REVIEW: THE FAMILY REMAINS, BY LISA JEWELL

Early one morning on the shore of the Thames, DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene of a gruesome discovery. 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.

Rachel Rimmer has also received a shock—news that her husband, Michael, has been found dead in the cellar of his house in France. 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.

After fleeing London thirty years ago in the wake of a horrific tragedy, Lucy Lamb is finally coming home. 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.

As 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.

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.

 

As we begin the journey with The Family Remains, we are introduced to characters that are connected to events from the past, and in some ways, their lives have intersected. At first, we meet Henry Lamb whose past centered around an old house where terrible things happened. We slowly meet other characters connected to him, most of whom are apparently hiding things. And Henry is diligently searching for someone from his distant past, who keeps eluding him.

The story also begins with the discovery of a body in the Thames, which seems to be tied to that same old house.

How will all of these characters finally come together, and what do their secrets tell us? How did their lives go wrong, and how did they all manage to keep their pasts at bay? The stories unfold in different timelines, and in many ways, they were convoluted, but as we learn more about how the characters are connected, we are intrigued. A sometimes confusing story, this one earned 4 stars.

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