“The truth is, they’re all so much better off now that their parents have been murdered.”

Nothing brings a dysfunctional family together as much as the untimely death of the vindictive horrible patriarch and his complicit accomplice of a wife. We are introduced to the Merton family at Easter dinner. Family dinners can be stressful to begin with but are made worse when you want to spear someone’s hand with your fork before dessert. Fred Merton (father) drops some bombshells at dinner that leave his three adult children, stunned, angry and feeling robbed. All before they even have pie. Shortly thereafter Fred gets his just dessert and ends up murdered along side his wife. 

But who did it? 

The lifelong nanny / help? 

The son who made some grievous financial mistakes and is on the brink of ruin?

The eldest daughter who has kept the facade of a well run, happy enough family? 

The youngest daughter who is the epitome of the baby of the family? 

All of them? None of them? 

“Catherine, silently panicking thinks “this fucking family”. “

I loved how twisty and turny this book, every new layer of dismay in this family had me guessing and changing my mind. I will say I wish the book ended one chapter earlier and excluded the epilogue. There’s a chapter that was so strong for me and it would have been a great story had it ended on that point. Overall

I’m really happy with the book and would recommend it to any reader who enjoys wealthy folks behaving badly and dysfunctional families. 

“What a bunch of liars we all are.“