The Sea Sisters

by Louise Douglas

The BRAND NEW gripping, atmospheric read from Louise Douglas, NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING author of The Lost Notebook Praise for Louise

This atmospheric Victorian mystery pulls you in from the first page right through until the cracking conclusion. A brilliant read!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rachel Burton, author

‘An evocative, gothic tale of a feisty pioneering journalist taking on both the murky underworld of Victorian Bristol and the era’s restrictions on women's lives. Louise Douglas’ writing envelops you in swirling mist and unseen menace.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Victoria Scott, author

‘Oh my goodness, what a read – such a gripping story, wonderfully told – I honestly loved every moment... If historical and gothic are things that whet your appetite, with a substantial slice of excitement and danger, this is a book you’re going to love… Most definitely one of my books of the year.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review

‘Words cannot describe what I felt for this work of art that this novel is… a brilliant Victorian Era mystery… I was on the edge of my seat many times.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review

‘An absolutely terrific read… I read on long after I should have been in the land of nod and couldn’t wait to continue the next day. A beautiful read, well written with a great cast of characters and a firm storyline. Highly recommended and most definitely meriting all five glowing stars.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review

‘A superb novel full of mystery, suspense and investigative charm… The author’s writing is so atmospheric… A real page-turner… I loved it.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review

‘A great murder mystery that is steeped in danger, drama, and mysticism… Descriptive and intriguing. It captivates from the beginning… Had all my favourite things. Emotions, history, drama, romance, danger… I mean, what more can a reader ask for?’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review

‘A master of her craft, Louise Douglas ratchets up the tension in this haunting and exquisitely written tale of buried secrets and past tragedy.’ Amanda Jennings

‘Beautifully written, chillingly atmospheric and utterly compelling.’ Tammy Cohen

‘I love the way in which Louise creates such an atmospheric mystery, building the intrigue and suspense brick by brick.’ Nicola Cornick

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction

358 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 1, 2026

About the author

Hello and thank you for visiting my profile page. I write contemporary Gothic novels which are usually inspired by places close to where I live in the Mendips, close to Bristol in the UK, or by places I've visited, especially Italy and Sicily. The House by the Sea won the Jackie Collins Romantic Suspense Award in 2021. The Love of My Life, my first book, was longlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award. My second book, Missing You, won the RNA Readers' Choice Award, and my third, The Secrets Between Us was a 2012 Richard and Judy Summer Read.

The next book, The Room in the Attic is due to be published in October 2021 and is a ghost story set in a Victorian asylum-turned-boarding school on Dartmoor.

If you'd like to connect, you'll find me on Facebook Louise Amy Douglas or Twitter: @LouiseDouglas3.

Reviews

[Colleen Maclennan]

I skipped read most of this book as it was so monotonous and far fetched . The idea of three less qualified individuals Ceci, Carter and especially Mila running a detective agency was absurd. The disappearance of two year old Evie , twenty five years later was solved by these three and for Evie ‘s sake I am glad. The book is full of coincidences and Mila ‘s commiserating on not answering Sophie ‘s call was overstated.

[Lyndi (mibookobsession)]

From the blurb:
Twenty-five years ago, two-year-old Evie Albert disappeared without a trace from the Brittany seaside town of Morranez.

So, when a stranger called Nicole Stevenson walks into the offices of Touissants Detective Agency declaring herself the missing girl, Mila Shepherd and her colleague Carter Jackson are suspicious. They are inclined to agree with Nicole’s sisters Imogen and Charlotte, that for whatever reason, Nicole is a fantasist looking for attention.

But as Mila and Carter reopen the case of the missing toddler, a twisting tale of misdirection, a secret society and a forgotten mother slowly unfolds. Is it possible that Nicole really is Evie and how does the case link with the mysterious death of Mila’s sister Sophie and her husband Charlie?

Someone is desperate to protect the truth and as Nicole’s health falters and leads vanish into thin air, Mila faces a dilemma – risk everything or walk away from the case before it’s too late.

I've read several of this author's books now and enjoyed every one. I love the slow yet suspenseful pacing of her books and the way she reveals the clues. This one is part of a continuing series featuring Mila Sheperd and the Touissants detectives. I'm happy Mila finally got some answers about her stepsister through this current case.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. The views and opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

[VickydpBooks]

This follows a woman returning to her coastal hometown to uncover the truth behind her sister’s disappearance years ago. Atmospheric, emotional, and full of secrets — dual timelines and gorgeous writing make this pure reading magic.

