Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson by Claire Hoffman (2025 Biography)

Aimee was born into a religious family in 1890, mother Minnie committed to the Salvation Army and father James a Methodist. She led an ordinary life on a farm, attending school and often performing skits. One day, she convinced her father to take her to a revival of a fringe religion, thinking it would be fun to see people jump and dance and writhe on the floor. At that meeting, Aimee suddenly saw religion in a totally different way—it was alive and the speaker, the voice of God. Pentecostalism began to spread like wildfire, beginning in Kansas in 1901. It preached the second coming of Christ, calling for people to repent and often hearing them speak in tongues. The handsome evangelist that Aimee heard that night was Robert Semple and she fell in love with him and his brand of religion. This was the beginning of Aimee’s journey as a believer and then a famous evangelist who built the largest church, the Angeles Temple in Los Angeles which held thousands. Aimee was known as a faith healer, and crowds of ill and disabled people came to the temple in hopes of a cure. Radio became her way to communicate throughout the nation and she was well known. That made her mysterious disappearance from Venice beach in LA all the more shocking. Word came that she had been kidnapped. The author does a fine job of describing Aimee’s life and challenges. The book is a peek at the past and extremely well documented.

Reviewed by Robin Olivier