The Family Plot

Desolate, eerie, and downright sinister, The Family Plot is set on a small island community that was host to a serial killer many years prior. It is also the home of the Lighthouse family who are obsessed with honouring the victims of serial killers and live in a secluded home dubbed 'the murder mansion' by locals. How's that for an attention getting premise with a true crime vibe!? 

The story is narrated by Dahlia, one of the four now grown Lighthouse children who were each named after victims of serial killers. This family is an extremely dysfunctional bunch with dark and twisted pasts which are touched on and through this eclectic group, Collins weaves a unique tale. 

Unfortunately, the Lighthouse family was a bit too odd to be believable and didn't develop as more than one-dimensional characters. The story gets full points for its eerie atmosphere, and I liked that we're given several options for culprits (even though I guessed the reveal early on), but the intensity fizzles midway as the plot gets bogged down with repetition and excessive telling instead of showing resulting in a bit of an underwhelming read for me.

While this wasn't a big hit with me, it is an intriguing, dark and sinister whodunnit story that will appeal to many readers who are ready for a chilling read about a family you won't soon forget.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Atria Books for my advanced copy provided in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 3 stars

Author: Megan Collins

Genre: Suspense

Type and Source: ebook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Atria Books

First Published: August 17, 2021

Book Description from GoodReads: When a family obsessed with true crime gathers to bury their patriarch, horrifying secrets are exposed upon the discovery of another body in his grave in this chilling novel from the author of Behind the Red Door and The Winter Sister .

At twenty-six, Dahlia Lighthouse has a lot to learn when it comes to the real world. Raised in a secluded island mansion deep in the woods and kept isolated by her true crime-obsessed parents, she has spent the last several years living on her own, but unable to move beyond her past—especially the disappearance of her twin brother Andy when they were sixteen.

With her father’s death, Dahlia returns to the house she has avoided for years. But as the rest of the Lighthouse family arrives for the memorial, a gruesome discovery is made: buried in the reserved plot is another body—Andy’s, his skull split open with an ax.

Each member of the family handles the revelation in unusual ways. Her brother Charlie pours his energy into creating a family memorial museum, highlighting their research into the lives of famous murder victims; her sister Tate forges ahead with her popular dioramas portraying crime scenes; and their mother affects a cheerfully domestic façade, becoming unrecognizable as the woman who performed murder reenactments for her children. As Dahlia grapples with her own grief and horror, she realizes that her eccentric family, and the mansion itself, may hold the answers to what happened to her twin.