[Sandra Hamilton Conlin]

It sounded better than it actually was. I found it boring and slow. Wasn't a fan

[Susan]

Rather slow and in places boring. Did a lot of skim reading to get to the hub of the storyline. Too much retrospective thinking from the main character. Not a book I could honestly recommend.

[Helen]

I’ve read several standalone novels by Louise Douglas and enjoyed them all, but haven’t tried any of the books in her detective series set in France until now. This is the fourth in the series so I hoped it wouldn’t matter that I hadn’t read the other three – and it didn’t, although there’s one ongoing storyline that would probably have meant more if I’d read the previous books.

Mila Shepherd works at Touissants Detective Agency in the Britanny coastal town of Morannez with her stepmother Ceci and their colleague, Carter Jackson. Mila came to France after the tragic deaths of her stepsister, Sophie, and her husband in a sailing accident and is looking after her orphaned niece, Ani, as well as taking Sophie’s place at the agency. Mila has discovered that Sophie was trying to contact her on the day of the accident and when she comes across a note left in Sophie’s kitchen – Call Mila. Tell her the truth. Ask her to help – she is filled with guilt, convinced that if she’d answered her phone that day she could have saved her stepsister.

Meanwhile, Mila, Ceci and Carter have an intriguing new case to investigate, which begins with a young woman, introducing herself as Nicole Stevenson, arriving at the detective agency. Nicole claims to have discovered that she is really Evie Albert, who disappeared from a festival in Morranez twenty-five years ago as a two-year-old child. The case was never solved at the time and Evie has never been found, so Mila and her colleagues agree to look into Nicole’s story. Their investigations take them to the Holywell Commune, a former convent which is now home to a group who are hostile to strangers and reluctant to answer any questions. But as Mila continues her search for proof of Nicole’s claim, she begins to find links to Sophie’s death. It seems the two separate mysteries are somehow connected, but how?

Although I haven’t read the previous novels, it seems that the storyline involving the deaths at sea of Sophie and her husband, Charlie, has been running throughout the whole series, presumably with a few more details emerging in each book. At the start of this one, Mila still doesn’t know what happened, why two experienced sailors went out in bad weather or why Sophie had been trying to speak to her. Maybe because I haven’t been following this story from the beginning, I found it less interesting than the Nicole/Evie one, which was fascinating. Is Nicole really Evie, kidnapped as a child and raised under a new name? Is she just so desperate to escape from her own past that she’s convinced herself she’s someone else? Is she deliberately lying for some unknown reason – or could there be another explanation for the whole thing?

I enjoyed the book overall, but it felt a bit longer than it really needed to be; for example, there’s an interlude in the middle where Mila goes home to England to visit her mother, which had no relevance to the rest of the story and did nothing to move the plot along at all. I also didn’t quite understand the tension in Mila’s relationship with Carter, who seemed like a good person – maybe that’s another thing that would have made more sense if I’d read the earlier books. I did love the setting; Louise Douglas is always so good at bringing a place to life and here she combines the beauty of the Brittany coast during a hot summer with more sinister undertones, as she describes the oppressive, cult-like atmosphere of the Holywell Commune or Mila’s discovery of a dolmen – one of the ancient stone tombs found in that part of France.

Both mysteries are brought to a satisfying conclusion by the end of the novel. I don’t know if there are plans for more books in this series, but I would like to go back and read the first three at some point and also still have some of the author’s other standalones to investigate.

[C.R. Comacchio]

Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood for an advance copy.

This book is part of Louise Douglas’s Brittany series, serving as a follow-up to The Sea House. As in the earlier novel, the Marranez coastline provides an exquisite backdrop, almost other-worldly, at once enticing and menacing. The Toussaints Detective Agency is at the centre of the action, and Mila Shepherd and Carter Jackson return as lead investigators.

