Thank you for the advanced copy of this book. Honestly, I didn’t love it. The setting didn’t feel realistic to me and the story didn’t quite touch on what I would have liked it to.

A rare pass from me. I'm a Scandi crime fan and, to be honest, I think this would have been much better had the detective been, well, Swedish. John Adderley's situation- an FBI SA in witness protection in Sweden working as a Swedish police officer- is implausible at best but when the Nigerian bad guy show up this goes off the rails. I would have preferred to read more about the sisters and less about Adderley. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Sorry but I gave up on this one.

I gave this one a chance, but it didn’t ring my chimes.
I did like the setting of Sweden. I didn’t really care for any of the main characters nor could I connect with them.
It was a miss for me.

I wanted to enjoy this one, I really did. I like Scandinavian thrillers, and this one was a good one at that. I just wish the book had focused more on what happens with the other sister than the past coming back to haunt the main character.

I really really wanted to enjoy this book but it was hard to follow. I feel like you need to have read the beginning books by these authors to understand what is happening in The Other Sister. The writing is good, so I would still consider other books from these authors.

John Adderley is a former FBI agent in the Witness Protection Program, now operating as a police officer in Karlstad, Sweden under a new name. He is investigating the death of Stella, the "face" and CEO of a dating app. She has been brutally murdered by having acid thrown in her face and then being stabbed. Her sister Alicia comes into focus. She is the "other sister" behind the scenes, the one responsible for computer programming. She lives life in the shadows due to her maimed face and the relationship between the sisters was problematic, full of dependency, envy and turmoil. I was interested in this mystery but despite the title, I don't feel like the book focused enough on the mystery involving "The Other Sister". A lot of the book was spent on Adderley's problems. His dangerous past undercover work comes back to haunt him with the reappearance of his old colleague and Nigerian crime syndicate catching up with him in Sweden. I wasn't as interested in this part of the story.

Thank you ABRAMS, Overlook Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book before publication. IYKYK, my reviews are ALWAYS honest.

2.5 generously rounded up.

Writing: 4/5 | Plot: male/5 | Ending: we will never defeat the patriarchy/5

THE PLOT

Stella is the star. Alicia is "the other sister." And when Stella is found murdered, former FBI agent John Adderely is tasked with solving the case of the controversial dating app CEO while trying to run from his past.

THIS BOOK IS LIKE...

You're balls deep in a great pretend session with your Barbies and your brother comes out of nowhere and punts Barbie across the room and throws down his GI Joe dolls and forces you to watch him destroy Barbieland.

MY OPINION

Ok so 20% in I was like: "WOW this book is written by TWO men and I'm enjoying it". The writing was solid (typical scandi style so if you don't like it—stay away), the case was juicy j, and the pace was pacing. But then the Peters went full male author. I just knew they couldn't resist. It's like the meme of the guy holding his breath with his veins popping in his skull, that's male authors trying NOT to write some stupid ass deep operative drug cartel secret mafia storyline.

The Peters said "hold my beer" and made this stupid ass storyline more ridiculous than normal. In fact it made Harlan Coben's KGB shit from The Woods seem sensible. So homedog is in SWEDEN and still gets caught up by a NIGERIAN drug lord from his FBI undercover days and then is tortured via fucking microsoft teams video chat??? PLZ!!!

If the Peters had kept this male author boo boo to a minimum, the story would've been great. I would've loved to learn more about Raw—it's like the dating app in John Marrs' The One, but more plausible. I fully believe dating apps will be using bank data and other PPI to match singletons. But alas, the whole Raw thing was a footnote as John bent over backward trying to cover up his stupid ass crimes only to sing like a canary to a random and his boss. So he did all that, for WHAT!? Waste of time.

Ok and don't get me started on Alicia pining over a guy who dead ass said he was in love with another woman yet somehow she's like WE'RE MEANT TO BE!! and then is shocked he smashed and passed her ass. FREE MY LADIES!!!

So yeah. Generous three stars on account of the writing and the potential.

PROS AND CONS

Pros: solid scandi writing, interesting premise, the dating app was cool, he wrote the perfect bitch character aka stella

Cons: went full male author with the dumbass secret op storyline BYE

It was pretty weird and dark. Usually good mix to make an awesome story but I didn’t like it very much.
The mystery and suspense was good but something about the main character just irritated me and I couldn’t bring myself to like her and it made the story less enjoyable for me.