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My Sister Is Going to Kill Me
From the New York Times bestselling author of the runaway hit Mother-Daughter Murder Night, a Reese’s Book Club pick, comes another fun, family-centered whodunnit about two sisters who work together to find a killer as they raft down the rapids of the Grand Canyon.
Liv and Mandy Chisolm’s yearly sister trip is a sacred tradition, an attempt to bond as their lives increasingly diverge. Liv, the ever-practical older sister, packs the color-coded itineraries. Mandy, a bedazzled human tumbleweed, brings the spontaneity.
As they set out for this year’s trip, a rafting adventure through the breathtaking depths of the Grand Canyon with a group of strangers, they hope to revitalize their relationship. But beyond the terrors of whitewater rapids, sibling squabbles, and rogue reptiles, the ferocious beauty of the river carries a darker undercurrent, and an unexpected a murderer in their midst.
When a fellow traveler is found dead and another corpse hits the water, the rafting trip flips from idyllic sister vacation to high-stakes murder investigation. Every suspect has a secret, every clue is drenched in mystery, and Liv and Mandy can hardly trust each other, let alone their own instincts. With the river raging and danger around every bend, the Chisholm sisters must work together to catch a killer—and keep their relationship from capsizing—before it’s too late.
Liv and Mandy Chisolm’s yearly sister trip is a sacred tradition, an attempt to bond as their lives increasingly diverge. Liv, the ever-practical older sister, packs the color-coded itineraries. Mandy, a bedazzled human tumbleweed, brings the spontaneity.
As they set out for this year’s trip, a rafting adventure through the breathtaking depths of the Grand Canyon with a group of strangers, they hope to revitalize their relationship. But beyond the terrors of whitewater rapids, sibling squabbles, and rogue reptiles, the ferocious beauty of the river carries a darker undercurrent, and an unexpected a murderer in their midst.
When a fellow traveler is found dead and another corpse hits the water, the rafting trip flips from idyllic sister vacation to high-stakes murder investigation. Every suspect has a secret, every clue is drenched in mystery, and Liv and Mandy can hardly trust each other, let alone their own instincts. With the river raging and danger around every bend, the Chisholm sisters must work together to catch a killer—and keep their relationship from capsizing—before it’s too late.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published August 18, 2026
About the author
Nina Simon
34 books1,209 followersI write crime stories about strong women.
My newest novel, MY SISTER IS GOING TO KILL ME, will be released in August 2026. It is a fun, twisty mystery about two mismatched sisters who must catch a murderer as they barrel down the Grand Canyon on a whitewater rafting trip.
My first novel, MOTHER-DAUGHTER MURDER NIGHT, is a New York Times bestselling mystery about a grandma, single mom, and teenage girl who come together to solve the murder of a naturalist who washes up in the Monterey Bay.
Writing has always been my joy. In college, I was an electrical engineering student by day and a slam poet by night. After a brief stint at NASA, I started designing interactive exhibits and eventually became a museum director. I wrote two books of nonfiction about creating participatory, relevant cultural institutions.
Then, my mom got sick. I quit museum work to care for her, and I found myself turning to fiction, and mysteries, as a way to escape and find pleasure during a hard time. I wrote my first novel by my mom's side, featuring a detective/hero based on her. Now, my mom is doing better, and I'm gratefully spending my days writing, reading, and cherishing the people in my life.
I live off-the-grid in the Santa Cruz mountains. You can find out more about me at https://ninaksimon.com/
I write a very occasional newsletter at https://ninaksimon.substack.com/
My newest novel, MY SISTER IS GOING TO KILL ME, will be released in August 2026. It is a fun, twisty mystery about two mismatched sisters who must catch a murderer as they barrel down the Grand Canyon on a whitewater rafting trip.
My first novel, MOTHER-DAUGHTER MURDER NIGHT, is a New York Times bestselling mystery about a grandma, single mom, and teenage girl who come together to solve the murder of a naturalist who washes up in the Monterey Bay.
Writing has always been my joy. In college, I was an electrical engineering student by day and a slam poet by night. After a brief stint at NASA, I started designing interactive exhibits and eventually became a museum director. I wrote two books of nonfiction about creating participatory, relevant cultural institutions.
Then, my mom got sick. I quit museum work to care for her, and I found myself turning to fiction, and mysteries, as a way to escape and find pleasure during a hard time. I wrote my first novel by my mom's side, featuring a detective/hero based on her. Now, my mom is doing better, and I'm gratefully spending my days writing, reading, and cherishing the people in my life.
I live off-the-grid in the Santa Cruz mountains. You can find out more about me at https://ninaksimon.com/
I write a very occasional newsletter at https://ninaksimon.substack.com/
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May 8, 2026I wrote this book to celebrate the deep, nuanced love between siblings, and to explore what happens when the pressure cooker of a family vacation smacks into a murderous plot in a remote wilderness. It's like Murder on the Orient Express if the train was a whitewater raft careening down the Colorado river, piloted by two sisters who are just as likely to throttle each other as they are to solve someone else's murder.
I had a blast researching and writing this novel, and I hope you have just as much fun reading it.
And on the off-chance it doesn't work for you, please... don't tell my sister.
I had a blast researching and writing this novel, and I hope you have just as much fun reading it.
And on the off-chance it doesn't work for you, please... don't tell my sister.
August 23, 2026
3 "meh" stars from me, and one of those was for the magnificent Grand Canyon itself, the setting. This one was really hard for me to engage with from the jump, and I often had to force myself to pick it up again. I think it was just the whole "corporate bonding trip" angle that totally failed for me - wish it had been more of the two sister MC's journey, instead. I did, however, appreciate the author's note at the end about her own sister's rafting trip, so there's that too...
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
My Sister is Going to Kill Me had two things going for it in my mind. I enjoyed Nina Simon’s first book, Mother Daughter Murder Night. And I’m a big fan of mysteries that take place in outdoor settings. And what’s more outdoorsy than a raft trip down the Colorado River at the Grand Canyon? The setting made it ideal for a “closed room” sort of murder mystery.
But I wasn’t entranced by the sister duo of Liv and Mandy. Mandy is the type of character that immediately grated on every one of my nerves - too immature, too oblivious and too self centered. Meanwhile, Liv seemed to have a stick stuck up her you know what. Both were just cliches of sibling polar opposites. The big emotion draw is supposed to be how these two finally learn to value how they're different and learn from each other. Yawn. The secondary characters were even less fleshed out.
From the beginning, the plot seemed to be filled with holes and unbelievable premises especially about anything to do with the business. I’m willing to put up with a certain amount of unbelievability in books I’m reading for their entertainment factor. But this went above and beyond. Scenes were so vague it was hard to envision some of them. The first murder doesn’t occur until the book is over half done, which made the first half rather slow paced. And then, it was easy to see early on who was behind the murders although I had the motive slightly wrong (probably because once again it was beyond believable).
I listened to this and Gabra Zackman did a good job as the narrator.
My thanks to Netgalley and Harper Audio Adult for an advance copy of this audiobook.
But I wasn’t entranced by the sister duo of Liv and Mandy. Mandy is the type of character that immediately grated on every one of my nerves - too immature, too oblivious and too self centered. Meanwhile, Liv seemed to have a stick stuck up her you know what. Both were just cliches of sibling polar opposites. The big emotion draw is supposed to be how these two finally learn to value how they're different and learn from each other. Yawn. The secondary characters were even less fleshed out.