Mila, we are immediately reminded, is really only filling time until she can return to her English home. She is in Brittany to fulfil a promise to her beautiful and reckless stepsister Sophie, daughter of her peripatetic father’s second wife, who was French. Mila was very attached to Sophie, who was killed in a boating accident, under mysterious circumstances, with her husband Charlie. She had vowed to look after Ani, Sophie’s daughter, in the event of her demise. Now a beautiful and headstrong teen herself, Ani is also much-loved. Like her mother, she is also a constant worry. The unsolved nature of the Sophie’s accident, and the fact that Mila had ignored her last phone call—made the day she died—leaves Mila wracked with guilt while also upping the story’s suspense.

If Mila is enigmatic, Carter, to whom she is increasingly attracted, is much easier to read. A decent sort, he is all practicality underlaid with a good measure of compassion. He is a more likeable character than Mila, though not as interesting. Still, I found myself rooting for a relationship, even if it seems to be more about loneliness than passion.

In addition to the Sophie and Charlie mystery, there is the puzzle of new client Nicole Stevenson. Nicole arrives at the agency with an unusual request. It has to do with the disappearance, some 25 years previously, of little Evie Albert, during the famous annual Morvarc’h music festival. Morvarc’h is an ancient deity in the form of a monstrous horse, and his legend has to do with stealing human children. Nicole is not so much concerned with finding out what happened to Evie—most people assume that she was killed by her abductor—as she is to find proof that she is, in fact, the missing girl, and that she was abducted by her father.

Along with everything else that is going on, this makes for a ‘packed’ narrative, but not a fast paced one. Douglas takes her time to fill in just enough backstory so that those who didn’t read the prequel should have no trouble understanding what unfolds here. She adds more to the unsolved Sophie and Charlie mystery by introducing a note that Mila stumbles upon in Sophie’s house, which opens up a previously unconsidered angle. And then there is the second mystery, regarding the missing Edie. Her character development is superb; she reveals new layers to Mila and Carter, and Renee is nothing if not multilayered. I would have liked to know a little more about how the legends surrounding Morvarc’h, both the horse-god and the related festival, figured in Bretonne history, and I sometimes found the various family and non-family, real and imagined, relationships hard to keep straight (especially Renee’s). But Douglas provides an intriguing and well-written puzzle, with equally interesting characters, and I look forward to a sequel.

[Judith]

Now here's the perfect book if you're feeling nostalgic for summer seaside holidays. The Sea Sisters, takes you to coastal Brittany, and the charming seaside town of Morranez. Here Mila Shepherd is one third of the Toussaints Detective Agency, for the most part helping to find missing persons. But Mila has her own private tragedy. She failed to answer a call from her step-sister Sophie the day Sophie died, drowned in a storm with husband Charlie in a boating accident.

Mila has given up her life in England to be a parent to Ani their teenage daughter and to atone for the guilt she feels. Discovering a note left in Sophie's kitchen brings back questions about what Sophie and Charlie were doing taking their their boat out in a storm. But before she can dwell on that, she's soon busy with a new case: the arrival of an English woman, Nicole Stevenson, who believes she is not who her family think she is.

Convinced that she is really Evie Albert, who went missing as a two year old during the annual Morvarc'h music festival, Nicole wants help to prove it. She and her sisters have discovered in their late father's safe a folder of newspaper clippings about Evie's disappearance and a photo of Evie's mother Adeline who looks astonishingly like Nicole.

As the festival approaches for another year, and Ani makes plans with her friends, Mila is reminded of her summers spent with Sophie and the people she used to hang out with during her teens. Among them is her colleague Carter Jackson, who brings to the agency his expertise in dealing with police, and who zooms around the countryside on his Harley.

Soon the mystery of what happened to Evie is all-consuming. Nicole is frail, suffering from an auto-immune disease, so discovering the truth is time critical. We learn of Adeline's transient lifestyle as a tarot card reader and her connection to the Holywell Commune, a cult-like group living in an old convent on the edge of town and who are distrustful of strangers. It's going to take some ingenuity to discover if anyone there still remembers little Evie, as the commune is run by the domineering figure of Augustin Golliard.

The story takes some twists and turns as questions surface involving smuggling and petty crime. The two mysteries at times overlap and both Carter and Mila take risks which nicely builds suspense, with enough surprises to keep you interested right to the end. As I turned the last page, however, I was almost sad to be leaving Morranez as Douglas makes it feel like you are on holiday in a French seaside town in the height of summer.

