A review by aplace_inthesun
Blood Sisters by Cate Quinn

emotional informative mysterious medium-paced

4.75

When Paul Hunter is killed in an Australian Outback community bar, the police response is fairly limited given the local station has two cops. One goes searching for the two suspects, American tourists Lauren and Beth who had been working as barmaids at the pub. The other cop waits for their new probationary Constable to arrive. PC Tara Harrison knows the town all too well, having grown up in foster care, and spending much of her teen years in the local Aboriginal mission. 

BLOOD SISTERS is a deep dive into this outback town, it’s secrets and many of it’s horrors. What is evident from the first few pages is a strong sense of setting (think The Dry or The Lost Man by Jane Harper or Treasure and Dirt by Chris Hammer). Arid, dry and desolate is the overwhelming feeling you get. What is also evident is the underlying impact of the locals’ experiences, the pervasiveness of intergenerational trauma, and the ongoing effects of white settlement on our First Nations people.

Through multiple points of view the book succeeds in the story of now, and the story before. It’s gripping and suspenseful. The are parallel stories converge in an unexpected ending. 

Harsh. Gripping. Unputdownable. 

Cate Quinn refers to LinkUp in her book which is a derive I have used during the course of my work. For further information go to www.Linkupnsw.org.au 

It was founded in 1980 to assist all Aboriginal people who had been directly affected by past government policies; being separated from their families and culture through forced removal, being fostered, adopted or raised in institutions.

Link-Up (NSW) supports the healing journeys of those removed; delivering professional, culturally sensitive and confidential research, reunions and Social, Emotional and Wellbeing services to those over the age of eighteen.