‘Two Sisters’ by Alex Kane

Published by Canelo Hera,
21 March 2024.
ISBN 978-1-80436041-5 (PB)

Set-in present-day Glasgow, Two Sisters is the story of three generations of women.  Janey Hallahan is mother to twins Orla and Sinead, the sisters of the title, and grandmother to Orla’s daughter Molly Rose.  The relationship, however, is fractured; Janey abandoned her daughters whilst they were still babies.  Initially the youngsters were adopted by a loving couple but from the age of ten they suffered another misfortune and found themselves being shuttled between foster homes.  Now thirty eight years old, the sisters’ lives could hardly be more different. Orla lives with loving husband Oliver and their only child Molly Rose.  Sinead, by contrast, endures a sordid existence defined by her addiction to drink and drugs.  Orla is frustrated by her twin’s chaotic and disreputable lifestyle, although sisterly love means that she frequently bails Sinead out of difficulties.  The sensible twin also faces challenges from Molly Rose who is pushing the boundaries as she sprints towards her sixteenth year.  To make matters worse, Janey has reached out to reconnect with Orla who, unsurprisingly, eschews any reacquaintance with a mother she regards as having thrown her two children to the dogs.  Sinead is unaware of this, and Orla wants to keep it that way, little knowing that her estranged mother won’t take no for an answer.  Life is about to become even more complicated and very, very dangerous.

The characters in the novel are a fascinating mix of vulnerable and vicious.  Janey heads up what had been her father’s criminal empire.  She is as tough as you might imagine and never shies away from making difficult decisions.  When she realises her offspring are being targeted to bring her down, Janey is at her most ferocious. 

As the narrative unfolds, we see glimpses of maternal love from the hard-hitting matriarch but will the daughters she deserted ever be able to accept their birth mother. The strong female characters in the novel are a driving force as the plot develops and they prove to be more than a match for their male counterparts who operate in Glasgow’s chilling gangland. 

The prologue illustrates this felonious netherworld perfectly as it describes a terrifying chase that culminates in a child being abducted.  The narrative then moves back in time to depict the events that led up to the young girl being snatched.  It then moves between the troubled mid-1980s, during which an intriguing backstory unfolds, and the present day through a series of time shifts that disorientate the reader as they experience the impact of a disordered world of criminality that is, thankfully, alien to most of us.

Two Sisters is the second book in the “Janey” series, it works very well as a standalone.  Gritty, sometimes uncomfortable and often shocking, this is a rollercoaster of a novel that compels and entertains. Highly recommended.
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 Reviewer: Dot Marshall-Gent 

Alex Kane, aka Emma L Clapperton, was born December 1985, and has always had a passion for reading and writing. She studied childcare and gained qualifications to work with the early years in 2002. She completed her first novel, Beyond Evidence and it was published in September 2012 with a second edition being published in April 2013. She currently resides in a little town outside of the city of Glasgow with her partner and is working on her next project.

Dot Marshall-Gent worked in the emergency services for twenty years first as a police officer, then as a paramedic and finally as a fire control officer before graduating from King’s College, London as a teacher of English in her mid-forties.  She completed a M.A. in Special and Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, London and now teaches part-time and writes mainly about educational issues.  Dot sings jazz and country music and plays guitar, banjo and piano as well as being addicted to reading mystery and crime fiction.