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Sisters
She went to Crete to find her missing sister, what she found will tear her life apart.
A few words on a postcard from Crete concerning her younger sister, and Greta Maitland's world starts spinning out of control: `Sorry to tell you this but Xanthe has been missing since May. Police informed but have found no trace...'
In Crete, determined to continue the stalled investigation Greta runs up against a wall of deceptions. Who can she trust? The Cretan police officer deliberately mistranslates her questions; Xanthe's Cretan lover lies ... more and more disturbing facts emerge about her sister. And Greta's growing suspicions about her husband seem confirmed.
With only Xanthe's damaged artist's journal and paintings as potential clues, and earthquakes threatening, Greta must discover the extraordinary events that have led to her sister's disappearance. But can her marriage survive such betrayal? And can Greta herself survive the earthquakes, both emotional and physical, that Crete demands of her?
A few words on a postcard from Crete concerning her younger sister, and Greta Maitland's world starts spinning out of control: `Sorry to tell you this but Xanthe has been missing since May. Police informed but have found no trace...'
In Crete, determined to continue the stalled investigation Greta runs up against a wall of deceptions. Who can she trust? The Cretan police officer deliberately mistranslates her questions; Xanthe's Cretan lover lies ... more and more disturbing facts emerge about her sister. And Greta's growing suspicions about her husband seem confirmed.
With only Xanthe's damaged artist's journal and paintings as potential clues, and earthquakes threatening, Greta must discover the extraordinary events that have led to her sister's disappearance. But can her marriage survive such betrayal? And can Greta herself survive the earthquakes, both emotional and physical, that Crete demands of her?
400 pages, Paperback
First published March 12, 2019
5 people are currently reading
493 people want to read
About the author
Gabrielle Lord
108 books239 followersGabrielle Craig Lord is an Australian writer who has been described as Australia's first lady of crime.
She survived being ‘razed’ by the nuns, acquired an education despite this, and after working in many different areas, sales, teaching, brick-cleaning, peach-picking and packing, and in the Public Service as an employment officer, started writing seriously aged 30.
Her first two manuscripts ended up composting the tomatoes at her market garden – another attempt to make a living – but the third one FORTRESS was picked up internationally and made into a feature film starring Rachel Ward. A later novel WHIPPING BOY was made into a telemovie starring Sigrid Thornton. The film rights money, coinciding with her daughter leaving school, allowed Gabrielle to resign and instead of getting up at 4.30am and writing for several hours before heading off for work, she could write full-time and lead a more ‘normal’ writer’s life – hanging around with scientists and detectives, badgering forensic anthropologists (she studied some Anatomy at Sydney university) and doing work experience with a busy private security business and of course, writing.
Research is everything, she says. ‘Out of my contacts with experts (who are always far too modest to describe themselves that way) I get not only the fine-tuning necessary for today’s savvy readers, but also wonderful incidents and images that enrich and enlarge my books.’
Gabrielle’s interests are very simple. ‘After a misspent youth, I don’t have many brain cells left so I enjoy walking, meditation, singing, gardening, chatting with close friends, being with my family and grandkids, feeding my goldfish and keeping up to date with bodywork and enlightened psychotherapy.’
Gabrielle has now written fourteen adult novels and a novel for young adults. Once the 12 books of Conspiracy 365 are completed, this tally will be a tad bigger! Following this mammoth endeavour she already has plans for another three adult novels and two more YAs.
2013
She survived being ‘razed’ by the nuns, acquired an education despite this, and after working in many different areas, sales, teaching, brick-cleaning, peach-picking and packing, and in the Public Service as an employment officer, started writing seriously aged 30.
Her first two manuscripts ended up composting the tomatoes at her market garden – another attempt to make a living – but the third one FORTRESS was picked up internationally and made into a feature film starring Rachel Ward. A later novel WHIPPING BOY was made into a telemovie starring Sigrid Thornton. The film rights money, coinciding with her daughter leaving school, allowed Gabrielle to resign and instead of getting up at 4.30am and writing for several hours before heading off for work, she could write full-time and lead a more ‘normal’ writer’s life – hanging around with scientists and detectives, badgering forensic anthropologists (she studied some Anatomy at Sydney university) and doing work experience with a busy private security business and of course, writing.
Research is everything, she says. ‘Out of my contacts with experts (who are always far too modest to describe themselves that way) I get not only the fine-tuning necessary for today’s savvy readers, but also wonderful incidents and images that enrich and enlarge my books.’
Gabrielle’s interests are very simple. ‘After a misspent youth, I don’t have many brain cells left so I enjoy walking, meditation, singing, gardening, chatting with close friends, being with my family and grandkids, feeding my goldfish and keeping up to date with bodywork and enlightened psychotherapy.’
