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Siblings create an excellent opportunity to create tension in mysteries. In this episode, Brook and Sarah discuss the twists and turns that can accompany family bonds.
Discussed and mentioned
"The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839) Edgar Allan Poe
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962) Shirley Jackson
El Dorado Drive (2025) Megan Abbott
Julie Chan is Dead (2025) Liann Zhang
The Prestige (2006 film)
Clouds of Witness (1926) Dorothy L. Sayers
Such Charming Liars (2024) Karen M. McManus
Death at Morning House (2024) Maureen Johnson
Daisy Darker (2022) Alice Feeney
The Inheritance Games (2020) Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Six Weeks to Live (2021) Catherine McKenzie
The Better Sister (2025) Prime series
The Better Sister (2019) Alafair Burke
Related Episodes
Interview with Megan Abbott (released July 29, 2025)
Interview with Catherine McKenzie (released June 3, 2025)
For more information
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Music: Signs To Nowhere by Shane Ivers – www.silvermansound.com
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Order Life or Delft by Brook and Sarah
For a full episode transcript, visit https://cluedinmystery.com/siblings/
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Transcript
Introduction to Siblings in Mystery Fiction
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Hi, Brooke. Hi, Sarah. Well, we both have siblings, and so I think today is going to be an interesting conversation about siblings in mystery.
00:00:30
Speaker
I'm looking forward to this. Few relationships carry as much emotional weight or potential for tension as that between siblings. They share the same memories, the same wounds, and often the same secrets.
00:00:46
Speaker
When this relationship is built into fictional crime stories, it packs a punch.
Intense Loyalty and Danger in Sibling Mysteries
00:00:52
Speaker
Whether siblings are protecting one another by covering up a crime or acting as rivals on opposite sides of an investigation, they make for some of the most compelling characters in mystery and thriller fiction.
00:01:05
Speaker
As Megan Abbott pointed out when she joined the show, brothers and sisters have their own shorthand, a glance, a word, and they can cut right to the heart of each other.
00:01:17
Speaker
That deep understanding can build incredible loyalty, but it can also create danger, because when doing the right thing means betraying your sister or brother, the moral balance becomes very hard to strike, and irresistible to watch unfold.
Classic Thrillers and Sibling Tensions
00:01:33
Speaker
Writers have recognized this power for generations. Think of The Fall of the House of Usher, the original sibling thriller, or We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.
00:01:45
Speaker
These are both eerie explorations of secrets, shared trauma, and devotion pushed to the edge. And while these stories border on horror, there's a clear connection to contemporary mystery thrillers.
00:01:59
Speaker
Whether fictional siblings are working together as an unbreakable team or torn apart as adversaries, their stories get close to home for anyone who has a sibling. They give us the opportunity to consider our own family bonds, rivalries, and shared stories, and and how we might feel in the character's shoes. so So we'll explore why sibling dynamics continue to be one of the genre's most enduring ingredients and mention some of the stories that come to mind for us in this category.
00:02:31
Speaker
ah What a great introduction. Brooke. And I think you're absolutely right that that relationship between siblings can be so fraught with tension, right? The wrongs that you feel you get from a sibling are 10 times worse than those that you could get from anybody else.
00:02:53
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Or that sense of responsibility and loyalty. you know, I'm a big sister. And so like, don't mess with my little sister, right? That feeling that you get is so strong and and almost the way that you feel about um your your children if you're that big sibling. So it's a very strong, um almost primal thing that we have with our siblings.
Sister Relationships in Megan Abbott's 'El Dorado Drive'
00:03:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:20
Speaker
You mentioned Megan Abbott ah in the introduction, and we spoke to her because her book that was released earlier this year, El Dorado Drive, really played with those relationships between, it was sisters in her book.
00:03:36
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Three sisters. In that story, I think we see a lot of that, what I mentioned of the loyalty and the guilt because they wanted to support one another and yet there's some really fishy, um potentially criminal things going on. And so do you turn in your sibling or do you just help them hide it? And that was, I really felt that tension that the characters are going through in that story.
Complexity of Twin Relationships
00:04:07
Speaker
Conversely, ah ah function that siblings can provide in a story of that manipulation or almost like a dark mirror is definitely present in a book I know we both also read, which is Julie Chan is Dead, sarah Yeah, that's a great example of siblings. And the premise in that one is that ah one woman whose life is not turning out as well as she might like goes to visit her very successful social media influencer sister.
00:04:42
Speaker
and finds her dead. And because they're twins, she takes the opportunity to assume her sister's life. And the book is really about what happens as a result of that.
