The Sisters

Rating:
Summary: Victory for fans of amateur sleuths and relationship dramas
Review:

Even though they are both in their late twenties, Joey and Elizabeth Ross still fight with each other as if they are still youngsters. Elizabeth, an attorney in her father's practice, sides with her sire. Joey, a law student, defends their mother. Their parents' relationship went sour somewhere over the years.

However, in spite of their sibling rivalry, their world spins out of control when someone shoots and kills their mother. The police feel that their father did the crime in the heat of passionate jealousy. For the first time in their lives, the Ross sisters agree on something. Both cannot accept their father doing the crime. Elizabeth wants to investigate because she feels guilty over her wish that her mother was dead had come true. Joey feels guilt for always blindly siding with her mother at the expense of her father. Even thought they have never worked together before, the duo needs each other to uncover the truth. This out of character teaming leaves Elizabeth and Joey at risk of obtaining additional demons.

Make no secret that the writing team of Cynthia Victor knows what matters most to readers. Their current novel, THE SISTERS, is a brilliant tale that rivets readers with the relative sins of a dysfunctional family ripped even further asunder by murder. The two siblings are wonderful, riveting characters, whose destructive rivalry must somehow be put aside to save their father and to develop truly deep relationships with each other and the men they love. This is a great amateur sleuth novel that cleverly concentrates on issues confronting contemporary women even as the who-done-it adds much suspense and excitement to a winning novel.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Okay story; not so surprising ending
Review: Elizabeth and Joey Ross are sisters but can never seem to agree on anything and do not like one another. Elizabeth is daddy's girl and Joey is momma's girl. Their mother is murdered and Elizabeth is the prime suspect. Elizabeth, a co-partner with her father in their law firm, runs away to try to find out who really killed their mother. Elizabeth needs Joey's assistance to find out the real killer and they slowly start to become close and truly understand one another. The ending is no big surprise, actually quite predictable. I was somewhat annoyed by all the negative banter between the sisters (I guess I couldn't relate to this since I have a sister myself and we don't speak that way). This was an okay book, didn't always hold my interest, but easy to read through the end. Having read some of Ms. Victor's books in the past, it was not on the same level as THE SECRET.

Rating:
Summary: Very, So So
Review: Plot is intriguing, but never pans out. Rivalry between the sisters become very tiring after a while, causing you not to relate to either of them. This is one i can't recommend...

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing page-turner with lots of surprises
Review: Sometimes I read a novel and don't know which genre category I should mentally file it away into. I expected The Sisters to be more romance than mystery but was pleasantly surprised to find strong elements of both, with likeable characters and plot twists that moved the story along nicely. Elizabeth and Joanna Ross have been feuding since childhood and, as adults, follow vastly different roads in both career and love. But a devastating murder brings them into a reluctant partnership as they work together to save their family. Cynthia Victor has successfully blended suspenseful surprises with some sizzling love scenes and crafted a page-turner that delivers in the end.

Rating:
Summary: It was an OK book
Review: This book wasn't too bad. I was able to finish the whole thing, but I've definitely read better mysteries than this. I didn't really care for any of these characters, and the plot was just OK, nothing real exciting. No twists and turns in this one.