Rosamund Lupton Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Rosamund Lupton is a Mystery author of the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller novel Sister. The novel has been translated into more than thirty languages.

It was the fastest-selling debut of 2010 by a British writer, Book at Bedtime, a BBC Radio, and won the Richard and Judy Best Debut Novel of 2011 prize.
Her other novel, Three Hours, was picked as the Times Thriller of the Year, became the Sunday Times bestseller, and was positioned as two Sunday times Fiction bestsellers of 2011.

The novel also won the Strand Magazine Critics First Novel Award.
Sister
The story focuses on Beatrice, who, knowing that her sister, Tess, is missing, takes the first flight to England from New York, hoping to find her. She’s given the news in the middle of Sunday lunch. When Tess is found dead, Beatrice is sure there is more to the murder than meets the eye.

Tess was an artist in London pursuing her studies at university at twenty-one, and her body was found in a horrible place. The pieces of the puzzle don’t add up for Beatrice, and with how Tess cherished her life, she would never commit suicide voluntarily.

The police and Tess’s family conclude the case as suicide and try moving on with their lives while accepting the self-questioning and revelations. According to the police report, Tess killed herself due to postpartum depression after giving birth to a still baby. However, she takes things into her own hands and embarks on a journey to find the truth, no matter the price she has to pay.

Upon learning the circumstances of her sister’s disappearance, she’s shocked to realize that she didn’t know her sister so well. She wasn’t prepared to learn the terrifying truths, one being that Tess was pregnant.

Their bond has been strong since they were young, no matter how different they were. She has always been close to Tess, but they grew apart after relocating to the States.

She’s the only one who hasn’t come to terms with Tess’s death since she believes that her sister could not have committed suicide. Beatrice goes on a journey of self-discovery by moving from her sister’s flat, socializing with the students and artists to at least get clues about what might have happened. All this time, Bea doesn’t get any support from her mother or fiancé, who only wants Tess to rest in peace.

Bea moves into Tess’s life, including wearing her clothes, and throws herself to catch the killer. Everyone thinks she is insane, but Bea is sure her sister could never have killed willingly, even under the most challenging circumstances.

She treats everyone as a potential suspect, washes away her credibility, and Paranoia replaces her confidence. While Bea always went for safety and security in her life choices, Tess always took the path of an artist, which is open to strangers in need and involves risks in her relationships. She slowly develops discernment to defy everyone who gave in to the suicide theory, including her fiancé, mother, police, and Tess’s psychiatrist.

Along the way, this adoption of having an open mind on everything makes her become more like her sister Tess. Soon she has a list of suspects, including a married professor and fellow art student obsessed with her.

Beatrice’s journey as she unravels her sister’s events that led to Tess’s death will keep you hooked to your seat. Can she finally find the truth about what happened to her sister? The plot is well constructed, drawing the reader right into the center of the mystery. Rosamund Lupton has revealed Beatrice’s grief and loss so well that readers will find themselves empathizing with her.

The story is told from Beatrice’s point of view as she looks at everyone in Tess’s life with suspicion. In her journey, she contrasts her approach to life with that of Tess.

For readers looking for a compelling novel that will have you hooked right from the start, Sisters is a perfect novel for you. The book draws the reader into the fundamental perspective of the bond between sisters.

It’s fun watching someone with no experience investigating crimes come up with approaches to assess any possibilities. The author’s writing style is easy to read as her creativity flows from one page to the next.

The story is written in the voice of Beatrice, who appears to be writing a letter to her late sister Tess.
Three Hours

In the rural area of Somerset, in the middle of a blizzard, the most unthinkable thing happens, a school is under siege. Teachers’ and children’s lives are changed forever in the cold, dark, and snowy November morning.

Their love for one another, courage, and sense of unity are evident as their innocence is shattered by people consumed by hatred.

The author takes the reader into the middle of the terror of the school taken over by a group of gunmen shooting the compassionate head teacher, Matthew Marr, who is later dragged to the library by the students.

It’s the brave Rafi who has PTSD, a war-torn Syria victim who notices a small explosion in the woods informed of a bomb and then tells the head. His love drives him for his younger and emotionally troubled brother, Basi, and his desire to save him and the other students.

Rafi’s girlfriend Hannah does everything she can to nurse Matthew while trapped with others in the library. Jacintha, the English teacher, is in the middle of the reading poem with a class, and she is forced to stop and cope with the unfolding tragedy.

The local police are shot and forced to take cover at the gatehouse. While thinking his brother is in a safe place, Rafi risks going back to the library to make sure Hannah is safe too. The pottery room in the woods is the most vulnerable area, and a gunman points a gun at the class.

In the most secure place, the theatre, the drama teacher, Daphne, has locked her students presiding over the dress rehearsals of Macbeth as she struggles for a degree of normalcy. The play drips with echoes of their current fatal realities.

The terrified parents are praying for their children after hearing the bad news. In this atmospheric tale, Lupton goes back and forth in time, illuminating the darkest and longest three hours where a school known as the most liberal and disciplined is torn apart by people whose hearts burn with hatred.
The shooters view killing innocent children as acceptable collateral using their bombs in fairytales. The story is narrated in the terrifying scenarios of hope, light, and solidarity as people discover what they’re willing to die for and who they are.

The story is narrated from the point of view of the people at the center. One point of view is from the injured headmaster in the library with no power to help the trapped students and staff. The other is a teenage Hannah who was in love for the first time.

There are also the devastated parents hearing the heartbreaking news and a sixteen-year-old Syrian refugee in the process of rescuing her younger brother. The police psychologist trying to identify the shooters and the students hiding in the theatre room also gives their perspective.

All go through the darkest hours of their lives where terror and evil meet love, courage, and redemption.