I discovered this author by reading his book, The Borrowed. I loved that gritty, mystery. This led me to his newer book, Second Sister.

Your sister killed herself.

The story is about an older sister who is told her younger sister, Sui-Man has killed herself. The older sister, Nga-Yee, has difficulty accepting this, and wants to find out why. Eventually, her investigation leads her to a hacker who investigates cases he finds interesting. When she finds out who is ‘at fault’ for her sister’s apparent suicide, she gets to take out her revenge on them.

The plot was mostly about the hacker investigator tracking down clues as they slowly discover the events that led up to Sui-Man’s death. There are lots of tech tricks the hacker has to explain to clueless Nga-Yee. At times, it seems a bit annoying he how explains everything but I have to remember how I have a bit more technical knowledge than the average reader. The tech methods the hacker uses are not fanciful, and are in the realm of possibility.

The plot is not straightforward, but as it is uncovered, layer-by-layer, it makes sense once they get to the ending. There are a few twists and turns but once they are revealed the previous hints he has dropped make sense. An interesting plot device he uses is a text chat that appears at different points in the novel and it is written by someone connected to the crime. There aren’t any names in this text chat, so it keeps you guessing who it is. It was a very well done element of this book!

This was as much as a page turner as The Borrowed. I will keep an eye on this author. I really like mystery novels, but don’t usually find ones that I like.

Rating: ★★★★★

Book #114 in my 2021 Reading Challenge