My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Whatever you think this book is about– and with such a title the possibilities are many—it’s not.

Yes, Sister does bump off a few boyfriends, and the novel includes elements of the traditional thriller– Who will Sister attempt to kill next? Will she succeed? Will she get caught?  But the murders are secondary to the intense relationship of two sisters, who have grown up, one pretty and one not, in conservative Lagos, Nigeria.

The result is a fast-paced, sly comedy that is also surprisingly thoughtful.

“Femi makes three, you know. Three and they label you a serial killer.”

WHAT OTHER REVIEWERS SAY

New York Times: “It’s Lagos noir—pulpy, peppery and sinister, served up in comic deadpan…This book is, above all, built to move, to hurtle forward—and it does so dizzyingly. This scorpion-tailed little thriller leaves a response, and a sting, you will remember.”

WHO WROTE IT

Oyinkan Braithwaite is a graduate of Creative Writing and Law from Kingston University. In 2014, she was short-listed as a top-ten spoken-word artist in the Eko Poetry Slam, and in 2016, she was a finalist for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She lives in Lagos where she is a freelance writer and editor.