My Sister's Bones: 'Rivals The Girl on the Train as a compulsive read' Guardian

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Herne Bay, “where darkness comes early and life is as predictable as the tides”, is the perfect setting for Ellwood’s intriguing blend of domestic horror and the terrors of war, the drama of the coastline and the sea offset by the mundane “neat boxed gardens and modest semi-detached houses”. “This is life,” Kate says to herself as she shuts the door to her mother’s home. “Not war and disease and burnt-out hotels, but men and women in their boxes with their babies and their coffee-makers and their holidays, this is what real life should look like... And I am on the edge of it all, a ghost with no foundations, no roots.” We’re all of us, every day, just a hairbreadth away from evil. If I’ve learnt anything from fifteen years of reporting, it’s that. But I couldn’t expect these people to understand. Kate has a sister, but both choose a different path. Or they're life just went that way. Kate has a career, and her sister has the bottle of booze to escape into.

My Sister’s Bones opens with a hooking premise. The key player in this novel, finds herself in a police station being interviewed by a police psychologist. The psychologist is trying to determine if the book’s lead character Kate needs to be sectioned for her own health and safety, as part of the mental health act. We learn Kate is a war correspondent, who has witnessed many atrocities and these seem to have surfaced upon her return home. It is a question of deciding whether or not Kate’s claims are valid – or is she an unreliable narrator suffering from PTSD.

I loved that it covered relevant themes such as war, the effects it has in those reporting whilst allowing us an insight into the war zone. Quite frankly, I found myself having a new-found respect for journalists. Those that put themselves out there to report the truth and give voices to those that have been silenced. Billie Weinstein sees things most people don’t see. Her sister, Cassie, has always been her touchstone, the person she turns to for advice and guidance, the person whose opinion means the most to her. But ever since Cassie left for college, she’s seemed different—withdrawn, obsessed with studying, and she barely eats. Billie can’t talk to her parents about it; they act as if nothing is wrong, refusing to see the changes in their older daughter. My Sister’s Bones by Nuala Ellwood is a gritty, tension filled psychological thriller! The pace was a little slow for the first part of the book, but half way through the pace ramped up, and the action intensified. This is one thriller I can definitely recommend. The book contains a multitude of disparate mysteries that all are seemingly unconnected... until they aren't. Linked only by the protagonist they centre around, this is a thriller on a large global and political scale, the likes of which I have not encountered in a mystery novel, for quite some time. A stunning book. Compelling, unsettling and powerful this is a book that will stay with me for a long time.' C. L. Taylor

Billie's beautiful and intelligent older sister, Cassie, suffers from anorexia. Hanauer expertly details the emotions brought on by this disease on behalf of each of the family members: Billie's fear for her sister, her parents' denial and debate over treatment, and Cassie's deterioration. But this is not Cassie's story. This is Billie's story and it's about so much more than her sister's anorexia. Billie is a rather typical suburban teenager, coping not only with her sister's illness, but also with pressure from her parents to do well on the SAT test, learning how to drive, dealing with a popular boyfriend who wants more from her than she's willing to give, and a best friend with a colorful family who simply disappears one day . . .Kate Rafter has spent her life running from her past. But when her mother dies, she's forced to return to Herne Bay - a place her sister Sally never left. This emotional read will not be forgotten easily. It is a story of family relationships, love, strength, loss and redemption. After all it is a sad and disturbing and tragic story. The author did a great job, the writing and structure is superb. I enjoyed it not from the beginning but I got more captivated the further I read. This book is definitely different to other thrillers and I highly recommend it. The only sane person in this shadowy land of illusion is Sally’s husband, Paul. He takes care of both sisters and they work their way through childhood abuses, PTSD, and their broken relationship with each other. Kate Rafter is a successful war reporter. She’s the strong one. The one who escaped Herne Bay and the memories it holds. Her sister Sally didn’t. Instead, she drinks. But when their mother dies, Kate is forced to return to the old family home. And on her first night she is woken by a terrifying scream.