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Congratulations for being nominated as one of the best thrillers for Goodreads Choice Awards! This book was definitely one of the best reads of the year!
This was just great entertainment. It’s a book I wanted to find as many hours a day as possible to listen to. I tore through it. I had no clue who committed the murders. Such a great ending! a] fast-paced whodunit…. NOT A HAPPY FAMILY works well as a crime novel, and there are some fun surprises. Overall, Lapena has produced another engaging and entertaining read.” If you enjoy books with: shite people who are fun to read about, multiple suspects, and multiple motives...READ THIS!Filled with fast dialogue, tense pacing and twists upon twists, Not A Happy Family is an immersive read you won’t want to put down.”
The real story begins when Irena goes to the Merton residence on the Tuesday after Easter to clean the house. She finds both Fred and Sheila Merton brutally murdered.The police are investigating the murder of Fred and Sheila Merton, a wealthy couple in their 60s with three grown children. Fred and Sheila spent Easter Sunday having dinner with their three children. Sometime between that dinner and the following Tuesday morning, Fred was stabbed to death and Sheila was strangled.
Jenna was the last one to leave the dinner, about an hour later than her siblings. During that time, her father told her he was changing his will. A family dinner at Easter is the last time the family are all together. Within hours the couple have been brutally killed – and thereafter the questions and accusations start flying. Now available from Pamela Dorman Books. I thank my local library for providing me with a copy through the drive-up window. 🤣 This review was written voluntarily and my rating was in no way influenced by the fact that I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from Doubleday Canada via NetGalley. I have now read all six of Shari Lapena’s novels, and have found them all to be entertaining! If you enjoy domestic suspense and haven’t yet read this author-it’s time to change that!
Another thrilling domestic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door Catherine is a successful dermatologist and the most conventional of her siblings. She was not close with her father but did covet the mansion. Having set her heart on inheriting the house, she was dismayed and angered to find out that he planned to sell it. Dan has been struggling in business, and his father’s hostility only made matters worse. After the discovery of their bodies, everyone eyes him as the perpetrator. Jenna is the youngest of the Merton children --- a bohemian artist living on an allowance. Though she seems the least likely culprit, she has asked her new boyfriend to lie to the police about her activities on the night of the murders. All of the children were in line to inherit millions of dollars. But, would any of them kill their parents to hurry the process along? From the very first chapter I was hooked into this story. Lapena wastes no time jumping into the nitty-gritty and it kept me guessing until the very end. Yeah, their father was big bad wolf and their mother were mostly silent to his terrible actions against his children. She didn’t do anything to protect them and now that’s how she got paid for herself: being strangled to death!
a] fast-paced whodunit.... NOT A HAPPY FAMILY works well as a crime novel, and there are some fun surprises. Overall, Lapena has produced another engaging and entertaining read." Fred’s sister. She was told by Fred that he was changing his will and leaving her half his fortune. Except he didn’t get around to it. Alibi: She would have been at dinner, but was conveniently home with the flu. Or are they? They each stand to inherit millions. They were never a happy family, thanks to their vindictive father and neglectful mother, but perhaps one of the siblings is more disturbed than anyone knew. Did someone snap after that dreadful evening? Or did another person appear later that night with the worst of intentions? That must be what happened. After all, if one of the family were capable of something as gruesome as this, you'd know. Ellen I thought would make sense as the killer, since she knew Rose was going to get money from the will and she hated Fred for essentially abandoning her daughter all these years. Plus she was Audrey's best friend, she could easily have poisoned her ice tea.I borrowed this one from the library because I'd read another by Lapena in the past and I didn't like it. But in this outing, I was hooked and this was a fun one brimming with people I didn't want to prosper Except Ted. As a singleton, I appreciated his trying to understand his wife and the relationship she & her siblings shared. I wanted him to have a good resolution. Surprisingly, there was even one character whom, while I didn't root for, I was pleased with their final move on the board in the Epilogue. All the points for being observant and biding one's time. Rose Cutter is Catherine Merton’s best friend and she is under stress. She works as an attorney and has recently done something she deeply regrets. A mistake that she must find a way to remedy herself… The Merton kids and Rose all claim they didn’t know they are half-siblings. But Rose’s friend did the Merton’s legal work, and told Rose she was a beneficiary of Fred’s will. Rose is also the reason for Dan’s financial troubles, as she persuaded him to invest some money, which she lost. Good thing is that it was easy to read, but a bad thing is that it was too repetitive, so many things that were already said were mentioned again and again...
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