Who murdered the Mertons? The most likely suspects are their 3 children, but which one? They all have a motive, and are all flawed in some way due to family pathology. Throw in a housekeeper and a disgruntled aunt and you have a fast-paced mystery that is infinitely entertaining.

Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena is a classic whodunit that keeps you guessing until the end. There is no shortage of creepy characters and plot twists that take the story in a new direction. Fans of the author’s previous works will enjoy reading this one and getting to know the Merton family.

The one thing that you can always count on when reading a Shari Lapena novel is an unpredictable plot. The thriller really has so many possible culprits that it is hard to decide which of them is twisted enough to have committed the murders. Also, just when it seems like the offender has become obvious, the book goes into a completely new direction.

❀ CREEPY FAMILY

The Merton family is definitely one of those ultra rich families that seems perfect on the outside, but is actually far from it. The father is cruel, the mother is spineless, and the children are all lunatics. Even the housekeeper seems a bit off. As new aspects of the crime are revealed, new information about the suspects also comes to light and this family seems to be the creepiest one on the block.

❀ ENDING FEELS RUSHED

While I enjoyed this book and its never ending twists, once the reveal happened, the story became rushed. I would have liked a bit more explanation and a lengthier conclusion, as it just seemed to end abruptly. When the book ended I felt a bit cheated by the pace of the conclusion.

❀ A TWISTY THRILLER

If you enjoy a twisty thriller that will stump you, Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena is one to try. This book will satisfy many of the author’s fans and will keep you intrigued to figure out who really killed the Mertons.

First line: There are many expensive houses here in Brecken Hill, an enclave on the edge of Aylesford, in the Hudson Valley.

Summary: In the rich neighborhood of Brecken Hill live the Mercer’s. They have lived here for years where they raised their family, grown a business and been the envy of all. But one Easter weekend after a family dinner the Mercer parents are found brutally murdered in their home. It appears to be a robbery but with all the secrets in the Mercer family the police are sure that one of the adult children has something to do with it. As they dig deeper they find that there are more secrets than anyone originally thought.

My Thoughts: This was a solid book. Lots of suspense. Red herrings around every corner. Lots of backstabbing, threats and secrets. I finished it in just a few days. It kept me interested throughout but I feel like it has been done before like so many thrillers lately. All the characters were awful people. Not one was likeable. There were some loose ends that I felt were not dealt with and characters that seemed a little nonessential. But did I have fun reading it? Yes. Will I recommend it? Yes. It was fun for a quick summer read.

FYI: Perfect for fans of B. A. Paris and J. P. Delaney.

What a gloriously fast and fun read! Full of the nastiest characters, this one kept me guessing until the very last few pages when all was finally revealed. I read it over a couple of hours this afternoon and truly could not put it down as I just HAD to know the truth.

Secrets and lies, the basic formula for domestic suspense, abound between the pages of this book. Someone has murdered the very wealthy Fred and Sheila Merton of Brecken Hill, NY. Their three adult children -- Catherine, Dan, and Jenna -- are devastated. They'd all just seen their parents for Easter dinner. So what if things took a nasty turn that evening. Surely none of them were that desperate for their inheritance -- or were they?

There's no shortage of suspects in the murder case and the two detectives assigned to the investigation doggedly pursue all of those connected to the family. Each of the siblings has his or her own reason for the way in which they respond to the questions. What a quandary to sort. So many reasons for murder, but did one of them really do it?

This really hit the spot for me today and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had so many guesses because, honestly, any one of the many despicable people within the story could have done it. Usually, I find someone I can relate to in a drama such as this, but these people! Hope you like it as much as I did if you're looking for pure entertainment in a mystery thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pamela Dorman Books for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.

Yes, yes, yes. Lapena does it again. This book is great, definitely recommend.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Not A Happy Family is a twisty whodunnit that kept me turning pages, so much so that I finished it in one sitting. The story centers on the murders of Fred and Sheila Merton, an extremely wealthy couple, and their three spoiled adult children. Who could have done such a thing?