Gabrielle has now written fourteen adult novels and a novel for young adults. Once the 12 books of Conspiracy 365 are completed, this tally will be a tad bigger! Following this mammoth endeavour she already has plans for another three adult novels and two more YAs.
2013
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 22, 2019
While there is plenty of mystery in this story, it is not crime fiction.
Greta's husband Magnus tells her that he has arranged a holiday for them on the French Riviera and almost immediately two things happen which throw those plans aside. First of all her mother, in the last stage of Alzheimers' dies; and then a postcard arrives telling her that her sister Xanthe who has been in Crete for three years is missing. Immmediately after her mother's funeral Greta flies out to Crete to look for her sister.
Almost immediately things back in Australia go awry. Magnus' career as Assistant Police Commissioner in New South Wales goes into jeopardy, he is unable to cope with his teenage daughter and young son, and Greta's publisher wants her next script.
In Crete Greta manages to find out what the police know about her sister's disappearance and she starts to look for clues about where she might be. On the phone from Australia her husband Magnus becomes increasingly angry and at the same time very distant.
So this is a mystery rather than crime fiction. I found it a difficult read sometimes, a bit too philosophical, and several times was on the verge of giving up.
In March this year Gabrielle Lord wrote
Sisters is finally making its way into the shops. It's been a long process, held up by unforeseen circumstances but now I'm hoping it goes out into the world and is well received. This is the worry time for writers. Will people like it? Will it be well reviewed? Will it sell? I'm hopeful that such a good story, well-researched --I lived in Crete for months in the northwest town of Kissamos where the story is set in order to get things right -- well, as right as a non-resident is able, with strong characters, facing difficult choices and often in some danger, create a novel which has been described as 'unputdownable'. Wilkinson publishing has been very supportive (thank you Jess!) and although it's been a 'difficult birth', the result makes me happy. I hope it'll bring the same satisfaction to all my readers.
I think maybe it was the depth of research that got in the way of my enjoyment. At times it read like a travelogue. But read it for yourself.
Greta's husband Magnus tells her that he has arranged a holiday for them on the French Riviera and almost immediately two things happen which throw those plans aside. First of all her mother, in the last stage of Alzheimers' dies; and then a postcard arrives telling her that her sister Xanthe who has been in Crete for three years is missing. Immmediately after her mother's funeral Greta flies out to Crete to look for her sister.
Almost immediately things back in Australia go awry. Magnus' career as Assistant Police Commissioner in New South Wales goes into jeopardy, he is unable to cope with his teenage daughter and young son, and Greta's publisher wants her next script.
In Crete Greta manages to find out what the police know about her sister's disappearance and she starts to look for clues about where she might be. On the phone from Australia her husband Magnus becomes increasingly angry and at the same time very distant.
So this is a mystery rather than crime fiction. I found it a difficult read sometimes, a bit too philosophical, and several times was on the verge of giving up.
In March this year Gabrielle Lord wrote
Sisters is finally making its way into the shops. It's been a long process, held up by unforeseen circumstances but now I'm hoping it goes out into the world and is well received. This is the worry time for writers. Will people like it? Will it be well reviewed? Will it sell? I'm hopeful that such a good story, well-researched --I lived in Crete for months in the northwest town of Kissamos where the story is set in order to get things right -- well, as right as a non-resident is able, with strong characters, facing difficult choices and often in some danger, create a novel which has been described as 'unputdownable'. Wilkinson publishing has been very supportive (thank you Jess!) and although it's been a 'difficult birth', the result makes me happy. I hope it'll bring the same satisfaction to all my readers.
I think maybe it was the depth of research that got in the way of my enjoyment. At times it read like a travelogue. But read it for yourself.
September 4, 2019
Nope - got halfway through and gave up. An incredibly slow read, characters with no depth that I simply could not connect with. I rarely leave a book unfinished, but this one was a snore.
January 27, 2020
An enjoyable and entertaining story.