I devoured this light, easy read which blended mystery, atmosphere and nostalgia and even a touch of romance in a well-plotted story. I'll be keen to read the earlier books in Douglas's Brittany series. The Sea Sisters, due to be published on 1 June, it's a four-star read from me. My thanks to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for a reading copy in return for my review.

[Meg Pearson]

Louise Douglas has such a gift for creating atmospheric mysteries, and The Sea Sisters completely transported me to the windswept coast of Brittany. The seaside town of Morranez feels vivid and alive, filled with hidden histories, summer nostalgia, and secrets waiting to surface. I could almost feel the salty air and hear the festival music drifting through the streets.

I was immediately drawn into the dual mysteries at the heart of the story. Mila is still carrying the grief and guilt surrounding the tragic deaths of her step-sister Sophie and Charlie, and discovering Sophie’s hidden note adds another emotional layer to an already compelling storyline. At the same time, the case involving Nicole — a woman who believes she may be Evie Albert, the toddler who vanished twenty-five years earlier — was completely absorbing. I loved how the investigation slowly unraveled through old memories, family secrets, and the unsettling atmosphere surrounding the Holywell Commune.

The pacing is gentle but steadily suspenseful, with enough twists and revelations to keep me turning the pages. I especially enjoyed the emotional depth Douglas brings to her characters. Mila feels flawed, vulnerable, and very real, while Carter adds warmth and tension to the story as their partnership continues to develop. The themes of grief, identity, family, and long-buried truths are woven beautifully throughout.

What I loved most was the setting and mood. This book feels like the perfect blend of mystery, nostalgia, and emotional drama — the kind of story you can completely lose yourself in over a summer weekend. Even after finishing, I found myself still thinking about Morranez and its characters.

A beautifully written and immersive mystery with heart, atmosphere, and plenty of intrigue. I’m already looking forward to reading more in this series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Ashley Cohoon]

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4/5 stars)

The Sea Sisters by Louise Douglas is such an atmospheric, easy-to-sink-into mystery. I loved the coastal Brittany setting, and Morranez felt like the perfect backdrop for a story filled with old secrets, complicated family ties, and a little bit of danger hiding underneath the summer scenery.

This story follows Mila Shepherd, who is still carrying a lot of grief and guilt after the deaths of her stepsister Sophie and Sophie’s husband, Charlie. When Mila finds a note that suggests Sophie may have been trying to tell her something before she died, it opens the door to questions she still doesn’t have answers to. At the same time, the detective agency takes on a new case involving Nicole, a woman who believes she may actually be Evie Albert, a toddler who disappeared twenty-five years earlier.

I really enjoyed how the two mysteries slowly started to connect. The missing-child case was especially compelling, and I found myself wanting to know whether Nicole was telling the truth, mistaken, or hiding something else entirely. The Holywell Commune added a really eerie, unsettling layer to the story, and I thought Louise Douglas did a great job balancing suspense with emotion.

The pacing is definitely more gentle than fast-paced, but I didn’t mind that overall because the setting and characters kept me invested. Mila is flawed and vulnerable, and I liked seeing her work through both the case and her own grief. Carter also brought some warmth to the story, and I enjoyed the bit of tension between them.

Overall, this was a beautifully written, atmospheric mystery with family secrets, emotional depth, and a strong sense of place. It made me want to go back and read the earlier books in the series, while still feeling like I could follow this one on its own. A solid four-star read for me.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Deanna Loves to Read!!:)]

OK- this was almost a DNF for me- but I liked the dog!

I did not realize when I picked this up that it was part of a series. Maybe I might have connected more to the story if I had read the previous novels, but probably not!

The story blurb that drew me in:
25 Years ago a two year old girl went missing. In present day, a young woman arrives at Toussaints Detective Agency with a file and the belief that she is that missing girl. Mila, Ceci and Carter who make up the agency decide to look into it. At the same time, Mila is struggling with the guilt she feels for the death of her sister, Sophie.

I am a fan of cold case mysteries, and thought this sounded right up my alley. However, I never connected to any of the characters. I did not find the story very engaging. The characters seem a little one dimensional, and the way the story is told seems sporadic. Mila will be thinking of her past life when she was engaged, then suddenly she is talking about her dog Coco. There is no real explanation of the history of the characters except in a very vague way. When Nicole enters the Agency to hire them, the conversation seems very simplistic. She tells them why she is there, why she believes she is the missing girl- but there really are no emotional pulling of the heartstrings. It is so hard to explain. I did not feel that this was a layered story with multi faceted characters.

