On my blog today, I’m sharing my thoughts on the new novel in the DCI Jonah Sheens series by Gytha Lodge, Little Sister.
BLURB
A teenage girl wanders out of the woods.
She’s striking, with flame-red hair and a pale complexion. She’s also covered in blood.
Detective Jonah Sheens quickly discovers that Keely and her sister, Nina, disappeared from a children’s home a week ago. Now, Keely is here – but Nina’s still missing.
Keely knows where her sister is – but before she tells, she wants Jonah’s full attention . . .
Is she killer, witness, or victim?
And will Jonah find out what Keely’s hiding, in time to save Nina?
MY THOUGHTS
I’m a huge fan of Gytha Lodge’s Jonah Sheen series, and I think Little Sister is the best book in the series to date. If you love crime novels where you are heavily invested in the characters, then you need to pick up this book. The characters which Gytha Lodge focuses her new novel on are very complex, and you’ll have different opinions on them as the book progress, and this is what made it so intriguing. I wanted to follow their journey and I wanted to see how they’d become the people they are in the present.
Although Gytha’s novels are police procedurals, what I like about her books, is that she really delves deep into the characters that are at the centre of the crime being investigated. You can see just how much Gytha knows her characters and this comes through in her writing. Keely is such a fascinating person and a real puzzle to work out, and this is what made Little Sister all the more gripping. You get a sense that something dark has happened in her past, that has led up to this moment, when her sister Nina goes missing. But why isn’t Keely telling Jonah everything that happened? It is here that you get a real sense of what’s happened, and a real sense of darkness creeps through into the story.
I really liked the way how Gytha Lodge slowly revealed the truth behind what was happening in the present. It’s so difficult to discuss in any more detail without giving the plot away and I think it’s best to go into this book with as little information as possible.
Gytha Lodge also develops DCI Jonah Sheens’ character further in this book and we see a more emotional side to him, especially as he is dealing with issues in his personal life. You can see just how frustrated he is by Keely when he is interviewing her. Keely wants to make sure that he hears everything she has to say, but she appears to be talking in riddles, and does not give a straight answer to his questions. This is what really drives the tension in the book, as I never felt that I could entirely trust Keely, and you can see just how much she infuriates people.
I felt a real sense of justice as we got to the end of this book, and Gytha Lodge delivered it so, so well. There is a tough journey for Gytha’s characters to get to this point and I was desperate to know how things were going to pan out for them. It was so satisfactory and I thought Gytha Lodge wrapped everything up really well. If you haven’t yet started this series then you’re really missing out on some of the best crime fiction novels out there.
Publisher: Penguin
Publication date: 28th April 2022
Print length: 406 pages
Little Sister is available to buy:
Hooked From Page One 
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