From the beginning, the plot seemed to be filled with holes and unbelievable premises especially about anything to do with the business. I’m willing to put up with a certain amount of unbelievability in books I’m reading for their entertainment factor. But this went above and beyond. Scenes were so vague it was hard to envision some of them. The first murder doesn’t occur until the book is over half done, which made the first half rather slow paced. And then, it was easy to see early on who was behind the murders although I had the motive slightly wrong (probably because once again it was beyond believable).
I listened to this and Gabra Zackman did a good job as the narrator.
My thanks to Netgalley and Harper Audio Adult for an advance copy of this audiobook.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
A wild ride of wilderness adventure, lighthearted family drama, pulse-pounding suspense, and laugh-out-loud-funny humor, My Sister Is Going to Kill Me was quite the follow up to Simon’s debut novel, Mother-Daughter Murder Night. Taking place in the isolated locale of a rafting trip on the Colorado River, the setting came alive like I was there. Vivid and richly described, I could feel the water splashing my face and hear the roar of the rapids in my ears. I do have to say, though, that the characters were the true stars of the show. Between the diametrically opposed sisters and the unforgettable side characters—including a wellness influencer—I got sucked into their peril from the very first page. Was it somewhat slow in the first half? Well, yes…but once the murderer began killing people off one by one, I couldn’t put the book down—even to pee. After all, an Agatha Christie-like feel is one of my all-time favorite things to find in a novel.
The absolute pièce de résistance, though, was the sisters’ strained relationship and how they ultimately came together. The true heart of the story, while they both could be irritating, they were also relatable and endearing. Coming a close second was the satire around the over-the-top wellness empire. Biting and clever, it definitely made me chuckle at the on-point critique. Sadly, however, it was quite a slow burn at the start with a bit too much focus on the social commentary as murder didn’t even enter the equation until halfway through. Once death arrived, though, I had a blast armchair sleuthing in this fun whodunnit. You see, with suspects galore and bodies dropping like flies, the large cast of characters got a serious side-eye from yours truly. All in all, this genre-bending cozy-ish family drama meets murder mystery-slash-destination thriller was the perfect summer beach or poolside read. Rating of 4.25 stars.
Read if you’re a fan of:
- Locked-room mysteries
- Wilderness settings
- Dysfunctional family dynamics
- Social commentary
- Wellness culture satire
- Amateur sleuthing
- Evocative descriptions
- A lighthearted feel
- Slow-burn suspense
- Murder mysteries
- Immersive storytelling
SYNOPSIS:
Liv and Mandy Chisholm’s yearly sister trip is a sacred tradition, an attempt to bond as their lives increasingly diverge. Liv, the ever-practical older sister, packs the color-coded itineraries. Mandy, a bedazzled human tumbleweed, brings the spontaneity.
This year, the sisters take off for a rafting adventure through the breathtaking depths of the Grand Canyon with a group of strangers. But beyond the terrors of whitewater rapids, sibling squabbles, and rogue reptiles, the ferocious beauty of the river carries a darker undercurrent, and an unexpected guest: a murderer in their midst.
When a fellow traveler is found dead and another corpse hits the water, the rafting trip flips from idyllic sister vacation to high-stakes murder investigation. Every suspect has a secret, every clue is drenched in mystery, and Liv and Mandy can hardly trust each other, let alone their own instincts. With the river raging and danger around every bend, the Chisholm sisters must work together to catch a killer—and keep their relationship from capsizing—before it’s too late.
Thank you Nina Simon and William Morrow for complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
PUB DATE: August 18, 2026
Content warning: murder, death, violence
The absolute pièce de résistance, though, was the sisters’ strained relationship and how they ultimately came together. The true heart of the story, while they both could be irritating, they were also relatable and endearing. Coming a close second was the satire around the over-the-top wellness empire. Biting and clever, it definitely made me chuckle at the on-point critique. Sadly, however, it was quite a slow burn at the start with a bit too much focus on the social commentary as murder didn’t even enter the equation until halfway through. Once death arrived, though, I had a blast armchair sleuthing in this fun whodunnit. You see, with suspects galore and bodies dropping like flies, the large cast of characters got a serious side-eye from yours truly. All in all, this genre-bending cozy-ish family drama meets murder mystery-slash-destination thriller was the perfect summer beach or poolside read. Rating of 4.25 stars.
Read if you’re a fan of:
- Locked-room mysteries
- Wilderness settings
- Dysfunctional family dynamics
- Social commentary
- Wellness culture satire
- Amateur sleuthing
- Evocative descriptions
- A lighthearted feel
- Slow-burn suspense
- Murder mysteries
- Immersive storytelling
SYNOPSIS:
Liv and Mandy Chisholm’s yearly sister trip is a sacred tradition, an attempt to bond as their lives increasingly diverge. Liv, the ever-practical older sister, packs the color-coded itineraries. Mandy, a bedazzled human tumbleweed, brings the spontaneity.
This year, the sisters take off for a rafting adventure through the breathtaking depths of the Grand Canyon with a group of strangers. But beyond the terrors of whitewater rapids, sibling squabbles, and rogue reptiles, the ferocious beauty of the river carries a darker undercurrent, and an unexpected guest: a murderer in their midst.
When a fellow traveler is found dead and another corpse hits the water, the rafting trip flips from idyllic sister vacation to high-stakes murder investigation. Every suspect has a secret, every clue is drenched in mystery, and Liv and Mandy can hardly trust each other, let alone their own instincts. With the river raging and danger around every bend, the Chisholm sisters must work together to catch a killer—and keep their relationship from capsizing—before it’s too late.
Thank you Nina Simon and William Morrow for complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
PUB DATE: August 18, 2026
Content warning: murder, death, violence
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Liv and Mandy are on their annual sisters' trip, this time, as invited guests for a new product launch, "Essence Quest." But everything starts going wrong, and when people start dying, Liv and Mandy need to figure out who the murderer is before it's too late.
I loved Nina Simon's last book and was really looking forward to this. But while it was fun, I had several problems with the premise.
The Essence Quest, and the whole worship of the company CEO, Babette, was just bizarre. Maybe I'm out of touch, but the "goddess" thing seemed very unrealistic. Ditto for the strange way she didn't seem to know who her funder was? How would that ever really happen? Or that someone so successful was getting investment advice from a down-and-out criminal when she could have hired anyone? All of these things pulled me out of what could have been a good story because they didn't make sense.
More than that, I didn't really like Liv or Mandy, who were both caricatures of their proclaimed styles; Liv was boring, and Mandy was a selfish airhead.
What saved the rating was the end. I didn't see it coming, even though looking back, the clues were all there. It was still strange, though, and unrealistic, like the rest of the book.
This is an outlier review, and I'm glad other readers are really enjoying it!
Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Nina Simon for the opportunity to review an advanced copy.
I loved Nina Simon's last book and was really looking forward to this. But while it was fun, I had several problems with the premise.
