“Ayoola summons me with these words–Korede, I killed him.”

From Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister, the Serial Killer.

Korede is a nurse from Lagos that spends her time either at work with the kind, attractive doctor Tade or at home with her mother and younger sister, Ayoola… or occasionally helping Ayoola to cover up a murder.  All her life, Korede has been responsible for looking out for the beautiful-but-not-brilliant Ayoola, so when the past three boyfriends of Ayoola turns up dead, Korede doesn’t hesitate to remove any evidence connecting her murdering sister (who claims self-defense) from the dead body.  This has been her life and while Korede feels trapped with only one coma patient as a confidant, she does nothing to change anything except to watch Ayoola more carefully.  However when Ayoola visits Korede at work and meets Tade, Korede’s world quickly begins to unravel.  As all men seem to do, Tade immediately falls hard for Ayoola (and away from Korede) and the older sister is left struggling with what to do: protect and trust her sister or save Tade.  Adding greatly to Korede’s stress is the miraculous awakening of her comatose patient/confessor, who seems to remember each and every one of Korede’s criminal confessions.  Korede’s life is quickly becoming unbearable as she tries to keep Ayoola from killing another man, Tade from choosing the wrong sister, and the rest of the world from finding out the horrible truth of Korede’s younger sister.

Braithwaite’s thriller is captivating from start to finish with the book’s small size and chapters only adding to the story’s suspense.  Korede’s narration easily show the story of a devoted enabler and a master manipulator that doesn’t dwell in the physical, but functions almost entirely in the psychological.  My Sister, the Serial Killer is a book that is very hard to put down and impossible to forget.