Not a Happy Family: A Novel

Shari Lapena’s newest novel Not a Happy Family follows the dysfunctional wealthy Merton family. Fred and Sheila Merton were brutally murdered in their home the night after a disastrous Easter dinner with their adult children, Catherine, Dan and Jenna. As the police begin their investigation, they obviously start with their children, who stand to inherit millions and who each had a motive for wanting their parents dead.Catherine is the oldest and knew that she would be inheriting the family home one day, that is until their father announced at Easter dinner that he was selling the house.Dan has never had a good relationship with his father. Dan expected to take over the family business one day, that is until Fred sold it because he didn’t think Dan would be able to handle running it. So now after a few bad investments Dan needs money and asks his father for a loan on the night of Easter only to have his father tell him in no uncertain terms No!Jenna is an artist; she likes to sculpt images of women’s anatomy, much to her parents’ dismay. She gets a monthly allowance from her parents. But they have decided it is time to cut her off.Fred was not the best father. He got great joy in causing emotional pain to his children. And Sheila was not a very comforting mother; she left that job to their housekeeper Irene. So, it was not very surprising that the children were not overly devastated by their parents’ death. They all have alibis for the night their parents died, well according to each of their spouses they did. But those alibis are soon unraveled.The siblings are not extremely close, but when the police start narrowing their suspicions onto them, they do rally around each other. Even though they figured one of them was the killer and they could have easily thrown each other under the bus, they stuck together. They figured which ever one of them was the killer did them a favor by getting rid of their toxic parents and made them all rich at the same time. Okay it was a bit of a twisted way of thinking, but hey they are family and are sticking together.I liked the perspectives we got from each of them and watching them sweat when the investigation got to close to one of them.As the police keep hitting walls as they try and figure out which of the siblings is the killer, they get some help from Fred’s sister Audrey. She has never really liked Catherine, Dan and Jenna, so she is more than happy to spill all the family secrets. And the Merton’s have a lot of secrets.I really cannot say much more because I don’t want to spoil anything, I will say this book was full of twists and turns that had me all over the place on who I thought did it. Every time I thought I had it figured out, a twist would happen to point me in a different direction. I was completely clueless when the killer was finally revealed. And without giving anything away, I love how Shari Lapena ended this book.If you like stories that center around dysfunctional families and that keep you guessing throughout, I recommend Shari Lapena’s Not a Happy Family.

This one kept me up late reading last night. I had a busy week but this book had me thinking about it whenever I had to put it down. Just who killed Fred and Sheila Merton? One of their three children? All their children? Someone else? And was it about inheritance, a lifetime of crappy parenting, sheer retribution or possibly that murderous propensity that seems to run through the generations on Fred's side? Something else? And everyone, EVERYONE, is lying. Big lies. Little lies. Weird lies. Stupid lies. Always, no matter the instance, they can come up with more lies. It's quite stunning. It's the Merton family's most broadly consistent characteristic. Followed closely by the money-grubbing and persecution complex.I had my suspicions and my sleuth instincts had me thinking most about the one suspect saying the least and from the time in the first third that the detectives (view spoiler), the longer it took to circle back the more I knew my supposition was correct. And the journey to that point with all the red herrings and revelations of just how much of a whole mess the Mertons are (along with their extended relatives) made this a heck of a read and I immensely enjoyed it.I borrowed this one from the library because I'd read another by Lapena in the past and I didn't like it. But in this outing, I was hooked and this was a fun one brimming with people I didn't want to prosper Except Ted. As a singleton, I appreciated his trying to understand his wife and the relationship she & her siblings shared. I wanted him to have a good resolution. Surprisingly, there was even one character whom, while I didn't root for, I was pleased with their final move on the board in the Epilogue. All the points for being observant and biding one's time.I'd definitely read another by Lapena based on this one and I'm glad I decided to pick up another book by her. Recommended.

Very good plot with twists along the way, including the last chapter. All the characters are well described. Nothing gives it away until the end.

Shari never disappoints!