May 20, 2019
I would have liked to have liked this novel more. It has all the elements I love – it is set in Crete, it has a central mystery (the younger sister of the narrator, Greta, has gone missing), a woman on her own, a quest to find answers as the mystery begins to draw in the narrator herself. The mystery is an intriguing one and Greta is torn between her responsibility towards finding her sister and problems with her own marriage as her disgruntled husband wants her to come back to Australia. Lord’s portrayal of a woman landing in a strange land and following clues, such as her artist sister’s diary, is very well done. Her depiction of Crete is evocative and richly described, and she capably ramps up the tension and mystery. The writing is fast-paced, almost breathless and some parts, such as the sister’s artistic and emotional visions, are quite stunning:
‘and then this soft silvery stream of something blissful started flowing out of my heart into the world … it looked a bit like a slow turning drill bit, or that silvery, twisting spiral that hovers over the plughole when the water is running out of the bath, a melting sweet something flowing out of me. It was so ravishingly tender that I never wanted it to stop. It vanished as soon as I tried to hold on to it.’Or,
‘That’s what it was like in my mind, as if all the spinning and confusion of my mind’s default state had slowed and all the scrambled thoughts, ideas, fears etc had come together in the way the tumbling pieces of a kaleidoscope become still and create a beautiful, symmetrical, peaceful jewelled pattern’.But, in the end, I felt there were just too many twists in the story, and because everything is shown through Greta’s point of view and compressed into a short period of time, there wasn’t enough space to inhabit the story more. While the central story is strong, the secondary one of Greta’s marriage is less so, and the several extra twists at the end were several twists too many for me.
March 11, 2019
When Greta Maitland leaves her husband and children to try to find her missing sister in Crete, she risks her own marriage as she is forced to confront the secrets of the past. Lord combines a beautiful evocation of the island with a fascinating blend of history and mystery as Greta follows in her sister Xanthe's footsteps, guided only by her interpretation of dreams, Xanthe's water-damaged notebook, and the people Greta meets in Crete who may - or may not - be telling her the truth. The secrets and lies Greta encounters lead her to the very worst conclusions, while the denouement came as a complete surprise. This is a wonderful read on so many different levels, exploring relationships and covering real emotional and human problems with great psychological insight.
June 20, 2019
My rating is more 3.5 stars than 3. I found the first chapter of this book a little slow, but after that, it was quite addictive reading. Having never been to Crete, I wondered if much of the book might be lost on me, but Lord set the scene quite well, and the mystery was engrossing and surprising. My two criticisms were that Xanthe, the missing sister, came across as a very annoying, self-centred artist (a little stereotypical, actually). Greta's secret at the end was shocking, but could have been used more throughout the story. Also, the book needed more of an edit. I lost count of the number of times I read the word "obdurate" or "obduracy" to describe a certain character. On the whole, however, it was easy enough to overlook these points as the story was very interesting.
October 30, 2020
I've read a lot of Gabrielle Lord's crime books and I think she should stick to that genre which she does better than mystery. I found this extremely slow and boring but I plodded on because of the author and I hoped it would improve. Halfway through I put it down and read another book. Then went back to it in the hope that I'd be able to flick through quickly to find out what happened to the missing sister. I ended up reading it to the end but was very disappointed as the ending was flat too.
It was hard to decide where this book went wrong but it definitely was nowhere near as good as her crime fiction. I gave it one star because I liked the cover picture.
It was hard to decide where this book went wrong but it definitely was nowhere near as good as her crime fiction. I gave it one star because I liked the cover picture.
September 4, 2019
Received a Kindle copy as a GoodReads giveaway. It was just OK for me. The plot drew me in, and I wanted to find out how it ended. Getting to the end was a little challenging. I thought the book was too long with too much detail on Cretan history. Some location description and background is a good thing in a story; this was a little too heavy. I also lost patience with the long, rambling, repetitive passages from Xanthe's writings, wound up skimming some of those. I didn't quite buy the ending, either, tried to tie in too many threads at once.
July 13, 2020
Surprising
Shortly after starting this book I wasn't sure if I was going to finish it. There was just so much drama. But then I got caught up in the story about two sisters. Greta finds out that her sister has been missing for several months shortly after burying their mother. She is compelled to go to Crete to find out what's going on. As she investigates her sister's disappearance her family life in Australia devolves. The prose is well done with interesting characters and description. If you like a thinking mystery you should like this book.
Shortly after starting this book I wasn't sure if I was going to finish it. There was just so much drama. But then I got caught up in the story about two sisters. Greta finds out that her sister has been missing for several months shortly after burying their mother. She is compelled to go to Crete to find out what's going on. As she investigates her sister's disappearance her family life in Australia devolves. The prose is well done with interesting characters and description. If you like a thinking mystery you should like this book.
April 17, 2019
very contrived and "soapy"
November 4, 2019
I won this Kindle edition book in a Goodreads
Giveaway. Thank you to everyone involved.
Lots of twists and details.
Giveaway. Thank you to everyone involved.
Lots of twists and details.
January 11, 2020
A departure from the crime novels for which Lord is known, but an enjoyable read nonetheless.
February 2, 2020
As usual you can not be disappointed with Gabrielle Lord
June 10, 2020
Loved the setting of this novel and the twists and turns.
October 10, 2022
Not crime fiction but really a mystery story with a few "red herrings". A relatively easy read. First time that I have read this author's work, I will look for more of her works at my library.
March 23, 2024
A quick and easy read.
January 7, 2026
Very long winded.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews