Seven Sisters by Katherine Kovacic

Publisher's Synopsis

Naomi started grief counselling prepared to run for cover as soon as her therapist, Mia, pulled out a crystal or tried to align her chakras.

When Mia suggests that she join a support group, Naomi is sceptical: how could she begin to describe what it felt like to lose her sister, Jo? How could she possibly share her loss and rage to a room full of people? How could she express her helplessness that Jo's killer walks free on a suspended sentence?

And how could she share her deepest desire to see Jo's killer dead by her hand?

In the group sessions, Naomi finds that her experiences and her anger are shared between the other members: Gabrielle, Brooke, Katy, Olivia and Amy. Under the enigmatic leadership of Mia, a plan begins to take shape.

I'll kill yours if you kill mine ...

My Review of Seven Sisters by Katherine Kovacic

A revenge thriller with a difference, Seven Sisters deals with the all-too-familiar story of domestic abusers who literally get away with murder. But the comeuppance is measured, cleverly devised and carefully executed. And it’s dealt out by seven sisters (Mia, Naomi, Olivia, Gabrielle, Amy, Katy and Brooke) of the original victims in all manner of ways.

Naomi is a grieving sister to a woman who was murdered by her boyfriend. She had been abused by him for some time before he finally stabbed her when she tried to leave him. To make matters worse the man, a football player, somehow got off with a suspended sentence. Part of her process to come to terms with what had happened to her sister was to go into grief counselling with Mia at The Pleiades, Trauma Counselling and Therapy.

After a few sessions Mia suggests that Naomi is ready to take part in group therapy. Although reluctant, she agrees. And when she shows up to her first group therapy session she realises that the 5 other participants have stories that virtually match her own. They all had sisters who were killed by their abusing partner - and that partner either received an extremely light sentence or was let off completely.

And this is where Mia takes group therapy to a whole ‘nother level.

Everyone is sick to death of men getting away with murder. It’s time to deal out some “proper” justice to these men who’ve gotten away with murder. 

The plan is for each of the women in the group to undertake a task to kill one of the men responsible for the deaths of one of the sisters. Channelling Strangers on a Train, they aim to each take out someone who is in no way related to them and they would do it in a way that wouldn’t arouse suspicion. The plan also entails ensuring the sister directly related to the targeted man has a rock solid alibi. 

Once the groundwork has been laid the action begins, making this an action-filled story of wrongness prettied up to appear to be justifiable homicide. Of course it’s not okay to resort to vigilante justice. Of course it’s not okay to go out and start deciding who gets to live or die based on your own values of right and wrong. But putting all that aside, it does make for a very exciting thriller packed with moments of tension and high drama. 

Now, when you’ve got the prospect of 6 people planning to commit 6 murders in 6 different ways you just know there’s a high likelihood that something’s going to go wrong along the way. Exactly when and exactly how is the reason we read these kinds of books and are fascinated by them.

The jeopardy comes in the form of Detective Fiona Ulbrick, a seasoned on-the-ball cop who has taken an interest in all domestic violence cases around Sydney. Having worked many of them, she’s had her gears ground numerous times by perfectly good police work being usurped by plea deals and prosecutorial shenanigans. She’s kept files. And when names of dead men she has files on start popping up all over the place she gets an itch in the back of her head.

Bearing in mind that this is the type of thing, this revenge killing stuff, is to be absolutely reviled in the real world, in the world of fast-paced, compelling fiction it works really well. It’s nice to be able to take your moral outrage and syphon it off into an imaginary scenario where the scumbag bastards who always seem to get away with it finally get what’s coming to them.

And for those who enjoyed Seven Sisters and are looking for more of this kind of revenge drama, you might like to read The Family Doctor by Debra Oswald.