The other thing about the mystery is that it seemed to rely heavily on coincidence. Things would suddenly happen and fall into place. And Mila was constantly feeling guilty about the death of Sophia, to the point I was saying "enough!".

Maybe if I had read the others I might have a better grasp of the relationships, but probably not!

2 stars because I liked the dog!

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the ARC. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Leanne]

The Sea Sisters is a wonderfully atmospheric return to Morranez — all salt‑stung air, Breton shadows, and secrets that refuse to stay buried. When Nicole Stevenson walks into the Touissants Detective Agency claiming to be Evie Albert, the toddler who vanished twenty‑five years ago, Mila Shepherd’s instinct is doubt. And yet there’s something in Nicole’s fragility, her flickers of memory, that makes the case impossible to ignore.

As Mila and Carter reopen the investigation, the past begins to twist in unexpected ways: a forgotten mother, a secretive society, and a trail of misdirection that feels deliberately engineered. Douglas weaves these threads with her usual elegance, letting tension build slowly, like a tide creeping higher on the shore.

What gives the novel its emotional weight is the way the case brushes against Mila’s own grief — the unresolved deaths of her sister Sophie and Sophie’s husband Charlie. The echoes between the two tragedies are handled with real subtlety, deepening the mystery without overwhelming it.

Morranez itself is a character again: windswept, watchful, full of people who know more than they’ll ever say aloud. As Nicole’s health falters and leads begin to evaporate, the sense of someone working hard to bury the truth becomes almost palpable.

Elegant, twisty, and quietly haunting, The Sea Sisters is a beautifully crafted mystery about identity, sisterhood, and the dangerous power of long‑kept secrets. It lingers like sea mist long after you close the book.

With thanks to Louise Douglas, the publisher and netgalley for the ARC

[Claire Mc Partlin]

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

An intriguing read set in France about a child who went missing years ago, along with a mysterious drowning three years ago, set around a detective agency.

Mila works at the Toussaints Detective Agency with her step-mother, Ceci, and works alongside Carter who is also part of the team. A woman, Nicole, arrives at the agency and thinks she may be a child who went missing from the area and the local music festival years ago, after finding photos etc. in her Father's safe after he died. She wants the agency to investigate this as she's adament she must be the child as although she has two other sisters she's always felt the odd one out, and feels this would explain it.

There is also a behind the scenes investigation going on about the death of Mila's step-sister and her husband, who died in mysterious circumstances three years ago, and the reason why Mila now lives in France, as she is now the guardian to her 16 year old niece, Ani. I didn't initially realise that this book was part of an ongoing series, and so part of the story I just picked up as I went along. It didn't really detract from the main story, but I would much rather have read them in sequence to understand more about the characters, especially Mila and Carter.

I must admit I just couldn't warm to either Mila or Nicole, I found them both a bit irritating most of the time! But the general story was interesting, a bit slow to start with, but gained momentum as it went on in the search for answers for both mysteries.

An enjoyable read.

[Jan Mawdesley]

The Sea Sisters is a complicated read set in the charming town of Morranez in Britanny where twenty-five years ago a small child disappeared during the Morvarc’h Festival, an annual event that drew people from all walks of life to the coastal town.
Nicole Stevenson, a young woman in failing health believes she is the missing child based on documents and pictures found after her father death. She has come to Morranez to see if she can discover if this is true and enlists the Toussaint Agency, an agency who specialize in missing persons, to help her in her search.
Mila Shepherd, Carter Jackson and Ceci, Mila’s stepmother, make up the team of Toussaint’s, and once they make the decision to take on the case, they realize it is going to be far more challenging that just trying to discover what really did happen twenty-five years ago.
As they dig into the past Mila begins to wonder if the drowning death of her sister Sophie, the murder of Charlie her husband, the abduction of Evie Albert and the closed community, Holywell, presided over by Augustine Golliard are all connected.
Can a decades old mystery be solved to help Nicole find some sort of peace in her life and will the results of whatever is uncovered help Mila come to terms with the death of her beloved sister.
Emotional, confusing, and complex the plot line has similarities to the case of Madelaine McCann in 2007, in Portugal, which still remains unsolved, and from this perspective is an interesting read, if a somewhat slow burn at times.

[Loraine]

Thanks to Louise and NetGalley for allowing me to read The Sea Sisters before the publication date.
I like Louise’s style of writing which in insightful with well-developed characters which makes for easy reading.

The reader is transported to the warmth and sunshine of Brittany and the effortlessly chic presence of Ceci, who owns the Toussaints Detective Agency.

3 years after her stepsister, Sophie’s death, Mila is living with the guilt that she did not answer a call from Sophie.
That night, Sophie and her partner, Charlie took a boat out despite a storm warning. Sophie drowned and Charlie’s body was later found in a cave.
Mila questions why they would have ignored the storm warnings.

A frail young woman, Nicole Stevenson, contacts the agency, requesting that they find proof that she is actually Evie, the child who disappeared 25 years earlier during a festival.
Mila and Carter Jackson set out to look for evidence that would support Nicole’s claim, starting at the annual festival from which Evie had disappeared, whilst her mother Adeline was reading cards.
Their search for Adeline will take them to a closed commune where it is clear that they are not welcome.
Gradually, connections are made and information teased from various sources.

There are more than a few surprises along the way.

[Cindy]

Received for free from Net galley and the publisher in exchange for a review.

Mira works at a private enquiry agent in France. One summer, a woman comes in and claims that she is the lost child that disappeared from the local music festival 25 years ago. Mira and the rest of the agency start looking into the disappearance. This leads them to a local commune that is very unfriendly.

At the same time, Mira finds a note left by her stepsister 2 years ago when her boat went missing and she and her husband turned up dead. Mira begins to blame herself for their deaths, and the guilt eats at her the entire book. Plus she and old friend/coworker Carter get more romantically involved.

I didn't realize when I asked for this book that it was in the middle of a series. I think of I had known that I would have passed. I definitely wouldn't start here. There are a lot of references to previous events.

Mira's an odd character. I didn't really understand how she treated Carter. He seems like a genuinely good guy. The whole missing person case didn't make much sense to me. I did finish the book and I loved the setting and the secondary characters, but I don't think I would read more.

[Jessie Moody]

Really enjoyable and easy read that held my interest right from the beginning.

The two different storylines unfolding alongside each other had enough mystery surrounding them that I genuinely wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen next and, probably even more importantly, to discover exactly how the two stories were going to come together.

There was a good sense of mystery throughout, without it being overly complicated or difficult to follow. It was one of those books that was easy to keep picking up because I always wanted to read just a little bit further.

My only real criticism was that I don't feel like I got the definite closure I was expecting around how the two storylines actually linked - there were links but never fully revealed nor confirmed. I spent so much of the book anticipating that moment where everything would completely click into place, and I was left wanting a little more explanation and connection at the end.

That said, it didn't take away from the fact that I really enjoyed the story itself. It was intriguing, beautifully told and kept me invested in both timelines right through to the end.

A great read - I just wish those final pieces had been tied together a little more clearly!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Janet]

A very strange plot to prove DNA crucial to solving mysteries.

The character of Mila is so painful that I began to dislike her constant self pitying guilt about her sister’s death. Too much time was spent agonizing over her feelings for simply not responding to a phone call. That, coupled with her inability to handle her feelings about Carter, a close friend and colleague, made me wonder at the author’s intent. Mila is the lead character who is anything but disappointing.

The plot is based upon a missing girl who is never found but becomes the sole reason that Mila, Carter, and Ceci become involved in a search for truth. A young woman named Nicole believes that she is the missing child who had disappeared years ago.

The plot soon centers around a commune, contraband cigarettes, jewel thieves, and the death of Sophie and Charles, Mila’s sister and boyfriend.

One sentence at the end of a chapter when Mila and Carter were together turned me against the author. I could not believe that anyone would actually end a chapter that way.

The plot itself is interesting and the villains are ugly. The only time Mila redeems herself is when she takes pity on one of the victims.

I did not enjoy reading this book.

