The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell
LONDON. Early morning, June 2019: on the foreshore of the River Thames, a bag of bones is discovered. Human bones.
DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene and quickly sends the bag for forensic examination. The bones are those of a young woman, killed by a blow to the head many years ago.
Also, inside the bag is a trail of clues, in particular the seeds of a rare tree which lead DCI Owusu back to a mansion in Chelsea where, nearly thirty years previously, three people lay dead in a kitchen, and a baby waited upstairs for someone to pick her up.
The clues point forward to a brother and sister in Chicago searching for the only person who can make sense of their pasts.
Four deaths. An unsolved mystery. A family whose secrets can't stay buried forever…
What I thought
This is my fourth Lisa Jewell book, and it's safe to say she's an auto-buy author for me now. I read The Family Upstairs, the prequel to this book in December of last year, and was thrilled to get an advanced copy of the follow-up.
The novel opens on July 2019 by the River Thames, and as it did, the story of the Lambs, Thomsens, and all that took place at 16 Cheyne Walk came flooding back to me.
Written in classic Jewell style with multiple subplots, alternating perspectives and shifting timelines, this book kept me engaged, alert, and on edge, and I moved through it at a rapid pace from start to finish.
From London, to Botswana and Nice to Chicago, she truly had my mind on the run. It was well past midnight by the time I wrapped this two sitting read, but I just kept turning those pages as we tend to do with a Jewell in our hands.
I've heard this can be read as a standalone, but highly recommend reading The Family Upstairs first.
What's better than one Lisa Jewell book?
Two!
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| Lisa Jewell by Andrew Whitton |
Lisa Jewell is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of nineteen novels, including The Family Upstairs and Then She Was Gone, as well as Invisible Girl and Watching You. Her novels have sold over 10 million copies internationally, and her work has also been translated into twenty-nine languages. Connect with her on Twitter @LisaJewellUK, on Instagram @LisaJewellUK, and on Facebook @LisaJewellOfficial.