The Essence Quest, and the whole worship of the company CEO, Babette, was just bizarre. Maybe I'm out of touch, but the "goddess" thing seemed very unrealistic. Ditto for the strange way she didn't seem to know who her funder was? How would that ever really happen? Or that someone so successful was getting investment advice from a down-and-out criminal when she could have hired anyone? All of these things pulled me out of what could have been a good story because they didn't make sense.
More than that, I didn't really like Liv or Mandy, who were both caricatures of their proclaimed styles; Liv was boring, and Mandy was a selfish airhead.
What saved the rating was the end. I didn't see it coming, even though looking back, the clues were all there. It was still strange, though, and unrealistic, like the rest of the book.
This is an outlier review, and I'm glad other readers are really enjoying it!
Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Nina Simon for the opportunity to review an advanced copy.
August 10, 2026
I was really looking forward to reading this one, I had seen such great reviews for the authors previous book that I haven’t read yet.
This book wasn’t what I was hoping for. It more of a slow burn mystery, with most of the action in the second half of the book. The main thing that I struggled with were the characters. They were all very annoying and unlikeable. It was starting to get a little silly, the influencer and I have to say Mandy were the worst. They were just too over the top for me. Liv was the more sensible sister but she was just dull.
What I did enjoy was the scenery of the rapids and the Grand Canyon. I loved reading about where they were, I just wanted the people to be a bit more interesting.
Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book to read.
This book wasn’t what I was hoping for. It more of a slow burn mystery, with most of the action in the second half of the book. The main thing that I struggled with were the characters. They were all very annoying and unlikeable. It was starting to get a little silly, the influencer and I have to say Mandy were the worst. They were just too over the top for me. Liv was the more sensible sister but she was just dull.
What I did enjoy was the scenery of the rapids and the Grand Canyon. I loved reading about where they were, I just wanted the people to be a bit more interesting.
Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book to read.
September 25, 2026
I read Nina Simon’s first novel - “Mother-Daughter Murder Night” – back in 2024 and found it to be an enjoyable worthy read. It left me looking forward to reading her next book.
Now in 2026, her follow-up – “My Sister is Going to Kill Me” is out and I have just finished reading her second standalone mystery novel. Needless to say, it has left me with the same positive afterglow as
Where her first novel focused on the relationship of a grandmother-mother-daughter, this one focuses on the relationships between sisters and the bonds they share.
“My Sister is Going to Kill Me” is another Simon cozy style mystery that centers around the family relationships of two sisters – Liv Chisholm, the older and responsible one, and Mandy, the younger and much less responsible one. Liv works for the U.S. government as an analyst/profiler who takes life seriously. Mandy is a school teacher who seeks adventure, always preferring to tell lies to make things more fun.
Although there are many ways in which they are opposites, they have a sacred tradition. Every year they take a sister trip together to bond and keep connected. Each year, one of them plans the trip and organizes their activities. This year it’s Mandy’s turn to pick the place and what they will experience, and she is full of spontaneous surprises that Liv doesn’t see coming.
This year Mandy has them scheduled for a lifetime adventure, a rafting trip on the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon. The two sisters will be part of a group of strangers taking on the whitewater rapids, sleeping under the stars without tents, avoiding dangerous snakes, and no access to any bathrooms. The good news is that those challenges will help ease their own personal trust issues and constant bickering with each other.
As the sisters mix with the others, it becomes clear to Liv pretty quickly that something doesn’t feel right. The other travelers are all part of an up and coming skin care company outing, including the founder, officers, employees, investors, and even an influencer. There seems to be tensions among the participants and underlying feelings of conflict, especially directed at the company’s founder, who has a fiery and aggressive personality towards things that upset her.
Liv cannot figure out how Mandy got them invitations to this sponsored event promoting the prelaunch of their newest product, Carefree. What is Mandy’s connection to this company? She’s not an employee and cannot be an investor on her teacher’s earnings. However, Mandy is refusing to share that information, keeping that a secret from her sister. Then Liz starts to realize that there’s something going on between the other travelers that isn’t right. There’s a tension between them, distrust, and one of them tells Liz that he is being threatened and his fear seems authentic.
Things get worse when one of the participants is found dead, flipping the raft trip from a thrilling vacation to a crime scene. Liz and Mandy are forced to stop fighting with each other and investigating a murder to find a killer among their own group… Will the Chisholm sisters make it out of the Grand Canyon alive or will they be the next victims…
There were some good things that I enjoyed in Simon’s second novel, starting with the relationship between the two sisters, Liv and Mandy. Their history, personalities, and interactions pulled me into the story from the beginning and kept me going during the first third of the novel while the author set-up the rest of the characters, conflict, and mysteries.
The other interesting element was the setting, atmosphere, and circumstances. Placing a murder mystery during a rafting trip through the Grand Canyon provided a lot of promise and potential for amplifying the mystery and physical challenges for the characters. I found the use of whitewater rapids, deadly snakes and animals, and roughing it in nature to provide even more danger for the characters, who were all pretty much lost and dependent on their guides to survive at all. For me, it was good use of the surroundings by Simon.
However, I unfortunately found that the dysfunctional sister relationship and location were not strong enough to really care me through the latter half of the book. I struggled with several other aspects of this book, including some that I considered to be strengths in her first novel. Let me touch on a few as gently as I can.
Outside of the sisters, the rest of the characters were not very likeable, and most of them downright annoying. I even lost interest in them on pretty much any kind of personal level. After the first half of the book, I just started blurring each of them together. It didn’t help that it took a long time for the mystery to be established, and even longer before the murder victim to show-up. Too long in set-up and too long before the mystery elements really kicked in. In addition, the middle part of the book was spent running around all over the place without much development of the mystery itself, and then it was only during the last seventy pages or so that the history, information, and clues to really solve for the killer was shared. I really had to slog through the last hundred pages or so, and by the time the killer was revealed, I hate to say it, but I didn’t really care anymore. I just wanted to finish the book.
Overall, I wished that I had enjoyed this one more, especially after looking forward to it so much. There were some good moments, but those were offset by weaknesses that I shared. For me this felt like an Ann Ware novel – female lead character, interesting setting, a mystery and/or murder to solve, and lots of tension and suspense. Only this one never really provided the tension and suspense that it was hoping too. Unfortunately, It came off as kind of meh for me. I certainly hope that you enjoy it more than I did and wish you the best in doing so.
My score is 2.5 stars out of 5, and yes, Goodreads makes me round up or down. I’ll go with up to be kind.
Now in 2026, her follow-up – “My Sister is Going to Kill Me” is out and I have just finished reading her second standalone mystery novel. Needless to say, it has left me with the same positive afterglow as
Where her first novel focused on the relationship of a grandmother-mother-daughter, this one focuses on the relationships between sisters and the bonds they share.
“My Sister is Going to Kill Me” is another Simon cozy style mystery that centers around the family relationships of two sisters – Liv Chisholm, the older and responsible one, and Mandy, the younger and much less responsible one. Liv works for the U.S. government as an analyst/profiler who takes life seriously. Mandy is a school teacher who seeks adventure, always preferring to tell lies to make things more fun.
Although there are many ways in which they are opposites, they have a sacred tradition. Every year they take a sister trip together to bond and keep connected. Each year, one of them plans the trip and organizes their activities. This year it’s Mandy’s turn to pick the place and what they will experience, and she is full of spontaneous surprises that Liv doesn’t see coming.
