The Thread: Family responsibility wrapped in a thriller in "My Sister, The Serial Killer"

Kerri Miller’s recent exploration of crime thrillers left me wanting more of the genre and inspired me to pick up a past Thread favorite of hers: the dark, intimate family drama, “My Sister, The Serial Killer,” by Oyinkan Braithwaite.

Written through the eyes of Korede, a Nigerian nurse, the book dives in right away to the moment she methodically helps her younger sister, Ayoola, clean up after she's killed her boyfriend, Femi, allegedly in self-defense. But as Korede walks the reader through the process — cleaning up blood, where to take the body — Braithwaite paints a picture of this being a repeat job for Korede and her sister.

“Femi makes three, you know. Three, and they label you a serial killer,” Korede whispers to a patient in a coma, whom she confides in while at work. But while Korede carries the guilt of these deaths, Ayoola seemingly does not.

Korede has to remind her sister to behave as though she cares: Their story is that Femi has gone missing and that Ayoola is a worried girlfriend. But what Korede is doing is her job, according to the women’s mother: “Big sisters look after little sisters.”

But the delicate balance in their family is about to be disrupted when Ayoola meets Tade, one of the doctors Korede works with, and — here’s another sore spot — is in love with. Mix that in with sibling rivalry; the sisters’ dark and abusive past; and Korede’s growing understanding of why these men died, Braithwaite delivers a powerful narrative that centered on whether Korede will protect her sister and allow Tade to follow the same path as the other men — or create a new one.