Not a Happy Family - Shari Lapena

I found this book on a list of top books of 2021 and added it to my holds list at the library. I neglected to check my holds list and suddenly a bunch of books started arriving, which sounds amazing, but is actually kind of stressful....suddenly I have to read five books in a month! This one was part of that group.

I read another of Shari Lapena's books, The Couple Next Door, almost two years ago and liked it, but didn't love it, so I went into this one without high expectations.

The book starts out with the murder of a very wealthy couple in the fancy neighbourhood of Brecken Hills. It was a brutal murder, made to look like a robbery, but the way the couple was killed suggests they knew the killer and there was a grudge.

We then flip to day before the murder when all the family had come for Easter dinner. The couple, Fred and Sheila Merton, have three children. Catherine is the oldest and the favourite. She is a doctor and married to Ted, a dentist. Catherine has always wanted to own the family home someday. Dan, the middle child, has always been a disappointment to Fred. He worked for the family company and expected to take over as CEO before Fred sold it and he suddenly became unemployed. He is married to Lisa. The youngest is Jenna, an artist who continuously tries to shock everyone, and still lives off a monthly allowance from her parents. She shows up to the dinner with her latest boyfriend Jake. Also at the dinner is the housekeeper, Irena, who was the nanny while the children were growing up.

All the people at the dinner become suspects and all of them have reasons to lie to the police. On the side we have some other potential suspects, Fred's sister Audrey, who becomes increasingly paranoid as the story goes on. Then there is Ellen Cotton and her daughter Rose. Ellen was once Fred's assistant. And Rose, she's done something bad, but we don't know what.

Once I started it, I didn't want to put this book down. I had lots of different thoughts on who killed Fred and Sheila as the book progressed, but with all the different twists and turns, I was wrong, though not overly surprised at the killer. If you want a quick read with great plot twists, this is the one for you!