This year Mandy has them scheduled for a lifetime adventure, a rafting trip on the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon. The two sisters will be part of a group of strangers taking on the whitewater rapids, sleeping under the stars without tents, avoiding dangerous snakes, and no access to any bathrooms. The good news is that those challenges will help ease their own personal trust issues and constant bickering with each other.
As the sisters mix with the others, it becomes clear to Liv pretty quickly that something doesn’t feel right. The other travelers are all part of an up and coming skin care company outing, including the founder, officers, employees, investors, and even an influencer. There seems to be tensions among the participants and underlying feelings of conflict, especially directed at the company’s founder, who has a fiery and aggressive personality towards things that upset her.
Liv cannot figure out how Mandy got them invitations to this sponsored event promoting the prelaunch of their newest product, Carefree. What is Mandy’s connection to this company? She’s not an employee and cannot be an investor on her teacher’s earnings. However, Mandy is refusing to share that information, keeping that a secret from her sister. Then Liz starts to realize that there’s something going on between the other travelers that isn’t right. There’s a tension between them, distrust, and one of them tells Liz that he is being threatened and his fear seems authentic.
Things get worse when one of the participants is found dead, flipping the raft trip from a thrilling vacation to a crime scene. Liz and Mandy are forced to stop fighting with each other and investigating a murder to find a killer among their own group… Will the Chisholm sisters make it out of the Grand Canyon alive or will they be the next victims…
There were some good things that I enjoyed in Simon’s second novel, starting with the relationship between the two sisters, Liv and Mandy. Their history, personalities, and interactions pulled me into the story from the beginning and kept me going during the first third of the novel while the author set-up the rest of the characters, conflict, and mysteries.
The other interesting element was the setting, atmosphere, and circumstances. Placing a murder mystery during a rafting trip through the Grand Canyon provided a lot of promise and potential for amplifying the mystery and physical challenges for the characters. I found the use of whitewater rapids, deadly snakes and animals, and roughing it in nature to provide even more danger for the characters, who were all pretty much lost and dependent on their guides to survive at all. For me, it was good use of the surroundings by Simon.
However, I unfortunately found that the dysfunctional sister relationship and location were not strong enough to really care me through the latter half of the book. I struggled with several other aspects of this book, including some that I considered to be strengths in her first novel. Let me touch on a few as gently as I can.
Outside of the sisters, the rest of the characters were not very likeable, and most of them downright annoying. I even lost interest in them on pretty much any kind of personal level. After the first half of the book, I just started blurring each of them together. It didn’t help that it took a long time for the mystery to be established, and even longer before the murder victim to show-up. Too long in set-up and too long before the mystery elements really kicked in. In addition, the middle part of the book was spent running around all over the place without much development of the mystery itself, and then it was only during the last seventy pages or so that the history, information, and clues to really solve for the killer was shared. I really had to slog through the last hundred pages or so, and by the time the killer was revealed, I hate to say it, but I didn’t really care anymore. I just wanted to finish the book.
Overall, I wished that I had enjoyed this one more, especially after looking forward to it so much. There were some good moments, but those were offset by weaknesses that I shared. For me this felt like an Ann Ware novel – female lead character, interesting setting, a mystery and/or murder to solve, and lots of tension and suspense. Only this one never really provided the tension and suspense that it was hoping too. Unfortunately, It came off as kind of meh for me. I certainly hope that you enjoy it more than I did and wish you the best in doing so.
My score is 2.5 stars out of 5, and yes, Goodreads makes me round up or down. I’ll go with up to be kind.
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August 4, 2026The title completely fooled me. I was expecting an immersive, tension-filled thriller, but this ended up being a very slow burn mystery that I never connected with. The plot felt overstuffed, trying to balance murder, corporate intrigue, family drama, and survival all at once. Because of that, the sister relationship, which I thought would be the heart of the story, got lost in everything else. I kept waiting for the tension to build, but it never really did. However, the two things I did enjoy were the title and the audiobook narration. Even though this one wasn’t for me, I’m grateful to HarperAudio Adult for the advance copy in exchange for my honest opinion. (Audio)
August 26, 2026
It was too much talk of the skincare corporation. It's hard to get through. The reveal at the end was good, but you had to force yourself to get there.
August 20, 2026
Everyone on the Essence Quest is handed a white ball cap with a silver logo on the crown, and for the first days on the river those caps stay exactly as blank as they look. Then Colorado silt works into the cotton, mud settles into the places where the weave sits raised, and the white thread stitched into white fabric finally has something to hold on to. Each hat turns out to have been carrying a private sentence the entire time, addressed to whoever happened to be wearing it. That trick is a fair advertisement for My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon: a mystery that hides its worst news in plain sight and then waits for the weather to develop it.
The setup is a freebie with strings. Babette Botanique, a skincare company on the verge of launching a mood-altering product called CareFree, has organised an influencer expedition down the lower Grand Canyon and comped two spots. Liv and Mandy Chisholm take them for their tenth annual sister trip. Fourteen days on the water. No phones. No road out. The founder is supposed to drop in by helicopter on the second morning, and she does not.
Two Sisters and One Polygraph
Liv Chisholm works for the State Department, where her specific talent is reading people for deception, and she has built an entire personality on the principle of never lying herself. Mandy teaches high school art and lies the way other people clear their throats: constantly, harmlessly, mostly to make the room a pleasanter place to stand in. They love each other with the specific exhaustion of siblings who have been running the same argument since childhood.
My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon alternates their chapters, and the alternation is not decoration. It is the plot. Liv interrogates; Mandy charms. Liv can tell that someone is lying and cannot get them to talk. Mandy can get anyone to talk and has no idea what to do with what they say. The book's cleverest structural decision is to separate them physically for a long central stretch, so that each sister has to attempt the other one's method with no coaching, badly, and then live with the results.
By the closing chapters of My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon, the accumulated case has been assembled from both halves, and neither half would have been sufficient. That is a great deal more craft than the breezy cover suggests.
What Works
The canyon is a location, not a backdrop. Eddies, scout lines, the physics of a raft pinned sideways against a boulder, why rafting without a personal flotation device is both illegal and idiotic. Simon has clearly been down this river, and the acknowledgments confirm it, along with a candid note about the three geographic liberties she took.
The wellness satire has actual teeth. CareFree is derived from a plant, and the plant has a waste product, and the waste product has to be disposed of by somebody. The novel is funny about eye cream and completely unsentimental about supply chains.
The comedy is load-bearing. A river guide in a self-processed sheepskin loincloth. A teenager building an emergency flotation belt out of branded water bottles and paracord. Paddles improvised from camping chairs and a cast-iron skillet. The jokes keep working because the danger underneath them never softens.
The clue placement is honest. Almost everything the ending needs has been on the page for two hundred pages, usually disguised as scenery or small talk.
Where It Strains
The suspect pool is bigger than My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon can properly feed. Three siblings from the founding family, a fired dermatologist, a marketing lead, an influencer, a chaperone, four guides and a gatecrashing relative. Several of them get one distinguishing trait and are then parked until required.
The solution runs on improvisation. A great deal of the plan collapses early and is rebuilt on the fly, and the novel is upfront about this, which is honest but does soften the pleasure of a scheme clicking shut.