00:04:56
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And you mentioned twins. And that really takes it up a notch. Like, we're not just talking about siblings. We're talking about twins. And it just seems to, like, concentrate or magnify all the aspects that we just mentioned. I mean, we know in real life that toddler twins many times have a their own language and ah You can separate twins at birth and then 30 years later find out that they have lived mirror lives. So it's not too much of a stretch in some of these fictionalized versions that, you know, it becomes very twisted and rather dark because that book, while it is a mystery, I think that it is definitely a ah thriller type feel to it.
00:05:45
Speaker
Well, and I would say that, you know, when I think about books that fit into this category, almost exclusively they are thrillers.
00:05:56
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, the Detection Club did ban the idea of twin plots. Maybe that's why we don't see it a whole lot in whodunits, because they said that it was too easy of a trick, right?
00:06:10
Speaker
Mm-hmm. But I don't know. i like Stories like, say, The Prestige, which plays with the idea of twins, I think if it's done well, it can be a really incredible twist.
00:06:25
Speaker
um But there again, that story would fall into the category of a thriller, I believe, like or a bute suspenseful drama.
00:06:35
Speaker
A sibling can also be used as a plot device. Like they're the accused that gets an amateur sleuth involved in taking on the case.
Siblings as Plot Devices in Mysteries
00:06:45
Speaker
ah Lord Peter Whimsey goes through this in Dorothy L. Sayers' Clouds of Witness because his brother Gerald is accused of a murder.
00:06:55
Speaker
And so Lord Peter must investigate this and clear Gerald's name. And it the stakes are even higher because Gerald is the Duke of Denver. And so in order to actually save the whole family's name, um Lord Peter Whimsey is compelled to help.
00:07:12
Speaker
As an author of Cozy Mysteries, you're always looking for that good reason to get the amateur sleuth involved. And I think, you know, the loyalty and the responsibility to clear a sibling's name is is a great opportunity.
00:07:27
Speaker
Oh, definitely. and And I think it um works even if they don't have the strongest relationship. Yes.
00:07:38
Speaker
Yes. And sometimes you see those are the stories at the end that they are brought back together again. so you have some character growth along the way. Another sibling relationship ah is the step sibling relationship.
Step-Sibling Dynamics vs. Biological Siblings
00:07:52
Speaker
And that features in Such Charming Liars by Karen m McManus. So this is a YA novel. It's a stepbrother and a stepsister who do not have a particularly close relationship, but end up kind of thrown together because of circumstances.
00:08:12
Speaker
And it was it was I read it last year. It was quite good. That's a great point, Sarah, because step-siblings, then um maybe they don't have all that loyalty that you do with the siblings that you spent your whole life growing up with. or Yeah, that's that's a great ah kind of like side topic to the to the relationship.
00:08:35
Speaker
So another YA book ah that I read last year is Death at Morning House. And this was by Maureen Johnson. She often writes stories that have a present day and a historical um mystery as well.
00:08:51
Speaker
And in the historical mystery, it centers around a family with, I think it was six siblings, but I i actually am not sure um that I've got that right. But yeah,
00:09:03
Speaker
that's a key yeah point in that story is this, these family relationships. Yeah. I haven't read that one, Sarah, but I love Maureen Johnson. So that sounds great.
00:09:16
Speaker
This year I read The Last Mrs. Parrish. This is by Liv Constantine. And this is interesting because the woman fakes having ah sister in order to ah ingratiate herself to someone who lost a sister to a chronic disease.
00:09:35
Speaker
So um i thought that was interesting because it goes to show like how important that relationship is. And so to appear as if she went through the same loss, she, yeah she made up a character in her own life.
00:09:50
Speaker
Oh, that's a really good example, Brooke. Yeah. I read that earlier this year as well. And, um, yeah, she really plays on having had this sister and, and using that to create this, this friendship with this other woman.
00:10:08
Speaker
I think, you know, when you've got a a large family that can, you know, you can have different relationships between the siblings. And you see that in Daisy Darker, where there are different siblings who...
00:10:27
Speaker
returned to, i think it's the grandmother's house um ah for when for one evening. And so that was by Alice Feeney and published in 2022.
00:10:39
Speaker
and yeah you know, I think it's not just siblings who gather, there's other members of the family as well, but you really you see that that family tension. Yeah, that's a good observation that different siblings have different relationships.
