s illuminating to see how the MFA students celebrate the novel’s fine-tuned craft, confident plotting, emotional wreckage, humor, and creative quotient. I love books that offer a dialect—asking how two apparent opposites are simultaneously true? This narrative is distinct in its ability to balance withering satire with poignant insights into the love and sacrifice of sisters who just want to survive and thrive in an unfair world.

Read about the other entries on the list.

My Sister the Serial Killer is among Francesca McDonnell Capossela's seven books about women committing acts of violence, Tessa Wegert's five thrillers about killer relatives, Catherine Ryan Howard's five notable dangers-of-dating thrillers, Sally Hepworth's top five novels about twisted sisters, Megan Nolan's six books on unrequited love and unmet obsession, Sarah Pinborough's top ten titles where the setting is a character, Tiffany Tsao's top five novels about murder all in the family, Victoria Helen Stone's eight top crime books of deep, dark family lore, and Kristen Roupenian's six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue