3.5 rounded up-

When Shayna's twin sister, Angela is murdered in a shooting in Paris she heads over to identify the body. When she gets there, she discovers a secret message meant for only her, "ALIVE TRUST NO ONE" So naturally, Shayna jets off into an unknown city, speaking an unknown language, to try and find her sister that nobody believes is alive.

This book was gripping and fast-paced, I enjoyed reading it. like many mysteries it had many possible plot lines/killers going on, leaving you wondering who to trust and what was happening. The eerie sense of being in another country where the main character didn't understand the language very well, the laws, the way police handle things, and the prejudices to being a foreigner all add to the air of mystery and fear.

There was just something about the blurb of The Missing Sister that intrigued me back when I first saw it on Netgalley last year, and I couldn't resist getting a copy... I mean, a foreign setting, a possible serial killer AND a missing twin sister? How could I possibly say no to that?! I have been looking forward to read this story and while it failed to blow me away personally, it is by no means a bad read and without doubt still a solid debut. I'll try to explain below why certain aspects of The Missing Sister failed to hit the mark for me...

Before I start, I have to repeat first that this debut is by no means a bad read and the 3 star rating reflects my personal experience with this story rather than the quality on its own. There were things I loved about The Missing Sister, but I couldn't ignore the things that didn't work for me either as these rambles wouldn't be an honest reflection of my thoughts otherwise. With that out of the way, let's discuss The Missing Sister: I'm going to start with the things that did work for me. I personally loved the foreign setting in Paris, and especially how big of a role the capital city of France plays in the story itself. Oh no, Paris isn't just a random setting chosen as a background for another typical thriller read; the city and especially the Catacombs play a crucial and all important role in the plot as a whole and the story wouldn't be the same without its history. I loved learning a bit more about the Catacombs along the way as well, and it definitely shows that the author knows the city intimately.

Another thing that stood out for me was the premise of this debut, which can't exactly be put into just one genre and has that unique touch that makes it stand out from the rest. We have the twins and the contemporary angle, especially with the flashbacks back in San Diego... We have the mystery around Angela's death or disappearance in Paris... We have the hint at a possible serial killer on the loose... And we have Paris, its Catacombs and its history. All of this is combined using a mix of Angela's twin sister Shayna's POV and a series of email exchanges between the twins... Slowly learning more about their past as well as the present.

We now arrive at what ended up not working for me personally in The Missing Sister... My main issue was probably the fact that I was unable to fully connect to the story or the characters, making it harder to stay focused and get fully absorbed in the story. Especially the parts about the connection and past between the twins slowed down the story considerably for me, even though it was one of the things that spoke to me when I first read the blurb. Likewise, I wasn't a fan of the characters nor of the way how they behaved at all, making it hard to connect to them or care about what happened to them... And talking about the plot, I also found that certain aspects and plot twists were just a bit too farfetched to my liking, while other twists (including the big one involving who was behind it all) were just too easy to guess. I wasn't too sure what to make of the ending either... Overall it wasn't exactly my cup of tea as I struggled to connect to the story and found certain parts too farfetched, but I did love the foreign setting and premise and I'm sure the right person will love this debut.

This book really wasn't for me I am afraid. It sounded like a book that would hook me in but after the first few chapters I was getting annoyed with the characters and the story. I predicted what was going to happen very early on and didn't enjoy it.

Can't love them all

Shayna receives an e-mail saying her twin sister, Angela is dead. She's been murdered and Shayna needs to go to Paris to identify the body. Upon arrival she meets Angela's boyfriend who takes her to her estranged sisters home. When going through her things she notices a message from her sister written in their secret language they had made up when they were children. The message implies that Angela is very much alive! Shauna extends her trip and tries to track her sisters "last days" in hopes that she is really alive.

The story starts out strong. I read the first 60 percent in one setting. Once I figured it out, the story continued to drag on. I kept hoping for a twist but sadly it was predictable.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Marr did a good job of creating a slow build, of intertwining memories of the twins pasts with the Shanya's search for what really happened to Angela. There were times that Shanya's days in Paris seemed to drag and some of the things that happened to her were farfetched. When recalling events that happened in their pasts, Shanya seemed like an unreliable narrator; not recalling what really happened at all and creating a different narrative that made Angela seem devious and made me question if there was more behind her disappearance. After the slow build, the ending seemed to wrap up quickly. This was a quick easy read that I jumped into quickly but lost some steam in the last third.

I really wanted to love this book.