Motive arrives by paperwork. The why of the case is genuinely good and genuinely nasty, and it is delivered almost entirely across two conversations conducted over a contract folder in the heat.
The con-man father is a type. Charming, unreliable, allergic to the police, always one deal away. He is enjoyable, and he never surprises you.
Why My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon Will Not Stay Locked
Locked-room mysteries usually depend on the room staying locked. Simon's canyon does the opposite. It keeps opening. Boats are stolen, groups split, a party goes downstream while another stays behind with a body, and the geography that isolates everybody also keeps rearranging who is isolated with whom. The Park Service is candid that a Grand Canyon whitewater trip is a serious wilderness commitment rather than a theme-park ride, and the novel takes that seriously enough to make the logistics of a murder investigation genuinely difficult. There is no coroner. There is no evidence bag. And there is a tarp, a shovel improvised from a broken chair, and a decision about whether to commit a federal crime before lunch.
That constraint produces the best sustained sequence in My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon, in which the investigation and the survival problem become the same problem, and every question Liv wants to ask costs her river miles she cannot get back.
Who My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon Is For
Reach for it if you liked the amateur-sleuth warmth of Simon's debut and want the same voice with a harder edge. Reach for it if you want a mystery where the sleuthing pair actually have a relationship rather than a dynamic. And reach for it if you want to be outdoors.
Skip it if you need a tightly cast puzzle where every suspect is fully realised, or if you want a coldly rational detective, because My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon is deliberately about the limits of that posture.
The Last Word on My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon
My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon delivers a generous, propulsive, slightly overpopulated mystery with an excellent central pair and a motive that is much colder than the packaging implies. The plotting is fair, the setting is earned, and the ending lands a final line that reframes eight hundred miles of argument in five words.
Simon has written a book about two women who have spent thirty years accusing each other of being the difficult one. Its real argument is that a family gets to keep both the liar and the lie detector, because sooner or later you will need whichever one you have been refusing to become.
The setup is a freebie with strings. Babette Botanique, a skincare company on the verge of launching a mood-altering product called CareFree, has organised an influencer expedition down the lower Grand Canyon and comped two spots. Liv and Mandy Chisholm take them for their tenth annual sister trip. Fourteen days on the water. No phones. No road out. The founder is supposed to drop in by helicopter on the second morning, and she does not.
Two Sisters and One Polygraph
Liv Chisholm works for the State Department, where her specific talent is reading people for deception, and she has built an entire personality on the principle of never lying herself. Mandy teaches high school art and lies the way other people clear their throats: constantly, harmlessly, mostly to make the room a pleasanter place to stand in. They love each other with the specific exhaustion of siblings who have been running the same argument since childhood.
My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon alternates their chapters, and the alternation is not decoration. It is the plot. Liv interrogates; Mandy charms. Liv can tell that someone is lying and cannot get them to talk. Mandy can get anyone to talk and has no idea what to do with what they say. The book's cleverest structural decision is to separate them physically for a long central stretch, so that each sister has to attempt the other one's method with no coaching, badly, and then live with the results.
By the closing chapters of My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon, the accumulated case has been assembled from both halves, and neither half would have been sufficient. That is a great deal more craft than the breezy cover suggests.
What Works
The canyon is a location, not a backdrop. Eddies, scout lines, the physics of a raft pinned sideways against a boulder, why rafting without a personal flotation device is both illegal and idiotic. Simon has clearly been down this river, and the acknowledgments confirm it, along with a candid note about the three geographic liberties she took.
The wellness satire has actual teeth. CareFree is derived from a plant, and the plant has a waste product, and the waste product has to be disposed of by somebody. The novel is funny about eye cream and completely unsentimental about supply chains.
The comedy is load-bearing. A river guide in a self-processed sheepskin loincloth. A teenager building an emergency flotation belt out of branded water bottles and paracord. Paddles improvised from camping chairs and a cast-iron skillet. The jokes keep working because the danger underneath them never softens.
The clue placement is honest. Almost everything the ending needs has been on the page for two hundred pages, usually disguised as scenery or small talk.
Where It Strains
The suspect pool is bigger than My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon can properly feed. Three siblings from the founding family, a fired dermatologist, a marketing lead, an influencer, a chaperone, four guides and a gatecrashing relative. Several of them get one distinguishing trait and are then parked until required.
The solution runs on improvisation. A great deal of the plan collapses early and is rebuilt on the fly, and the novel is upfront about this, which is honest but does soften the pleasure of a scheme clicking shut.
Motive arrives by paperwork. The why of the case is genuinely good and genuinely nasty, and it is delivered almost entirely across two conversations conducted over a contract folder in the heat.
The con-man father is a type. Charming, unreliable, allergic to the police, always one deal away. He is enjoyable, and he never surprises you.
Why My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon Will Not Stay Locked
Locked-room mysteries usually depend on the room staying locked. Simon's canyon does the opposite. It keeps opening. Boats are stolen, groups split, a party goes downstream while another stays behind with a body, and the geography that isolates everybody also keeps rearranging who is isolated with whom. The Park Service is candid that a Grand Canyon whitewater trip is a serious wilderness commitment rather than a theme-park ride, and the novel takes that seriously enough to make the logistics of a murder investigation genuinely difficult. There is no coroner. There is no evidence bag. And there is a tarp, a shovel improvised from a broken chair, and a decision about whether to commit a federal crime before lunch.
That constraint produces the best sustained sequence in My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon, in which the investigation and the survival problem become the same problem, and every question Liv wants to ask costs her river miles she cannot get back.
Who My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon Is For
Reach for it if you liked the amateur-sleuth warmth of Simon's debut and want the same voice with a harder edge. Reach for it if you want a mystery where the sleuthing pair actually have a relationship rather than a dynamic. And reach for it if you want to be outdoors.
Skip it if you need a tightly cast puzzle where every suspect is fully realised, or if you want a coldly rational detective, because My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon is deliberately about the limits of that posture.
The Last Word on My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon
My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon delivers a generous, propulsive, slightly overpopulated mystery with an excellent central pair and a motive that is much colder than the packaging implies. The plotting is fair, the setting is earned, and the ending lands a final line that reframes eight hundred miles of argument in five words.
Simon has written a book about two women who have spent thirty years accusing each other of being the difficult one. Its real argument is that a family gets to keep both the liar and the lie detector, because sooner or later you will need whichever one you have been refusing to become.
September 3, 2026
Wild rafting ride on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.
Sisterly acceptance.
Stuck with strangers.
Is the killer among them and what’s the reason?
Fast paced.
Enjoy the adventure!
Sisterly acceptance.
Stuck with strangers.
Is the killer among them and what’s the reason?
Fast paced.
Enjoy the adventure!
August 23, 2026
I read Simon's Mother-Daughter Murder Night and really enjoyed it. I was excited for the opportunity to read her newest book. Unfortunately it just did not work for me.
I struggled to get through the first half and skimmed after. I couldn't connect with either of the 2 main characters. There were a lot of characters and they were all blending. There was a lot of influencer and skincare talk. It wasn't my cup of tea.
I want to thank NetGalley and William Morrow for the advance Kindle copy in exchange for an honest opinion.
