whitneydaniell

by: Lisa Jewell
published: Jul 26, 2022
genre: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction
452 Pages, E-Book
GoodReads Link

Books in This Series:
Book #1: The Family Upstairs

The Lamb Family is back and they’re still boring. As a reader, we learn more about some new characters and then pick up where we left off, with some characters that we met in Book #1. This story as a whole, jumps between multiple timelines, past and present. We also get the point of view of four characters as they share their individual stories until all four stories, intersect. The characters we follow in this book are:

• Rachel Rimmer – The estranged wife of Michael Rimmer, Lucy Lamb’s ex-husband, and Marco Rimmer’s father. Rachel’s point of view begins in the past, 2018, and continues further back through her relationship with Michael, starting in 2016.
• Henry Lamb – An original occupant of 16 Cheyne Walk, Lucy Lamb’s brother, Libby Jones’ and Marco Rimmer’s uncle. Henry’s point of view begins in the present day, 2019.
• Lucy Lamb
• and Detective Inspector Samuel Owusu – A detective investigating human remains found on the river Thames’s banks.

When human remains are found on the banks of the Thames River, the mystery of what happened at 16 Cheyne Walk is thrust back into the spotlight. In Book #1, we know that the bodies of Henry Lamb Sr., Martina Lamb, and David Thomsen (“DT”) are found in the house with a suicide note along with a 10-month-old baby, Serenity Lamb alive and well. With the found suicide note, the police seemingly close the case without a second thought of the others who also lived at 16 Cheyne Walk. With the discovery of the remains, Detective Owusu links musician, Birdie Dunlop-Evers to the now infamous house.

Rachel Gold is a young woman, living her best life when she meets a charming older man, Michael Rimmer. He seemingly has it all together and is madly in love with Rachel. After a quick courtship, is an even quicker engagement, and then a wedding. But not everything that glitters is gold in this marriage, which is proven on day 3 of the honeymoon when their relationship is irrevocably changed. Michael is not who he seems and Rachel is finding out the hard way. His career is a lie, his money is gone, his love for her is fleeting, and he is not a kind person. Rachel has her whole future tied into this marriage, her family’s money and her success are on the line if this marriage doesn’t work out. There is only one thing for Rachel to do to get out of this marriage and, it’s not divorce.

Henry is still on his weird shit, chasing Phin just as he did when they were kids. Henry has a lot of qualities that I don’t like, personally, and he screams RED FLAG! RED FLAG! RED FLAG! I feel like his character is written in a way to make him out to be more sinister than he is but, it’s so annoying; he has no redeemable characteristics. Lucy is yet again, meek and frustrating. She acts so helpless to the point of, allowing her teenage son to tell her what to do. The way Marco acts toward and around his mother gets under my skin. He is a child yet, he’s seen and heard so much that he shouldn’t have and he speaks to adults like he is an adult. Maybe this is a British thing, a cultural thing but, American children do not talk to their parents in the way Marco does.

Final Thought: This book did not make me like the series any better. I enjoyed reading about Rachel’s story – she was the only character that I liked in this book. The cops went for the low-hanging fruit and once they got a semi-believable story, the investigation just stopped. I understand that these (then) children went through hell while living in the house of horrors but, that doesn’t excuse their behavior as adults.

Every chapter in Chicago pissed me off. Who really does that? Who is walking about a major city with an old photograph just asking random strangers? And what person is sharing information about other people with random strangers? For me, there were too many scenarios that were unbelievable or, outside of reality for me to relate. Would I suggest this series? No. Will I read others from Lisa Jewell? Maybe, we’ll see.