Drop Dead Sisters by Amelia Diane Coombs
Description:
“Three sisters reunite on a family vacation and rekindle their relationship the only way they know how—by covering each other’s tracks in a real-life murder mystery not even they can figure out.
Remi Finch has spent the better part of her adult life avoiding family—especially her sisters. They just don’t click. Besides, her unconventional upbringing and major anxiety have convinced Remi that she can’t build a relationship with anyone. Period.
When her parents plan a family reunion camping trip to celebrate their anniversary, Remi’s willing to reconnect, if only because she doesn’t have a choice. But then a dead body turns up at their campsite, and their sisterly bonding kicks into high gear.
No one knows the whole story, but the Finch women are prepared to cover up the pieces before anyone tries to put them together. It’s a precautionary measure, probably unnecessary. Nobody else was there, so how could they have seen anything?
Between old grudges and new dynamics, a handsome park ranger, and a body that won’t stay hidden, Remi is about to learn that nothing strengthens family ties quite like crime.”
My review:
I am giving this book a rating of 3 out of 5.
First, my favourite character is, of course, Buffy – the Cavalier King Charles spaniel. (Though, as someone who grew up with a wonderfully cwtchy CKC spaniel, I may be biased…) In terms of the protagonist-narrator, I found Remi’s anxiety and love of animals relatable, though it seemed strange that Remi didn’t change much throughout the story, despite going through considerable trauma. While Remi did seem to make some decisions in the end that were different to what she’d have done in the beginning, it felt like a major barrier to changing her life was not wanting to work at fixing family relationships/being incapable of having empathy for relatives who had clearly always cared for her, even if they didn’t understand her – which made her less relatable. Also, as a side note, Eliana seems to sigh *a lot* in the beginning – and I won’t give any spoilers, but I don’t feel she has many redeeming qualities either. An example that isn’t a spoiler is that Eliana progresses from sighing to smacking her sisters on the arm regularly, which isn’t something I’d assume adult sisters would do unless in jest. I’m not sure why Remi was so focused on how Maeve looks all the time – perhaps that’s supposed to suggest she’s jealous of her sister’s appearance/confidence/happier demeanour? (Despite the sisters’ differences and familial similarities being acknowledged fairly early in the story.)
I enjoyed the writing style for the most part (even laughed out loud at times!), and found it easy to read – however, one note would be to watch for the overuse of adverbs (I genuinely like adverbs as a reader, though the fact I noticed them meant they probably could’ve done with being used sparingly); especially the word “tightly”, whether ‘smiling tightly’ or ‘speaking tightly’, I noticed this often enough that it pulled me out of scenes. And it doesn’t matter how often the author tried to vary the description, a churning stomach or stomach-related sensation seemed to appear a heck of a lot as Remi’s go-to response to all sorts of feelings (perhaps I noticed this more because I have emetophobia). There are lots of ‘snorting’ reactions too, which pulled me out of the story.
The dynamic between the sisters felt believable most of the time, and as someone with two younger sisters, it was interesting to see how the author portrayed this (though if the author has an older sister, I doubt she’d be flattered that Eliana was the character she’d influenced!). I also wonder if the author was inspired by the sisterly relationship between the Sanderson sisters in Hocus Pocus – because that’s what these three characters reminded me of!
The setting was vividly drawn, and supported the events that unfolded. I did manage to guess most of the major twists around halfway to three-quarters of the way through the novel, though this kept me reading to find out if I’d been right about any of the other twists too.
As an avid reader of cosy murder mystery stories, I found this one edged more into thriller territory – though the narrator’s sense of humour helped to lighten the tone.
Read in: July 2026
Format: eBook
I’m including the date and format in which I experienced this story for transparency, since whatever is going on in the world (and a reader’s private life) at the time of reading, along with a book’s reading format, can influence an individual’s enjoyment of a story.
Disclaimer: I paid to read this eBook via the Kindle platform. All opinions expressed in this review are mine and have not been influenced by the author or publisher in any way. This book review does not contain affiliate links.