I struggled to get through the first half and skimmed after. I couldn't connect with either of the 2 main characters. There were a lot of characters and they were all blending. There was a lot of influencer and skincare talk. It wasn't my cup of tea.
I want to thank NetGalley and William Morrow for the advance Kindle copy in exchange for an honest opinion.
September 14, 2026
Let’s take a river rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. Adventure, suspense, and of course murder all takes place in My Sister is Going to Kill Me. I couldn’t put this book down and it grabbed my attention from the very first page. I couldn’t wait to see how it was going to end and I did not guess it even though I had solved it in my head. The cover captured my attention also.
September 3, 2026
2.5⭐️ 🎧book
Two sisters with polar opposite personalities meet up annually for a sisters trip. This time it’s white water rafting through the Grand Canyon - only it’s not just a sisters trip, it’s actually a corporate retreat for an exclusive skincare/health & wellness company. Dead bodies start appearing and the members of the retreat all point fingers at one another.
At many points I contemplated DNFing but my curiosity about how it would all end got the best of me. Overall this was a really slow burn, lots of characters to keep track of (none very likable), and way too much talk about skincare products.
I went into this one blind - in hindsight I should’ve skipped it.
Two sisters with polar opposite personalities meet up annually for a sisters trip. This time it’s white water rafting through the Grand Canyon - only it’s not just a sisters trip, it’s actually a corporate retreat for an exclusive skincare/health & wellness company. Dead bodies start appearing and the members of the retreat all point fingers at one another.
At many points I contemplated DNFing but my curiosity about how it would all end got the best of me. Overall this was a really slow burn, lots of characters to keep track of (none very likable), and way too much talk about skincare products.
I went into this one blind - in hindsight I should’ve skipped it.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you William Morrow for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
I enjoyed this breezy whodunnit. Although I read it in print, there are a few things about it that would make it good as an audiobook - there are only about a dozen characters to keep straight and most of the chapters are propulsive, which for me is always a better listen than meditative prose.
This book is light reading. Think summer vacation reading. The characters are mostly different stereotypes and don’t get any more nuanced. While there is a little bit of a deeper message about the sisters discovering each other’s strengths, it’s really more of a romp. I had fun with it and think if you enjoy plot-focused mysteries and thrillers you will too.
The one thing I struggled with was that we hear over and over that Mandy is a liar, see her lie, and are still expected to like her as a protagonist, and even grow to consider it a strength. This part didn’t really work for me and I thought it made Mandy unlikable, when she was otherwise a fun character. It was a lot easier to understand and root for Liv.
Overall, a good summer read when you are looking for a an easy read in an outdoorsy setting that moves along at a brisk pace.
I enjoyed this breezy whodunnit. Although I read it in print, there are a few things about it that would make it good as an audiobook - there are only about a dozen characters to keep straight and most of the chapters are propulsive, which for me is always a better listen than meditative prose.
This book is light reading. Think summer vacation reading. The characters are mostly different stereotypes and don’t get any more nuanced. While there is a little bit of a deeper message about the sisters discovering each other’s strengths, it’s really more of a romp. I had fun with it and think if you enjoy plot-focused mysteries and thrillers you will too.
The one thing I struggled with was that we hear over and over that Mandy is a liar, see her lie, and are still expected to like her as a protagonist, and even grow to consider it a strength. This part didn’t really work for me and I thought it made Mandy unlikable, when she was otherwise a fun character. It was a lot easier to understand and root for Liv.
Overall, a good summer read when you are looking for a an easy read in an outdoorsy setting that moves along at a brisk pace.
Read
July 14, 2026I am finding many of my summer mystery/suspense books hard to rate because they have such dramatic pros and cons.
The pros of My Sister is Going to Kill Me: a fun premise with two sisters who are total opposites taking a rafting trip tougher that turns into an "And Then There Were None" situation. A fantastic Grand Canyon setting. A creative means of murder.
The cons: Too many characters (I had to make a list to keep them straight) and too little time developing them to help me keep them straight. Too much time explaining a mysterious character we never actually meet (an Anita Roddick-style beautypreneur who is launching a new product). A convoluted motive.
It makes me glad I have never done star ratings because ...???????
Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review!
The pros of My Sister is Going to Kill Me: a fun premise with two sisters who are total opposites taking a rafting trip tougher that turns into an "And Then There Were None" situation. A fantastic Grand Canyon setting. A creative means of murder.
The cons: Too many characters (I had to make a list to keep them straight) and too little time developing them to help me keep them straight. Too much time explaining a mysterious character we never actually meet (an Anita Roddick-style beautypreneur who is launching a new product). A convoluted motive.
It makes me glad I have never done star ratings because ...???????
Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I’m sorry I didn’t like this book better, because I enjoyed the author's first book, and she lives in my area. But this one was kind of a mess. Mandy and Liv are going on their annual sisters’ trip, this time white water rafting in the Grand Canyon. From the beginning, there was something suspicious about all the guests and their relationships with each other. They all turned out to be invited guests for the product launch of a new skin care line. For me, there were too many characters to keep track of and too much information about influencers and skin care. I skimmed ahead to find out who died, then jumped to the end to find out who’d done it. Thank-you to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Nina Simon for the ARC of this title.
July 11, 2026
Thank you to #WilliamMorrow and #NetGalley for the digital ARC of #MySisterIsGoingToKillMe. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
This was a good "keep you guessing" mystery set in the Grand Canyon. Sisters Liv and Maddie couldn't be more different from each other. Liv is sensible and grounded, an analyst for the state department. Maddie is a free spirit, always chasing her latest whim. For this years annual sisters trip, they'll be rafting down the Colorado River with a group of people as part of an "essence quest", a pre-launch for a new product from Babette's Botanique. Things go awry pretty quickly and it's clear everyone on this trip is hiding something. Liv and Maddie have to rely on each other and their different strengths to stay alive and figure out who the killer is.
This is turning out to be "sibling summer" for me and I'm enjoying it overall. This book was a fun addition to my other sibling reads.
This was a good "keep you guessing" mystery set in the Grand Canyon. Sisters Liv and Maddie couldn't be more different from each other. Liv is sensible and grounded, an analyst for the state department. Maddie is a free spirit, always chasing her latest whim. For this years annual sisters trip, they'll be rafting down the Colorado River with a group of people as part of an "essence quest", a pre-launch for a new product from Babette's Botanique. Things go awry pretty quickly and it's clear everyone on this trip is hiding something. Liv and Maddie have to rely on each other and their different strengths to stay alive and figure out who the killer is.
This is turning out to be "sibling summer" for me and I'm enjoying it overall. This book was a fun addition to my other sibling reads.