Not a Happy Family is the latest nail-biting thriller delivered by Shari Lapena.
Fred and Sheila Merton are found murdered in the affluent neighborhood of Brecken Hill after a tumultuous Easter Sunday. Everyone is a suspect for more reasons than one.
I was hooked from the beginning. All of the main characters are flawed and rather narcissistic. I loved that there were so many people that I could love to hate.
It’s the perfect read for a day at the beach or curled up with a blanket and a cup of coffee.
Not a Happy Family will keep you guessing. The ending was perfect!
Thanks to NetGalley,Penguin Books, and Shari Lapena. #NetGalley #ShariLapena #NotaHappyFamily #thriller

Shari Lapena knows how to write books that thrill. Not A Happy Family is her latest offering, and should appear in the dictionary next to the entry for gripping – this is an excellent, twisty thriller that will absolutely delight suspense fans.

Sheila and Fred Merton are dead. This much we know right from the start – and it’s also clear that if it’s a question of motive, everyone’s got one. Catherine, the eldest, with visions of a perfect home; Dan, middle child forever seeking his father’s approval; Jenna, wild child and youngest in the family, who just can’t seem to settle; and Irena, live-in housekeeper and nanny. They were all in the home on the night Fred and Sheila were killed, and Fred especially had given them all plenty of reasons to want him out of the way.

Right from the very first pages it’s clear that Shari Lapena is taking no prisoners. The story hits the ground running and doesn’t let up – Fred may be a psychopath, may be a narcissist, but either way it’s clear he’s been tormenting the people around him for years. It’s easy for the reader to understand why someone would snap; less easy for the reader to figure out which of those many understandable reasons was the one to finally push someone over the edge.

Luckily for us readers, this is an author who knows how to construct a mystery that’s so much more than just a race to the answers at the end. Along the way we really get to know these characters, all their flaws and strengths – they felt so real by the end of the book. They’re easy to sympathize with, to root for; which only magnifies the worry that one of them might be a killer.

Shari Lapena is already a bestseller, but if you’re not already familiar with her work there’s no better place to jump in. Not a Happy Family will keep you up late, make you question everything, and love every minute.

Fred and his wife Sheila Merton are found murdered in their exclusive mansion. Was it a burglary gone wrong or was it someone they knew with a grudge? Their three children, two daughters and a son all have secrets from each other and all are looking forward to their inheritances. Told in alternating voices, Lapena does an excellent job of building the tension as secrets and motives are slowly revealed. Although the ending seemed somewhat anticlimactic, it was a twisty and engaging read.

Shari Lapena has done it again! Not a Happy Family takes you back to the Hudson Valley where we find two people murdered. And the suspects are their adult children. Each character is carrying around family secrets and everyone has motive for the murders. Lapena gives the reader a complex family history filled with the heartbreak of the damage done over time. This is a quick read, you want to fill in those gaps and figure out who is the murderer! The characters are flawed and at times unlikesble, the murdered victims have an awful past. But you want to find out who is the murdered. Lapena doesn’t disappoint and leads the reader to a suitable conclusion. Recommend for a vacation read! High 3.5 rating.

I love, love, love Shari Lapena's books and look forward to each one. When this begins we have a set of greedy, cruel, rich parents. Fred, the father, especially loves dangling the family fortune over the heads of their adult children. When good old dad announces he's making a drastic change to his will, he winds up dead. Obviously his children are the main suspects. And being raised in such a dysfunctional family means that these children are no angels. I loved the twists and turns in this book as we learn about how deceitful this family really is. The ending is fantastic..

Not a Happy Family is the perfect read for fans of Tana French’s The Witch Elm or The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica. In the latest release from Shari LaPena, a wealthy family is torn apart by the murder of the parents. The children, who stand to inherit millions, are the most likely suspects. But it’s never that simple in LaPena’s novels. Twists, turns and short chapters make this a compelling, fast read that you can’t put down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking for the opportunity to review this title before its release.

See my review on Instagram https://instagram.com/lphagel/

I love this author! This one had me clinging to the edge of my seat the whole time wondering who done it. A well crafted mystery. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Shelia and Fred Mertins are a super wealthy retired couple with three adult kids. When they are found dead after Easter, detectives try to figure out who did it - one of the kids seems to be the likely choice.

