The Pearl Sister (The Seven Sisters, 4)

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The eldest of the adoptive sisters, Maia, with her shiny, brown hair, perfect skin and huge expressive eyes, known as the beauty of the family. Deeply affected by events in her early adulthood, she has withdrawn from the world to protect her damaged heart. But, with her extraordinary grasp of languages, Maia's attachment to home hinders her potential, until she discovers the clue left to her by the sisters' late adoptive father, Pa Salt. Maia's defences must come down if she is to discover her connection to Brazilian beauty Izabela Bonifacio, and finds love in the passionate city of Rio de Janeiro. The Seven Sisters (2014), a story taking Maia D’Aplièse from Lake Geneva to Rio de Janeiro, was followed by The Storm Sister (2015), embracing historical Norwegian figures such as Edvard Grieg and Henrik Ibsen. Then – with settings ranging from the Beatrix Potter-era Lake District, London Edwardian society and the Scottish Highlands, to Thailand, Australia, Spain, South America, New York and Kenya – came The Shadow Sister (2016), The Pearl Sister (2017), The Moon Sister (2018) and The Sun Sister (2019). After getting off the boat just past the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, I walked up the street beside it and remembered how I’d once treated Star to high tea in the famous Authors’ Lounge. We’d both felt out of place in our jeans and T-shirts, with everyone else dressed up to the nines. Star had spent hours in the library looking at the signed photographs of all the authors who had stayed at the hotel in the past. I wondered if she ever would write her novel, because she was so good at putting sentences together and describing things on paper. Not that it was any of my business anymore. She had a new family now; I’d seen a light in her eyes when I’d arrived home a few weeks ago and a man she called “Mouse” had been there in our apartment, gazing at her like an adoring puppy. The Missing Sister, the final book in the series, published in May this year, follows the sextet on a search for another daughter adopted by the wealthy Pa Salt, whose death and burial at sea sparked their quest to solve the mystery of why he adopted girls from all corners of the globe. I heard Ma’s comforting voice in my head and remembered her telling me that when I fell out of a tree at Atlantis and sprained my ankle. I’d bitten my bottom lip so hard in my effort not to be a crybaby that I’d drawn blood.

Sometimes her writing is adequate, sometimes I just want to yell a bit at the nonsensicalness of it. It’s been ages since I went there last, but I hear it’s huge now—maybe a couple of thousand people. My favorite place is Railay Beach in Krabi. It’s very chilled, but I suppose it depends on what you want.”Okay,” I agreed, glad I could now blame fate for having to stay on longer. Then I booked a return flight from Bangkok to Krabi, leaving early the following morning.

I shuddered, remembering my teenage plane companion’s parting words . . . They couldn’t really be the size of dinner plates in Australia, could they?CeCe D'Apliese has never felt she fitted in anywhere. Following the death of her father, the elusive billionaire Pa Salt - so-called by the six daughters he adopted from around the globe and named after the Seven Sisters star cluster - she finds herself at breaking point. Dropping out of art college, CeCe watches as Star, her beloved sister, distances herself to follow her new love, leaving her completely alone. You were really rude to him when he came to the apartment, my conscience reminded me. And yes, I had minded his being there, and, as usual, I hadn’t known how to hide it. However, I could create beauty, and now, at my lowest ebb, I remembered something else that Pa had once said to me when I was younger. Never a truer word was written, and once again it delivered an absolutely outstanding read to add to The Seven Sisters series as a whole. Tiggy is up next later this year in The Moon Sister and from the little glimpse you get of her at the end of this one, I cannot wait too read where the author takes her on her journey of discovery, and who she will meet along the way. One of your ‘real life’ characters in The Pearl Sister is the Aboriginal painter, Albert Namatjira. What drew you to write about him and his home, Hermannsburg Mission?

Die „Thailand-Story“ war für mich etwas nervig, übertrieben melodramatisch und ganz und gar unauthentisch. Besonders die Auflösung. Das war ein bisschen zu viel des Guten. Wie immer bei der Sieben Schwestern Reihe mochte ich die Geschichte, die in der Vergangenheit spielt noch ein bisschen lieber als die aus der Gegenwart. Denn hier haben wir mit Kitty eine - vor allem für damalige Verhältnisse - sehr starke weibliche Protagonistin. Ich habe so mit ihr mitgefiebert und -gelitten. Auch wenn ich nicht all ihre Entscheidungen gutheißen konnte bzw. mir eine andere Entscheidung für den Fortgang der Geschichte gewünscht hätte.Lucinda was born in Lisburn, County Down, and spent her first few years in the nearby village of Drumbeg. Her mother, Jane (nee Cottham), and great-aunt had been professional actors, her grandmother was an opera singer and her great-uncle was chief lighting designer at the Royal Opera House. The story the author told, took me to present day Thailand, Australia and the UK, as well as Scotland in the early 1900’s and on a boat voyage to Australia in those times as well, and as with every other book, interweaved two women’s lives perfectly together in its telling.