A visceral and compelling mystery about a Cherokee archeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs who is summoned to rural Oklahoma to investigate the disappearance of two women…one of them her sister.
There are secrets in the land.
As an archeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Syd Walker spends her days in Rhode Island trying to protect the land’s indigenous past, even as she’s escaping her own.
While Syd is dedicated to her job, she’s haunted by a night of violence she barely escaped in her Oklahoma hometown fifteen years ago. Though she swore she’d never go back, the past comes calling.
When a skull is found near the crime scene of her youth, just as her sister, Emma Lou, vanishes, Syd knows she must return home. She refuses to let her sister’s disappearance, or the remains, go ignored—as so often happens in cases of missing Native women.
But not everyone is glad to have Syd home, and she can feel the crosshairs on her. Still, the deeper Syd digs, the more she uncovers about a string of missing indigenous women cases going back decades. To save her sister, she must expose a darkness in the town that no one wants to face—not even Syd.
The truth will be unearthed.
One-word review: Shocking
Emojis: 😳👻💕
Rating: 4.5 🌟s
My thoughts:
Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lillie is heartbreaking, heartwarming, full of family themes of the most tragic kind, and a twisty, turny, suspense-filled thriller. And I loved every minute of it.
The family themes touched my heart the most. Syd Walker has allowed herself to become estranged from her family, partly due to her job with the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs), which has her headquartered in Rhode Island, and partly due to the guilt she carries. The story of the origins of Syd’s guilt just broke my heart.
I’m very familiar with the missing Native American girls’ statistics and that their cases never get investigated. It is disheartening, and I thought the information on this reality was handled very well in the story. It does a straightforward job of explaining the issues without an information dump or an overabundance of grittiness that both tend to slow down the pace.
I loved all of the shocking twists and turns the story takes. They kept me on my metaphorical toes while I couldn’t wait to see how the story would end. I can’t wait to see more stories from Lillie in the future.
4 responses to “Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lillie #BookReview #thriller #pubday”
I’ve been reluctant to add this book despite the great reviews and you’ve now convinced me there’s hope in the story. Excellent review, Tessa💜
I’ve read a few with this same focus on missing Native American women and they were much grittier and atmospheric. This one has family themes and a very personal angle that made it not as dark and slow.
Sounds suspenseful and interesting. Excellent review, Tessa!
[…] to Tessa @ Tessa Talks Books for her wonderful review, which had me looking out for this one. The audiobook finally showed up at […]