This was more of a murder mystery than psychological thriller. It was good, but not a favorite. It kept me reading because I wanted to see who the killer was. I liked the epilogue and would have enjoyed it going on a bit more.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review...Things I loved: this is a classic whodunnit. I did not guess the ending before it was revealed, the author did a solid job making everyone appear guilty. Things to consider: if you don't like reading about unlikeable characters this one wouldn't be for you.

Not a Happy Family is a fast-paced, character-driven thriller that will keep readers guessing throughout. In a neighborhood of extremely wealthy people in upstate New York lives the Mertons. After Easter dinner with their three adult children, Fred and Sheila Merton are brutally murdered. Did someone have a reason to kill the Mertons? The children all stand to inherit millions. Yet someone else could have arrived after the dinner to get the deed done. The family is quite dysfunctional and each member has their flaws. Told in alternating perspectives among the family members, secrets are revealed causing everyone to be a suspect. This is a novel that will truly keep readers guessing whodunnit. If you novels with mystery and unlikable characters, Not a Happy Family is an excellent one to check out. Highly recommended!

My main hold up with reading mystery/thrillers is my ability to guess the ending before the plot unfolds. That was NOT the case with this book. Not even close. The amount of times I changed who I thought did it was insane. I kept going back and forth and eventually, I began to sympathize with the detectives, because even I couldn't figure out this mystery.

Things I liked:
‣ I'm a huuuuuge fan of character driven stories and this book scratched that itch for me. Every character was fleshed out just enough to aid the plot when needed.
‣ The epilogue. It was easily one of my favorite parts of the book.
‣ Audrey, the vindictive aunt. Gosh, I just wanted to punch her.
‣ The huge guessing game between the siblings and their significant others.
‣ How often the POV is switched. Normally, this would drive me insane but it works well with this storyline.
‣ It gave me major Knives Out vibes and I freakin' loved that movie.

This is my first Shari Lapena read, and I've got to say, I am extremely impressed. There was a moment while reading when I thought, "Wow, this is an author who has honed her craft.", and I can't think of any other way to describe her writing. It just felt effortless. I see why people call her the Queen of domestic thrillers. If you're a fan of fast paced whodunit reads, then you won't want to miss Not a Happy Family!

Thank you @vikingbooks for my #gifted copy.

I included this title as part what's new in suspense, mystery, and thrillers in the month of July. I promoted on Twitter, Facebook, & Instagram. https://www.bethfishreads.com/2021/07/22-mysteries-thrillers-suspense-novels.html

Not a Happy Family is more murder mystery than psychological thriller. Lapena writes about the highly dysfunctional Merton family and which one of the adult children could have possibly murdered their parents. There is not one single character that I liked in this book. They all lie constantly and you don't know who to believe.
Honestly, this was not my favorite Lapena book. She writes very straight-forward with minimal descriptions, which is good and bad. There's no overly drawn out paragraphs, but there can be repetitiveness at times. All in all, not much happens in the book and the ending seemed rather abrupt. I did not guess who the killer was, but I wasn't overly surprised.

Not a Happy Family is bestselling author Shari Lapena’s new suburban domestic thriller. Lapena is a master of that sub-genre, and this is a not-to-b- missed read for fans of those books.

As the title suggests, the wealthy Merton Clan is not a happy family. Fred, the patriarch, is malicious and makes his adult children miserable with his endless sly manipulations and vicious put downs. Matriarch Sheila has survived her marriage by drawing completely into herself. She never challenges Fred’s abuse and is concerned only with what their equally rich neighbors think of them.

The kids don’t spend much time with their folks, but holiday gatherings are a mandatory event, and Easter Sunday morning finds all three Merton offspring getting ready for dinner at their parents’ house. Catherine, the eldest, is a successful doctor married to an equally successful dentist. The only thing she looks forward to that day is being in the family home. She loves the lavish estate with its beautiful furnishings, tasteful and expensive artwork, elegant, pricey dishware and costly antiques. When her parents die, Catherine plans to take the house as her inheritance and let her younger siblings have all the cash. Her husband Ted doesn’t want to attend. He knows Fred will start an argument with someone and doesn’t want to get caught in the middle of it, but Catherine pushes him into going.

