Reviewed by Ian Lipke
Suzanne Do is not as well-known as her husband, Anh, but her book The Golden Sister promises much. The Do family live on the coast south of Sydney. The Golden Sister is a fast-paced mystery set in a small fictional NSW coastal town, exploring complex and dysfunctional family dynamics and the impact of grief. Suzanne Do’s prose is unpretentious, straightforward and narrative-led, prioritising dialogue to carry the reader through the novel. It’s a poignant and affecting read.
The story is uncomplicated and may be read with complete understanding by adolescent readers. In a nutshell, in her twenties when the story opens, Lili Berry, lives in a mess of anxiety, dysfunction, and pain. Her work at a real-estate office is subject to nasty comments levelled at her by co-workers, Nicole and Daniel. Her day-to-day problems in the fictional coastal town of Swanning were severe enough without the discovery of the body of her twin sister, Honey, found in an alleyway, and determined by police as a drug overdose. While the local police are convinced that it was self-administered, Lili is sure that her sister was murdered. Honey had always needed help tying her shoelaces. Moreover, Honey’s hands were sheathed in bandages, making inflicting wounds on herself virtually impossible.
Lili has a very difficult relationship with her mother, Maz. Honey was the golden sister, the one who could do no wrong. Maz is too busy either working or partying with friends and ignores Lilli’s pain. In her search for what really happened, Lili looks for help at the beach, where she encounters, Pete, a homeless man. Pete is looking for his son, who disappeared fifteen years before. He agrees to trade cold beers for swimming lessons.
Lili and Pete work together to uncover the mystery of Honey’s death, search for Pete’s missing son and confront shady characters from Honey’s past who Lili suspects killed her sister. All the while she is struggling to get ahead in her job, keep her boss happy and stave off the rumour mill at the pub from spreading details of Honey’s death.
Apart from Pete Lili is very much on her own as she tries to discover how her sister died.
The story reveals several attitudes towards the police. While charged with keeping the peace and solving crime, both activities that require a modicum of intelligence, Do’s police are depicted as immature and less than insightful. The station harbours reports into crime that are incorrect of fact and missing in detail. Sergeant Sue Singleton is an exception, but she, too, appears afraid of disturbing her senior officers with solid police work.
Villains, such as Timbo, prefer to keep a low profile in the presence of police. But Timbo feels free to threaten Lilli, a warning she takes seriously. He soon disappears from the book.
A delightful, but irrelevant episode occurs when Lilli observes her estranged father and his family at rest in Sydney, but nothing further develops. The story contains too many non sequiturs.
It was refreshing to read of a relationship between two young adults that was not allowed to slip into one with sexual overtones. Friendship appeared to be sufficient. This is unusual enough to require comment.
A book with many strengths but several major weaknesses – worth purchasing.
The Golden Sister
(2025)
by Suzanne Do
Pan Macmillan
ISBN 978-1-76156-678-3
$34.99; 336 pp