[Catherine]

As soon as I started this book I recognised the characters and setting from a previous read. It's only now I've finished that I've found out there were 3 earlier books in the series so two that I haven't read.
It started quite well with an interesting plotline involving a cold case about a missing child and a young woman who believes she is this missing child 25 years later.
A simple DNA test rules this out quite early on in the book which left the storyline feeling quite pointless!
The rest of the book was focused on tying together the death of Mila's sister and brother in law and the possible death of this missing child.
The author's descriptions of the local commune leader and the commune itself were so good you could feel the dread creeping out of the pages but after building this world, the culmination of the whole story/series fell flat. Mila walked into a trap, while continuously telling the reader she thought it was a trap, but then got out of the situation quite easily, ran and made a phone call and then went home for a shower?!
All loose ends and questions were tied up in a rushed few pages and it was just so disappointing.
I don't think I would go back and read the other two books or read anything further from this series

[Nicola Ray]

25 years ago, Evie Albert went missing at a local music festival and was never found. Now a young English women has arrived in Brittany as she believes that she is the missing girl after finding a packet of newspaper clippings about the disappearance in her late father's possessions. Mila and the Toussaint agency set out to prove whether Nicole really is Evie. Mila is also trying to piece together the events that led to the death of her step sister and her husband. The case triggers a search which allows Mila to solve the mystery of Evie's disappearance and to understand what led to the death of her steps sister which has troubled her for many years.

This is the third book in the series and is a well paced and engaging mystery. The characters are sympathetically written and the Brittany location is a key part of the narrative. I would highly recommend this series but you should read the books in order as the plotlines around the mysterious death of Sophie and her husband unwind with each instalment. With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

[Ann-Marie]

The annual festival in Morranez starts in a few days and a young woman appears at the Touissants Detective Agency saying that she believes she’s the toddler that went missing at the festival 25 years ago, Evie Albert. Ceci, Mila and Carter, who run the agency, are sceptical but agree to help Nicole to try and find out the truth. As their investigations into the past continue there seem to be more and more connections to the deaths of Mila’s stepsister Sophie and her husband Charlie 3 years ago. Is Nicole who she claims to be and can Mila find out the truth of Sophie’s death?

The description for the book sounded really interesting, but I found it very slow reading and, for me, far too descriptive to the point where I was skimming through paragraphs wanting to move on with the story. Mila annoyed me by constantly obsessing over Sophie’s death and feeling guilty, wondering if she could have prevented what happened. I also hadn’t realised that it’s the fourth book in a series and I felt lost at times not knowing the background to the main characters.

Thanks to Net Galley and Boldwood Books for an ARC for my honest review.

[Jen Moyer]

I didn't realize that this book was a continuation of a series, so perhaps that missing link has contributed to my take on it, but I finished reading feeling fairly underwhelmed.

For one, it felt like so much of the plot was fueled by coincidence. This woman happens to show up right at a significant anniversary of a child's disappearance, thinking that, because of a few documents she's found, she could be the missing child...? While I'm certainly okay suspending my disbelief when it comes to fiction, the premise still felt convenient at best and forced at worst.

Pair that shaky start with some underdeveloped characters - I love wine as much as, if not more than, the next person, but wow, could our main character indulge - and a promising setting that gets built up to epic proportions before ultimately fizzling out, and you end up tossing the book onto your read pile before quickly moving on to seek out a more compelling tale.

2.5 stars rounded down to 2

Thanks to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Zandra]

I have read a couple of books by Louise Douglas, so I really wanted to read this one. I didn’t realise it was part of a series and although it is fine as a stand alone book, it would have made more sense to read The Sea House first. However I enjoyed the book. It reminded me very much of the true story of Madeleine McCann. .
A child disappeared from her mother’s camper van one evening, while her mother tries to make money reading Tarot cards. 25 years later a girl arrives at Toussaints detective agency believing she was that lost child. Mila, Carter and Ceci have to prove whether she is the actual girl, or just a hoaxer. Throw in a violent member of a gang, a disabled girl, some brainwashed members of a commune and some drugs and you have the basis for a story. Overall an enjoyable read. My thanks go to NetGalley, Boldwood Books and Louise Douglas for an arc of The Sea Sisters.

[Sarah Dacombe]

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy (arc) of this book.

This is a lovely easy summer read. Based in Brittany in France. It is about Mila who works for the local detective agency. 25 years prior a little girl, Evie Albert, had gone missing without a trace at the local annual festival. A stranger, Nicole. walks into the agency claiming to be missing Evie, is she?
This story follows the search for the truth & the risks Mila takes in finding it, also the consequences of secrets & lies.
Apparently this is part of a series but I didn’t notice that & when I googled it, it was stated it was a standalone although I think the character Mila was in another book by this author.
Overall I enjoyed this book, it was well written with some intrigue & a twist - which I guessed but it didn’t ruin anything for me.

