Not A Happy Family

Wow! Just wow! Damn, this was a great whodunnit!

Toronto-based lawyer turned suspense author Shari Lapena has done it again with this tension-filled mystery that has twists, loads of possible culprits and a look into a highly dysfunctional family.

The cast isn't an overly likable bunch which sometimes bothers me, but in this case Lapena makes it work. Her characters are a fascinating and oh-so-very-flawed and by using multiple POVs, she gives her readers a bird's eye view into the lives of the Mercer clan, exposing their emotional damage, secrets, greed, and plausible motives for being the murderer. Readers may get whiplash from changing their minds about the identity of the murderer because they all have reasons and the capability to kill Fred and Sheila Mercer, a couple who has as much money as they have issues within their family.

While this is a tense suspense read, it is also a character study in dysfunction, sibling rivalry, deceit, and conflict within families. The suspense continues right up until the very end when the murderer is revealed with a quiet but still impactful resolution.

This is my favourite Lapena book to date. Well-crafted, highly suspenseful, and just s'darn unputdownable, this is a must-read this summer for fans of the mighty whodunnit!

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to DoubleDay Canada for my advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 5 stars

Author: Shari Lapena

Genre: Suspense, Canadian

Type and Source: eBook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: DoubleDay (Penguin Random House Canada)

First Published: July 27, 2021

Opening Line: There are many expensive houses here in Brecken Hill, 

an enclave on the edge of Aylesford, in the Hudson Valley.

Book Description from GoodReads: The new domestic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door and Someone We Know who has sold more than 7 million copies of her books worldwide

In this family, everyone is keeping secrets--especially the dead. Brecken Hill in upstate New York is an expensive place to live. You have to be rich to have a house there. And they don't come much richer than Fred and Sheila Mercer. But even all their money can't protect them when a killer comes to call. The Mercers are brutally murdered the night after an Easter Dinner with their three adult kids. Who, of course, are devastated.

Or are they? They each stand to inherit millions. They were never a happy family, thanks to their capricious father and neglectful mother, but perhaps one of them is more disturbed than anyone knew. Did one of them snap after that dreadful evening? Or was it someone else that night who crept in with the worst of intentions? It must be. After all, if one of your siblings was a psychopath, you'd know.