00:10:56
Speaker
So um I think about how that plays out in, say, like an inheritance mystery, where there's this big group of siblings that keeps the story going that way. and you And perhaps two of them get along great, but then the there's one that like can't get along. and they So just watching that play out. And we've all I think that's the thing about these stories is that they're very relatable in that we've all either been in the situation because we come from a, say, a big group of siblings, or we've watched that with our friends.
00:11:33
Speaker
And um so we can just understand what that might be like if you're put in that position. Yeah, I think that's right, Brooke. It it is an accessible way to connect readers to your story because it's an experience that a lot of people have, right? That experience of of being in a sibling relationship.
00:11:55
Speaker
And you mentioned
Brotherly Loyalties in 'The Inheritance Games'
00:11:56
Speaker
Inheritance. There's a series, that's another YA series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes called The Inheritance Games. And it centers around brothers who um belong to this quite wealthy wealthy family.
00:12:12
Speaker
They are very different characters. Fun. But they have this, because they are brothers, they have this loyalty that almost feels, you know, despite the tensions that they have with each other, they will stick up for each other when faced by, you know, something external.
00:12:36
Speaker
Yeah. And that's very real life.
Real-Life Sibling Crime: The Borden Case
00:12:40
Speaker
And speaking of that, i think we can't talk about this topic without mentioning a true crime example, which is Lizzie and Emma Borden, ah the infamous Borden case, which remains unsolved to this day and one of the most discussed sibling-related crimes in history.
00:13:02
Speaker
This happened in 1892, so predates anything that we've talked about except ah follow the House of Usher, I suppose. And Lizzie was accused and acquitted of killing their father and stepmother.
00:13:15
Speaker
But Emma remains kind of this shadowy, loyal sister figure um who certainly knew more than she talked about. And i think that dynamic really continues to inspire are our fiction today.
00:13:33
Speaker
Yeah, that's um that's a great example. And yeah, unfortunately, there are um real life examples of family disputes that turn out badly.
00:13:47
Speaker
hmm. um And I don't think that this is based on a real story, but Catherine McKenzie, who we had as a guest on the show, wrote a book in 2021 called Six Weeks to Live.
00:14:04
Speaker
And it features sisters as their mother is dying. um But so they're they're adult triplets who their mother is dying, but they're She actually thinks she's been poisoned.
00:14:23
Speaker
That sounds fascinating.
00:14:27
Speaker
Well, we definitely also see this ah trope on screen. And recently I watched the series, The Better Sister. And This is on Netflix and it's based on an Alifair Burke book by the same title. That book was released in 2019.
00:14:45
Speaker
But this is where an estranged sister duo have to reunite to unravel ah mystery um because one of the sister's husbands is murdered and that man just happens to be the ex of the other sister. So, wow.
00:15:02
Speaker
All the... strife and tension that we talked about right up front is packed into this. And I have not read the book yet, but the entire time I watched the series, I sat there thinking, I want to read this book because I have a feeling that ah it's probably much more expanded and ah even better twists along the way.
00:15:22
Speaker
ah There's only so much you can do on screen. Yeah, that's a um that's a
Complex Dynamics in 'The Better Sister'
00:15:27
Speaker
great example. And it plays with the trope that we mentioned with Julie Chan is Dead, where there's siblings, one who is successful and one who is not.
00:15:38
Speaker
And, you know, then you layer on the fact that they've both been married to the same man. i enjoyed watching that. Well, Brooke, thank you. It has been so great to discuss siblings with you and the different ways that they turn up in mysteries.
00:15:55
Speaker
It has been so much fun. But you know what? It's not the only exciting thing that we have happening this week, right, Sarah?
Announcement of 'Life or Delft' Mystery Book
00:16:02
Speaker
This week on Friday, November 14th, our very first collaborative mystery that Sarah and I wrote together will be releasing.
00:16:12
Speaker
I'm really looking forward to it being out in the world, Brooke. That's right. We hope you go out and pick up a copy of Life or Delft. This is going to be the first in a series called the Delft Valley Mysteries.
00:16:26
Speaker
And we're just so excited that it's out going to be out into the world and available for mystery lovers like you. So thanks for joining us today on Clued in Mystery. I'm Brooke.
00:16:37
Speaker
And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery. Clued in Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen. Music is by Shane Ivers.
00:16:49
Speaker
If you liked what you heard, please consider telling a friend, leaving a review, or subscribing with your favorite podcast listening app. Visit our website to sign up for our newsletter, The Clued in Chronicle, and get mystery news, podcast updates, and bonus episodes.
00:17:02
Speaker
We're on social media at Clued in Mystery.