Upon finding out your twin sister is missing and feared dead you travel to Paris to try and help sort out and identify the body. When you get to the apartment of your sister you see spelled out in only writing you would understand the words “Trust No one”. With that stellar of a start I was hooked.

However as the book went on I easily got bored and almost felt like I was reading the book not because I wanted to but because I had to finish it. The book itself throws a few twists in it as far as whom you can trust and whom you cannot but it doesn’t really get “exciting” until the last few chapters.

I also feel the book was a bit too political on gun rights in America. To the point where it didn’t really make sense to the story. At times to I needed to use google translate to translate the French phrases but this could also have been due to my lack of French knowledge.

Thanks to NetGalley for the early copy

Elle Marr writes with a beautifully lyrical, descriptive style that really helps to capture the atmosphere of Paris, of a beautiful, romantic city with a seedy underbelly brought into stark focus for Shayna, the first-person narrator of this novel who arrives in Paris after receiving the most devastating news of her life - the notice of her twin sister Angela’s death. On entering Angela’s apartment, however, her attention is caught by a message on the whiteboard, a message in their secret twin code nobody else could possibly interpret. A note which tells her Angela is alive - and to trust no one.

With a serial killer on the loose in Paris and human traffickers working in the catacombs below, Shayna must try to retrace the steps of the twin she’s been estranged from for three years and figure out Angela’s cryptic message.

I have to admit, I got really frustrated really quickly. With an unbreakable code at her fingertips, why didn’t Angela just leave a message saying “(name redacted because spoiler) kidnapped me and he’s after you too?” She was even able to leave a second message later and STILL didn’t take the opportunity to tell Shayna what was actually happening, which left Shayna completely vulnerable. There were a few too many loose ends as well - who were the fake policemen who tried to grab Shayna, and why did they never appear again? What the heck was with the brothel and the human trafficking, because that angle really never did get cleared up properly? Did Angela ever get her identity back after being declared dead? It was all just way too open-ended for my liking.

Despite the beautiful writing and a plot which was really rather clever, the obvious plot holes and threads which weren’t tied off at the end mean I can’t really say I liked this. I’ll give it three stars.

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via NetGalley.

Oh wow!! Y’all this was such an excellent novel that I legit could not put it down! The writing was top notch and the characters and story line were so phenomenal.

I DNF this book. Just saying that makes me cringe because, if you’ve read my other reviews, you’d know I hate not finishing a book. It’s the worst feeling.

But... I just couldn’t keep going. I’ve been trying to finish this book for two months now and while I have been busy reading other books, this one just couldn’t keep my attention. I managed to read 46% and while the book isn’t bad, it’s just not great either.

The characters weren’t very likeable. The story dragged for a while without anything new happening. 46% in the book and no new leads or developments except the most obvious which we already expected. There was a lot of potential with this book but unfortunately for me, I couldn’t finish it.

Received as an ARC. It was a great read. It kept me guessing until the very end. The relationship between sisters was tested and shown that you truly need one another.

Reading the blurb I thought this would be a great read. Instead it was a big dissapointment. Try as I might I didn't get into the story at all. I love it when you can't stop turning pages cause you NEED to find out what will happen next. "The missing sister" was exactly the opposite. The story was all over the place, there was no rhythm at all, as soon as it seemed to pick up then it was slowed down again with nothing happening for several chapters... I felt like I had to force myself to keep on reading. I didn't connect with either twin and certains aspects of their relationship felt lacking. And that ending!! The villain's motivation was completely bonkers!! It was pretty underwhelming.

Promising plot that sadly didn't deliver.

Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book is great, so is the setting in Paris and the author is obviously talented. However, thrillers are not her forte - I found the story extremely difficult to follow. Chapter after chapter of nothing moving forward, and when it did, the pacing seemed to be off and everything happened (and was resolved) in the last 40 pages of the book.

Shayna Darby is finally coming to terms with her parents’ deaths when she’s delivered another blow. The body of her estranged twin sister, Angela—the possible victim of a serial killer—has been pulled from the Seine. Putting what’s left of her life on hold, Shayna heads to Paris. But while cleaning out Angela’s apartment, Shayna makes a startling discovery: a coded message meant for her alone…

Alive. Trust no one.

And that’s about as interesting as it gets. I rarely have a hard time getting into a book whose description reads like this. This book was the exception.
I struggled to finish it. The writing was flighty and doesn’t come together cohesively.
There’s potential for a good story here, there’s just not follow through.

