By Rebekah Dolmat
Content warning: murder
Canadian author Shari Lapena’s latest book, Not A Happy Family, is a fun, fast-paced whodunit domestic suspense thriller that leaves the reader guessing right up until the very last page.
Fred and Sheila Merton live in a mansion located in Brecken Hill, Upstate New York. One night, following a disastrous Easter family dinner with their three adult children—Dan, Catherine, and Jenna—their partners, and their long-term housekeeper Irena, the Mertons are murdered. Sheila was strangled in the entrance, while Fred was stabbed to death in the kitchen with his throat slit. When their bodies are discovered two days later by Irena, their three children—who are set to inherit millions—become the primary suspects.
While Fred’s appearance in the novel is extremely brief, he is by far one of the most interesting characters. Depicted as a psychopath, Fred is a powerful oligarch who finds joy in tormenting his “disappointing” children and pitting them against one another. During their family dinner, the reader discovers that Dan is penniless and unemployed because his father has sold the company that he worked hard for and was set to inherit. Catherine, the most accomplished of the three, will no longer be inheriting the family home because Fred is putting it up for sale. And Jenna, the black sheep of the family, is about to be cut off from his financial support. Clearly, Dan, Catherine, and Jenna all have their own financial motives for murdering their parents—so, which one of them did it? Was it even one of them at all? You’ll have to read to find out!
The story is made up of short chapters that include several short paragraphs told through multiple perspectives—the children, their partners, the housekeeper, extended family members and friends, and, of course, the two detectives on the case. With each chapter, the reader becomes more and more suspicious of the characters. However, it’s not just the reader who becomes suspicious because all the characters do too, and they quickly turn on each other. Lapena excels at implicating each of her characters to the point where they all become equally plausible suspects, right up until the final pages when the murderer is finally revealed to the reader.
In addition to all of the characters being suspicious, they are also all equally unlikeable; they have weird quirks, personality traits and habits, and each of them will surprise the reader in a different and shocking way.
In short, this is an unputdownable, fun, fast-paced, and thrilling read. Readers looking for an addicting read that will keep them guessing with every turn of the page will highly enjoy this book—it makes for the perfect summer thriller.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and Doubleday Canada for the complimentary review copy.