October 17, 2026
In this locked-room mystery set in the wilderness, two sisters’ yearly vacation takes an unexpected and deadly turn. Liv and Mandy are polar opposites. Liv—the older sister—is a practical, no-nonsense State Department profiler. Mandy is a chaotic, charming high school art teacher. It’s Mandy’s turn to pick the destination this year and she decides on on a river rafting and camping trip through the Grand Canyon… but things unravel with a death in their party. This is a very interesting premise, but sadly it didn’t engage me. There was too little character and relationship development and not enough plot momentum. The conclusion was interesting but a bit of a pain for me to get there. Thank you to Williams Morrow for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
August 19, 2026
This is well outside my usually reading but the title and cover had me double looking. I was not prepared for this story. The sister. Or the mystery. I did not guess this outcome. I honestly felt like I was strapped down in this raft and was kindly falling out the back. Every time I thought that I was getting pieces of the story enough to make a plot, Bam plot twist. This story follows two sisters that take a yearly trip together, that is typically enjoyable for one and traumatic for the other. Each year changing who picks. This years pick is a River Rafting Adventure. Now throw in one sister who is a pathological liar and the other who is regimented and strives for routine. Throw them in a raft group, with threats, suggestion, murder and working place espoionage happening all around. This rafting adventure is chaotic, it’s fast paced, it’s multiple POV, it’s all over the place and I LOVED IT. I couldn’t put it down. I was Immersive reading it, then would be blankly staring across the room while I listening. I couldn’t sleep. Wow just wow. This is my first book by Nina Simon and now i have to go and read Mother Daughter Murder Night. This narration was fantastic. Garbage Zackman did an epically good job. The voices, the switch from easy laugher to choaotic panic just came across so well. I knew who was talking, I knew each character by their unique pitch and tones. Just utterly amazing narration and story.
September 30, 2026
I hated everything about that. Everything. I genuinely feel like it made my week kind of unenjoyable. 😂 It was really hard to get through. Probably didn't help that I read it a few books after finishing a phenomenal thriller that takes place during a rafting trip by Noelle Ilhi.. Nina Simon never stood a chance.
Would sooner use this for kindling before recommending it to someone to read.
Would sooner use this for kindling before recommending it to someone to read.
September 6, 2026
A very solid 3⭐️ book. The book had a good mystery and I loved the setting but it took a while to get going. I think a ton of editing in the first half of the book would have helped. I mean the first murder didn’t even happen until halfway through the book. I loved Nina’s first book and didn’t hate this one. I’ll definitely give her another read.
September 19, 2026
This one didn’t work for me. Too little character development and too much of an action adventure. Didn’t connect or care.
October 9, 2026
Thank you, Nina Simon, for helping me to get through half of this year’s first round of essays! Your page-turner kept me going: grade x-number of essays = read x-number of pages. Now a I need another reward for the second half of essays!
September 8, 2026
I’m game for any book that involves the GC or rafting, which is why I picked this up. Wow, and that is not a good wow. There are mistakes, someone in two places at once. The mystery isn’t good. The plot is ridiculous. And no one behaves like these characters do and survives the GC, they should all be dead.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I just finished a wild ride on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon! Nina Simon's new mystery, My Sister is Going to Kill Me, is filled with more twists, turns, and wild rushes than a meandering river with major rapids. For the record, I loved Simon’s first mystery, Mother-Daughter Murder Night, with its depiction of three generations of strong female characters and their even stronger familial bonds. My Sister is Going to Kill Me also offers a great mystery that includes relatable relationships.
With her second novel, I was delighted by Simon’s writing style, her descriptive imagery—I mean, who could resist with the magnificent Grand Canyon as the setting?—and her playful use of metaphors. While I haven't rafted the Grand Canyon specifically, I have rafted other wild rivers enough to know that Simon describes the setting and action expertly. Her descriptions of the trip capture the feeling of being on 'river time': surrounded by nature and disconnected from the pace of city life. She nails the heart-racing thrill of digging in to avoid dangerous holes as the rapids become more frightening and the suspense builds.
This 'closed-circle' mystery keeps up the tension as we get glimpses into the theories and suspicions of our sleuths—Mandy, the free-spirited art teacher, plays Watson to her threat-assessment-profiler sister, Liv’s, Holmes. The introduction of additional characters who hike down to meet the rafting party thickens the plot. The sisters in My Sister is Going to Kill Me are uniquely different, yet they are each other's 'ride or die' best friends and confidants, much like my sister and I. I’m buying her a copy. Whether you love a good mystery, thrilling adventure, or family drama, you should read it too!
With her second novel, I was delighted by Simon’s writing style, her descriptive imagery—I mean, who could resist with the magnificent Grand Canyon as the setting?—and her playful use of metaphors. While I haven't rafted the Grand Canyon specifically, I have rafted other wild rivers enough to know that Simon describes the setting and action expertly. Her descriptions of the trip capture the feeling of being on 'river time': surrounded by nature and disconnected from the pace of city life. She nails the heart-racing thrill of digging in to avoid dangerous holes as the rapids become more frightening and the suspense builds.
This 'closed-circle' mystery keeps up the tension as we get glimpses into the theories and suspicions of our sleuths—Mandy, the free-spirited art teacher, plays Watson to her threat-assessment-profiler sister, Liv’s, Holmes. The introduction of additional characters who hike down to meet the rafting party thickens the plot. The sisters in My Sister is Going to Kill Me are uniquely different, yet they are each other's 'ride or die' best friends and confidants, much like my sister and I. I’m buying her a copy. Whether you love a good mystery, thrilling adventure, or family drama, you should read it too!
August 19, 2026
Having survived another nail-biting whitewater rafting trip with a serial killer adventure, “The Last to Drown” by Noelle Ihli, earlier this summer, I found myself signed up for another fast-paced isolated canyon expedition with Nina Simon’s “My Sister Is Going to Kill Me.” Yes, it is possible to have two 5 star thrillers embracing a similar situation. Simon, who gained fame with her debut daughter/mother/grandmother murder mystery “Mother-Daughter Murder Night,” examines the often more fragile sibling relationship of competitive sisters.
We have:
Liv, 34, a State Department investigator/profiler, is the calm, sensible sister; and Mandy, 31, described as a bedazzled, human tumbleweed and chaos monkey, is also a creative unrepentant liar like her con-man father, plus a high school art teacher. Her mantra: “we’ll figure it out when we get there.” Thanks to the police not being able to trace a huge pile of money from their imprisoned dad’s ill-gotten gains (the feds said they could keep it), the sisters have an annual travel fund/ nest egg while he went to prison for insider trading and tax evasion.
A rafting trip requires a large cast of fellow thrill-seekers (with at least one blood-thirsty participant) so it’s necessary to keep track of 10 guests, and 3 guides (it wasn’t as difficult as I anticipated).
We are initiated into a corporate bonding trip rather than a private fun expedition (Liv is just a plus-one). Supposedly it’s the launch of “Essence Quest” for Care-Free, an elite skin care line, owned by a cult-like woman, Babette, a goddess to her employees and investors (Liv, however, isn’t buying into that).
So, it’s
Liv and Mandy (free trip for Mandy, the super-fan)
Charlie, Devon, Babette (the Babette Botanique wellness empire siblings)
PK (Babette’s assistant)
Dr. Fiona and Stefan (roles to be explained later)
Imogen and Lucinda, the chosen new influencer with her grandma chaperone
Plus the Wild Adventures staff, Thor, Marc (mule guy), and Katy, plus Big Pete, the boatman.
We get treated to inspirational marketing themes like “‘Inside every woman lives a wild animal. Our company exists to free her.” The skin care stuff contains such goodies like Uruguayan snail slime (it’s actually a real skin care ingredient just like salmon semen). But this trip will reveal a new SECRET INGREDIENT! Liv, the outsider, starts to examine the group dynamics, and sure enough, something isn’t right and could be downright murderous.
