Sister, Missing

Sophie McKenzie's Sister, Missing is a nail-biting thriller for 11 year olds about a big sister who looks away for a few seconds on a busy beach.

What happens

Lauren is sixteen and spending Easter by the sea with her birth mum Annie and her two American sisters. Little Madison is eight and adores her. Shelby is a year younger than Lauren and can't stand her (the feeling is very mutual).

Madison begs to buy ice lollies on her own. The stall is right across the sand, so Lauren says yes. A minute later Madison has gone, and her favourite doll is lying face down on the path.

Then a text arrives from Madison's own phone. Don't call the police, it says, or she'll be killed.

Whoever has her wants to deal with Lauren and nobody else. A disguised voice asks if she remembers who's speaking. And as Shelby points out, it all looks horribly like what happened to Lauren herself as a toddler, taken from a beach too.

The price for Madison's return comes in a shaky video message she reads out herself. It's two million pounds, the life insurance from their dad Sam, who died suddenly nine months ago.

Lauren tells the story herself and it's VERY hard to put down. You're right there with her, wading through soft sand and scanning the crowds. And you can feel how sick she is with guilt.

She's properly fed up too. She has two mums who both treat her like a little kid, and one of them keeps texting about revision from Disney World.

The rows with Shelby are some of the best bits. Shelby is rude and spiky, but she's also the one asking why nobody is ringing the police. Is she wrong?

Worth knowing before you hand it over

This one sits right at the top of the shelf. Lauren is about to sit her GCSEs, and the whole story turns on a young child being taken, with a threat to kill her in the opening chapters. There's grief for a dad who has died, talk of an old attempt on Lauren's life and some mild swearing.

For a child who worries about strangers or getting separated from family, it could feel too close. A confident reader who loves a page-turner will probably race through it.

It picks up two years after Girl, Missing, the first book about Lauren, and it leans on how that one ends. So if your reader hasn't met her yet, start there.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, Murder in Midwinter is another thriller where a big sister ends up blaming herself. Maya photographs a man with a gun on a London street, and then her little sister Zahra disappears.