Youngest daughter Jenna is the family wild child. An artist who specializes in sculptures of female genitalia, she spends most of her time partying in New York City. Jenna has zero desire to see her family, but she lives off a stipend her parents provide and has no choice but to go when they demand it. To annoy her dad, she brings along James, a young artist she recently met, and the two of them smoke pot on their drive to upstate New York from the city, giggling over the fact that they will reek of marijuana when they arrive.

The person who least wants to attend this little get together is Dan, the middle child. His father hates him the most and has made no secret of that. Dan worked for his father for years, putting up with being insulted and berated on a regular basis by holding on to the dream that he would eventually inherit the family business. Then his father sold the company, leaving Dan with no job and no future prospects. Thanks to a foolish investment, Dan’s savings are tied up and he’s pushed the limit of all his credit cards trying to stay afloat.  He hates that he will have to ask his father for a loan or face the fact that he and his wife Lisa will be in deep financial trouble without it.

There will be two other guests at the dinner. Audrey, Fred’s sister, joins the family for all their celebrations even though the kids and Sheila can’t stand her. And Irena, the children’s beloved former nanny who now works two days a week as housekeeper, will earn her dinner by helping set up and clean up the meal. Everyone but Audrey (who has the flu) duly shows up, and everything goes as badly as they expect it to. Fred has a knack for crushing people’s hopes and at the dinner he tells Catherine he’s selling the house, tells Jenna he’s cutting off her allowance, and advises Dan there will be no loan. Lisa, Ted, James and Irena are forced to sit as awkward witnesses to both Fred’s cruelty and the fallout. Before dessert is even put on the table, the guests all leave angry. A fact they all try to hide from the police when Fred and Sheila are violently murdered later that night.

The family presents a united front to the detectives investigating the crime. They all went directly back to their own homes after dinner and stayed there all night. The dinner was pleasant, and everyone got along. They know of no one who would be angry enough with their parents to do this.

The police don’t believe their lies.

The author does a nice job of showing how basic investigative work begins to unravel the Merton siblings’ alibis. She also does a great job of slowly peeling away the layers of their personalities so that we get to know the real people beneath the sympathetic facades. By the end of the novel, we have four very viable suspects for murder.

I say four because Irena, too, is caught up in everything that is happening. It is she who finds the bodies and she whose alibi for the night in question is the weakest. Irena is also the person most likely to lie – or kill - for the Merton children. She, not their mother, raised them. And she, not their mother, loves them and knows them better than anyone. The question is, just how far would she go for them?

Lisa, Ted and James find themselves asking the same question. All three of the Mertons did go out that night and asked for alibies from their significant others. Now the three other halves find themselves lying to the police and questioning whether their partners are capable of slaughtering two elderly people.

Another driving factor in the tale is Audrey. Fred had told her prior to that fateful dinner that he will be leaving half his money to her and the other half is to be divided up amongst his progeny, and when she learns that is not actually the case, she’s furious. Audrey becomes determined to prove that the children are responsible for the crime and begins to tell the police some damning family secrets.

There is another party in this pressure cooker as well. Unbeknownst to the others, someone behind the scenes has been a part of all the recent family drama. As the police close in, that figure must determine what they can and will do to survive.

Many thrillers are lauded for their twists and turns, and this book is no exception. Each new piece of information yanks us in a different direction. The fact that we have a plethora of possible killers is another factor that really drives up the suspense in the tale. It could be anyone – they all have motives, and below their average, seemingly normal benign veneers they all have the hard, cold core it would take to see the job done.

That’s what’s exceptional about Lapena’s work - her ability to craft believable villains out of ordinary humans. The Mertons are all personalities that pepper everyday life in the U.S.  and yet they are also all folks who prove to have a very dark side indeed. The author just does a fantastic job of showing how ordinary lives can be filled with extraordinarily complex and violent undertones. She weaves fantastically complicated, intricate personas out of our typical suburban characters.

Not a Happy Family is a terrific read for anyone who loves the suburban thriller market or who enjoys character driven whodunits. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good mystery.

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