[Kate]

Mila is back in another book in the Sea House series set in Brittany. This time, Mila is looking into the 25 year old mystery relating to the disappearance of a toddler from a local festival, after a woman arrives claiming she is the missing girl. Alongside this she at last starts to find answers as to why her stepsister and brother in law, who died in a storm, went out in their boat even though they knew a storm was brewing.

This is a lovely series of books, with twin stories running through each one; the mystery surrounding her step-sister's death and a case in the detective agency run by her late step sister's mother. The emotional story of loss running alongside another mystery works really well and the mysteries are always absorbing and interesting. A good summer read, particularly for anyone English who has ever dreamed of starting again in France.

[Ann McGoran]

This is the fourth book regarding Mila. I have read all of them. I love the atmosphere of Moranez, I wish I lived there. Mila finds a note left by her stepsister, Sophie in a book and feels there is a connection with Sophie’s death and recalls a time when she didn’t answer Sophie’s call. Guilt settles in and she has to find out why Sophie called. Why did Mila not refer to this in the previous books. That’s one of the reasons I gave it 4/5 stars. The detective team are researching an unexplained disappearance of 2 year old Evie who went missing at a music festival because a young woman comes to them claiming to be the missing child. It seems that she isn’t Evie but there is an unexpected connection. Mila left her fiancé and home in England to care for Sophie’s daughter. It’s time she has a happy relationship.

[Lyn]

This was a story of two mysteries, that were actually intertwined in the end. No one knew what happened to missing toddler Evie who vanished 25 years ago. Likewise why did Sophie and Charles go out in their boat when a storm threatened. So when Nicole turns up claiming to be Evie, there is work for Mila, Ceci and Carter to do. As they investigate both occurrences other things come to light,and eventually lead to a credible and satisfying conclusion for both mysteries.This book moves along at a gentle pace, however both mysteries are compelling enough to keep the reader happy. The exploration of unresolved guilt is well handled. Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for my chance to read, enjoy and comment on this book.

[Faith Hogan]

I did not realise, until I began that this book is in some ways part of a series. I read The Sea House, and really enjoyed, so it was a lovely surprise to be back in the hands of familiar characters and in familiar surroundings. The good news is, you don't have to read the earlier books in this series, but I bet you will, because they are absolutely lovely reads.
The central plot, about a woman turning up at the detective agency and claiming to be a child who went missing two decades earlier, is only half the story here. This is an investigation into the past, but it is more than that, it's a story about connection, community and how secrets have a habit of always coming out, no matter what is done to keep them.
A lovely read to lose yourself in.

[Sharon Valler: Live Love Read Review]

This is book four in the series and the slow burn of the mystery around Sophie and Charlie’s deaths continues, with Mila struggling with guilt after she finds a note Sophie had written, hidden in a cookbook.

As Mila continues to discover the truth abut her step-sister and her brother in law’s tragic deaths, the agency has a new case to investigate, when a woman approaches them claiming to be a missing person who disappeared as a toddler 25 years before.

While this book has a slower pace than the others in the series, the atmospheric and emotional writing held me captive once again and the plot had some brilliant twists.

4 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Louise Douglas and Boldwood for an ARC of this book.

[Cheryl]

There are a number of mysteries to be solved in this story. One is concerns with Mila’s sister, Sophie and her husband, Charlie. Milan wondered why they had gone out in their boat when a severe storm was forecast. The other mystery concerned a child who went missing 25 years ago and was the woman claiming to be this child being truthful. Mila still feels guilty over her sister’s death and still feels as though she is in Sophie’s shadow. She also cannot help analysing her feelings for Carter. Carter works in the same detective agency and is an old friend. I did enjoy this story, I did get a bit frustrated with Mila. She is doing a great job of bringing up her teenage niece but still doubts herself. The mysteries are solved to a satisfying conclusion but I did feel as though some things were not resolved. Perhaps there is another book to come. I had read the previous two books in the series but this could be read as a stand-alone, as previous events are explained. I received a copy and have voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.