🌟 Rating: 3.5 stars rounded up to 4📖 Genre: Thriller#️⃣ 368 pages✍🏼 Author: Shari Lapena📚 Recommended audience: Those who love a good psychological thriller as well as lots of family dramaNot a Happy Family is a perfect description for Shari Lapena’s latest thriller. Whew!! “Not happy” is putting it mildly.When Fred and Sheila Merton are found murdered in their Hampton-esque mansion, Detectives Reyes and Burr set out to figure out which of the Merton family members might have been behind the horrific act and what each of them stood to gain.I really loved the way this story was laid out. It is told in 3rd person with the omniscient narrator always one step ahead. The chapters often switch back and forth between characters perspectives, but always with a bold heading to alert you of the shift. And I really liked that even though it was 3rd person, I was still able to get inside the heads of each of the characters as they dealt with there varying emotions.That being said, the ending was a bit anticlimactic. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but something with a little more oomph. Also, the ending was a little more predictable than I had anticipated going in. However, neither of these points detracted at all from the overall intensity of the novel and I would definitely recommend it. I will definitely be checking out the author’s other work.

I like to hold a book vs. Kindle, just my opinion. I like this author

Rating: 2.0/5The blurb positions this as a domestic suspense novel. In reality, it is simply an unlikely and uninspiring murder mystery, with a bit of gloss and glitz, that just becomes increasingly silly.I wondered for a time whether this was a intentional tongue-in-cheek attempt to produce something akin to the film "Knives Out". Certainly, anyone who has seen that film will immediately see clear similarities between the two storylines. However, whereas "Knives Out" is a deliberate, but affectionate parody of murder mysteries that are full of ridiculously twisty plots, this is just a decidedly mediocre murder mystery. If anything it bears more resemblance to the lightweight and predictable American tv mysteries that are often aired in the afternoon or early evening.On the plus side, the narrative is occasionally fun, but it is also quite repetitive and spends a lot of time not going very far. The cast of characters is fairly large and the author doesn't make a great job of giving each character a distinctive voice. However, with the plot not being particularly complex, it isn't too difficult to keep track of who is who.If you are simply looking for a disposable read to kill a few hours without taxing your brain cells too much, then this may well fit the bill. Otherwise, I suspect you are likely to find it a bit disappointing.

This proves that a book can be compelling, exciting and suspenseful, without descriptions of torture and graphic murder.Yes, there are two people who are murdered, but the author does not dwell on the details. Instead, we are faced with a family where each member isa liar, secretive and manipulative. Definitely not a happy family!I loved it ,there were hints of Agatha Christie style of plotting, first one then another could be guilty,each of them capable of killingtheir parents..but which one??

I wasn't sure how to rate this novel. On the one hand it's got a solid plot and an intriguing story, and is told by interesting characters. The who-done-it aspect is very well-written and there were parts of this book where the literary detail was so rich I felt I was there. I also wanted to keep turning the pages, despite its flaws. The main one being, although I struggle with third-person omnipresent POV, this is generally because an author has chosen the lazy route to telling the story instead of showing the reader what's going on, and that's exactly what Lapena does. It does become boring and frustrating when you're constantly being told someone is a psychopath without being shown any evidence to back up that supposed 'fact'. Being repeatedly told this person thinks that person killed the victims does not show me why. There was lots of this waffle, that had it been cut would have increased the pace even more and wouldn't have made me want to put the book down every few chapters to have a breather from the constant 'she thought this and he said that' and 'she did this and he did that'. This could have been a five star read if only the author trusted her readers enough to use their brains and work things out without constantly having to be told everything.

I found this novel a totally enthralling read. Had it not been that I wished to keep it going, I could easily have swallowed it whole in one session. Shari Lapena writes extremely well, here assembling an interesting collection of characters, all with their secrets to hide. Apart from the murders which set the action in progress, there is no unnecessary dwelling on pain and suffering. It seems that an ever larger number of writers in the crime genre seem obliged to resort to graphic descriptions of torture and the like to lure readers with gratuitous sensationalism. Lapena has shunned that route, and here demonstrates that intelligence, literacy and ingenuity can be far more powerful weapons in creating compelling suspense. One of the best crime novels I have read.

Usually enjoy this author's books but this was tedious .All characters are repulsive people and the murderer was obvious from the start. Apart from that very little happens.Surprised they weren't all arrested for wasting police time and trying to pervert the course of justice. Much better stories out there .