The sisterly banter is terrific even if the plot goes off the rails at times. Yet, it’s engaging and without any possible communication to the outside world for days, we float along for miles and miles wondering about bad guys and motives. Totally engaging and worth the adventure. I’m not sure you’ll be inspired to do such a trip (the author and her sister did), but living it vicariously through the characters was terrifying enough. 5 stars!
Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO The sisters have brown eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): YES “It’s about transforming wild plants into healing magic.” Sure. Anyway, prickly (jumping) cholla does not grow on beaches; the moist soil causes their roots to rot. Poisonous Datura (angel’s trumpet) flowers are primarily pollinated by large nocturnal hawkmoths (sphinx moths), not bats (a common misconception but it’s a cool story).
Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy.
We have:
Liv, 34, a State Department investigator/profiler, is the calm, sensible sister; and Mandy, 31, described as a bedazzled, human tumbleweed and chaos monkey, is also a creative unrepentant liar like her con-man father, plus a high school art teacher. Her mantra: “we’ll figure it out when we get there.” Thanks to the police not being able to trace a huge pile of money from their imprisoned dad’s ill-gotten gains (the feds said they could keep it), the sisters have an annual travel fund/ nest egg while he went to prison for insider trading and tax evasion.
A rafting trip requires a large cast of fellow thrill-seekers (with at least one blood-thirsty participant) so it’s necessary to keep track of 10 guests, and 3 guides (it wasn’t as difficult as I anticipated).
We are initiated into a corporate bonding trip rather than a private fun expedition (Liv is just a plus-one). Supposedly it’s the launch of “Essence Quest” for Care-Free, an elite skin care line, owned by a cult-like woman, Babette, a goddess to her employees and investors (Liv, however, isn’t buying into that).
So, it’s
Liv and Mandy (free trip for Mandy, the super-fan)
Charlie, Devon, Babette (the Babette Botanique wellness empire siblings)
PK (Babette’s assistant)
Dr. Fiona and Stefan (roles to be explained later)
Imogen and Lucinda, the chosen new influencer with her grandma chaperone
Plus the Wild Adventures staff, Thor, Marc (mule guy), and Katy, plus Big Pete, the boatman.
We get treated to inspirational marketing themes like “‘Inside every woman lives a wild animal. Our company exists to free her.” The skin care stuff contains such goodies like Uruguayan snail slime (it’s actually a real skin care ingredient just like salmon semen). But this trip will reveal a new SECRET INGREDIENT! Liv, the outsider, starts to examine the group dynamics, and sure enough, something isn’t right and could be downright murderous.
The sisterly banter is terrific even if the plot goes off the rails at times. Yet, it’s engaging and without any possible communication to the outside world for days, we float along for miles and miles wondering about bad guys and motives. Totally engaging and worth the adventure. I’m not sure you’ll be inspired to do such a trip (the author and her sister did), but living it vicariously through the characters was terrifying enough. 5 stars!
Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO The sisters have brown eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): YES “It’s about transforming wild plants into healing magic.” Sure. Anyway, prickly (jumping) cholla does not grow on beaches; the moist soil causes their roots to rot. Poisonous Datura (angel’s trumpet) flowers are primarily pollinated by large nocturnal hawkmoths (sphinx moths), not bats (a common misconception but it’s a cool story).
Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
My Sister is Going to Kill Me is Nina Simon’s version of the locked-room mystery, but it’s so much more fun than a locked room. Sisters Liv and Mandy take annual “sister trips” using some inheritance money, even though they are like oil and water when it comes to the actual trip planning. Liv is a federal agent, a profiler, which stands her in good stead when she’s creating detailed itineraries but not so much when the boundaries keep changing, Mandy is the opposite: a spontaneous good time gal who attracts friends like flies. This year, Mandy has convinced Liv to book a Grand Canyon River trip. The dynamic between the sisters and the other members of the expedition play out during the first half of the story, until they discover a dead body. The killer is likely one of them, but there is no easy or fast way to leave the Canyon or communicate to the outside world.
A big part of the story revolves around a company that has just developed a cream that acts like a light hallucinogen. It turns out that the trip is not filled with random guests, but with people who have a personal relationship with the company and its eccentric, charismatic CEO, Babette (Mandy is an investor). When they start getting threatening messages, the mystery begins, and quickly escalates once the body is found.
I loved this book for so many reasons: the interesting premise, the character dynamics, the twisty mystery, and the Grand Canyon itself, which is pretty much the main character. The descriptions of the Canyon, especially scenes that talk about its inherent dangers, add a layer of added intensity. The canyon is beautiful but not to be messed with,
I loved Simon’s last book, Mother Daughter Murder Night, and this one is even better. Nina Simon is a skilled storyteller and I can’t wait to read more of her work, thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advance reader’s copy. All my opinions are my own.
A big part of the story revolves around a company that has just developed a cream that acts like a light hallucinogen. It turns out that the trip is not filled with random guests, but with people who have a personal relationship with the company and its eccentric, charismatic CEO, Babette (Mandy is an investor). When they start getting threatening messages, the mystery begins, and quickly escalates once the body is found.
I loved this book for so many reasons: the interesting premise, the character dynamics, the twisty mystery, and the Grand Canyon itself, which is pretty much the main character. The descriptions of the Canyon, especially scenes that talk about its inherent dangers, add a layer of added intensity. The canyon is beautiful but not to be messed with,
I loved Simon’s last book, Mother Daughter Murder Night, and this one is even better. Nina Simon is a skilled storyteller and I can’t wait to read more of her work, thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advance reader’s copy. All my opinions are my own.
August 19, 2026
Thank you to the publisher for a gifted copy; all thoughts are my own.
📖 Book Review 📖 A rafting trip through the Grand Canyon always sounds like beautiful time and a wildly fun adventure, definitely not one where any number of things could go wrong and kill you. Wild rapids, scorpions, and falls from heights come to most minds but if you love true crime or thrillers, murder is always lurking on that list. And for sisters Liv and Mandy, this annual trip is one they will never forget…and it’s not just the stunning landscape.
My Sister Is Going to Kill Me is a fun end of the summer read that makes it a smidge easier to say goodbye to the long days and unscheduled fun and hello to reality. Nina Simon creates quite a cast of characters, centered around sisters, who are about as opposite as can be, and yet equally unprepared for this trip as one could be. The adventures are wild, the relationships are relatable, and the psychological terror is real; all combining forces for one fast-paced read.
📖 Book Review 📖 A rafting trip through the Grand Canyon always sounds like beautiful time and a wildly fun adventure, definitely not one where any number of things could go wrong and kill you. Wild rapids, scorpions, and falls from heights come to most minds but if you love true crime or thrillers, murder is always lurking on that list. And for sisters Liv and Mandy, this annual trip is one they will never forget…and it’s not just the stunning landscape.
My Sister Is Going to Kill Me is a fun end of the summer read that makes it a smidge easier to say goodbye to the long days and unscheduled fun and hello to reality. Nina Simon creates quite a cast of characters, centered around sisters, who are about as opposite as can be, and yet equally unprepared for this trip as one could be. The adventures are wild, the relationships are relatable, and the psychological terror is real; all combining forces for one fast-paced read.
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