lisa jewell the family upstairs synopsis

I also find Henry a fascinating character and another major reason I enjoyed this book so much. Rachel's story kept me mesmerized and horrified (warning to those sensitive to scenes of sexual assault and emotional abuse), made somehow even more satisfying by the fact that the book begins with the conclusion to her story and we get to sit through the backstory in wide-eyed anticipation of what's to come. But what this leads into is more and more family drama, multiple twisting subplots that eventually, over the course of time, wind together and paint a bigger picture. This sequel started with a dead body, as these thrillers often do, and the opening of a twenty year old mystery. Well, turns out Jewell had quite a bit left to say about the now-grown occupants of 16 Cheyne Walk. Are they just appeasing their audience or do they really have something else left to say? I am always a bit wary when an author writes a sequel in response to demand from fans, especially when the first book was a domestic thriller that wrapped up pretty well. In this masterful standalone sequel to her haunting New York Times bestseller, The Family Upstairs, Lisa Jewell proves she is writing at the height of her powers with another jaw-dropping, intricate, and affecting novel about the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love and uncover the truth. While she settles in with her children and is just about to purchase their first-ever house, her brother takes off to find the boy from their shared past whose memory haunts their present.Īs they all race to discover answers to these convoluted mysteries, they will come to find that they’re connected in ways they could have never imagined. All signs point to an intruder, and the French police need her to come urgently to answer questions about Michael and his past that she very much doesn’t want to answer.Īfter fleeing London thirty years ago in the wake of a horrific tragedy, Lucy Lamb is finally coming home. Rachel Rimmer has also received a shock-news that her husband, Michael, has been found dead in the cellar of his house in France.

When Owusu sends the evidence for examination, he learns the bones are connected to a cold case that left three people dead on the kitchen floor in a Chelsea mansion thirty years ago. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell comes an intricate and affecting novel about twisted marriages, fractured families, and deadly obsessions in this standalone sequel to The Family Upstairs.Įarly one morning on the shore of the Thames, DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene of a gruesome discovery.

Lisa jewell the family upstairs synopsis