“Come to Paris. Your sister is dead." The chilling text Shayna Darby reads from her twin sister Angela's boyfriend. Shayna immediately catches a flight to Paris to ID her sister's body. However, before she goes to the morgue, Shayna finds a coded message meant for her: "Alive. Trust no one."

Heeding her sister's warning, Shayna retraces her sister's footsteps, gleaning as much information as possible from the clues Angela left behind. What happened her? Is she really alive?

The Missing Sister was a fast-paced novel that I found quite enjoyable. The novel encompassed murder, crime, family tragedy, and the fascinating relationship between identical twins. A thriller that I could not put down!

Shayna Darby hasn’t seen twin sister Angela in three years, when she receives an email from Angela’s boyfriend Sebastian saying, “Come to Paris. Your sister is dead.” She’s immediately filled with memories and regrets. An apparent homicide, Angela’s body was found in the Seine River ten days after a mass shooting at the university, where she was pursuing a doctorate. Shayna, still reeling from the recent death of her parents, struggles to accept this new horror as she assumes the responsibility of packing up her sister’s things. But when Sebastian opens the door to Angela’s Paris apartment, Shayna immediately notices a message written in Angela’s handwriting on the whiteboard above her desk. The message is coded in a language the twins developed as children, and the meaning is loud and clear to Shayna: ALIVE. TRUST NO ONE.

A thriller taking place in Paris where our heroine, Shayna, doesn’t speak the language and is desperately trying to find her sister who everyone thinks is dead. The twists and turns are plentiful in this one and I would be lying if I didn’t find myself eager to know what would happen next. There was a lot going on and, to be honest, I rolled my eyes at Shayna and some of her decisions. There would be times when she did something and I’d be like “yes, that is exactly what you should do” and then there’d be other times when I would smack my forehead and go “GIRL.”

I get it, it’s a mystery suspense novel and not everyone can act with intelligence all the time but..... this is someone who is gonna be a doctor so I’d expect a little more ability to do what she claims she is good at and solve problems.

This was entertaining and I think for new thriller fans, this will be very exciting and gasp worthy. I think the history of Paris and the catacombs was FASCINATING and I loved all of the awareness brought to modern day human trafficking. I’m excited to see what Elle Marr does next, I have strong feeling she’s gonna be a new big name in thrillers.

It clearly is a page-turner and an exciting thriller that gets you hooked in right away. Shauna is in Paris looking for her missing twin sister and all that she has are some cryptic clues. It started off in an explosive way for sure. She goes on an adventure in search of her sister through a variety of places and circumstances. It had decent twists in places but it gets slower at a few points. The settings of Paris and the underworld there keep the settings interesting and exciting. I felt it could have had better pacing and some portions felt unnecessary.

Thanks to netgalley and Thomas and Mercer for providing this ARC.

I did not finish this one. I got to about 30% and had to put it down. The writing style just wasn’t for me, way too much description on Paris. It was overkill

This booked hooked me with four words.

ALIVE. TRUST NO ONE.

Boom! Those words all but guaranteed I would be up reading well past my bed time. I could not put this book down. I mean I did when I had to but I was mad about it. It's been hit or miss for me with arcs from Net Galley so I went into this cautiously. I'm happy to report it completely surpassed my expectations. I'm just sorry this book doesn't come out until May cause I want everyone to read it now!

Following Shayna as she travels through Paris trying to recreate the last days of her missing sister Angela. The dark history of Paris lends itself well to this thriller. I have never been to the city of love but have always enjoyed its rich history. Especially intriguing to me are the Catacombs which become a large part of the story. I know a bit about the history of the underground tunnels but this book implies it's much darker than I thought and im intrigued to find out more.

While this book contains what I think is one one the greatest lines in modern literature, "Now she been mistaken for a stranger without nipples", it wasn't a perfect read. There were some times that Shayna came off a little too blunt and cocky for my liking. I think the author was going for a rude American tourist vibe. I also found that reading Shayna's perception of how the locals spoke was distracting. It would work well in an audiobook but it was unnecessary to read. We get it they're in France where French people talk "funny".

The Missing Sister had all the necessary ingredients for a fast paced, keep you on the edge of your seat domestic thriller and was a great first book from Elle Marr. I'm excited for the release later this year and to see what she brings to the mystery/ thriller genre table in the future

This was a very interesting book. Twins are really interesting to me and I liked that fact that they were POCs. I really liked the setting because I find Paris fascinating. I do think there needed to be an extra chapter at the end just to wrap things up better.