The Family Remains: the gripping Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller (The Family Upstairs, 2)

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Do you agree with Justin that Henry is “Poor Henry” and that the Lamb children were “all victims. Whatever happened inside that house, none of them deserves to be punished for it” (340)? Cite examples as to why you do or do not believe Justin’s assessment. This is the sequel to Lisa Jewell's chilling The Family Upstairs, a top notch multilayered and intricate psychological thriller with its old and new characters. Jewell weaves her magic with her disturbed and unsettling storytelling, in which there are mysteries and surprising connections are made. In London, a mudlark discovers a washed up bag of bones on the banks of the River Thames. The bones are those of a young woman who had suffered blunt force trauma, DCI Samuel Owusu investigates as forensic evidence leads him to a Chelsea mansion in Cheyne Walk where 3 decades ago, three dead bodies were found in the kitchen. We become reacquainted with the Lamb family, Lucy, with her two children, Marco and Stella, her brother, Henry, and Libby, haunted by the trauma of their past. The novel is relayed through the perspectives of the various characters.

The plot unfolds through multiple perspectives and timelines which flowed brilliantly. Each perspective added the perfect layer of tension, mystery and intrigue. I really enjoyed the police investigation sections and thought those new characters were a fantastic addition.Well, turns out Jewell had quite a bit left to say about the now-grown occupants of 16 Cheyne Walk. The #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell weaves a “simply masterful” (Samantha Downing, internationally bestselling author) thriller about twisted marriages, fractured families, and deadly obsessions in this standalone sequel to The Family Upstairs. This is slated as a standalone sequel, but if I hadn’t read The Family Upstairs before this, I’m not sure I would have been as invested in the plot or its characters.

The novel opens in 2019,when a bag of human remains is fished out of the muddy banks of the Thames by a mud-larking guide.Detective Inspector Samuel Owusu goes to investigate. Whose bones are they? How long have they been there? Well, I am afraid to say that this morning the body of your husband, Michael Rimmer, was discovered by his housekeeper in the basement of his house in Antibes.” Q: Why were Birdie and Michael’s murders the crimes you wanted to focus on for this follow-up novel? What about them made for good entry points into revisiting the Lamb family? Q: What most interested you in telling Rachel and Michael’s story? Were there elements you wanted to make sure you incorporated to highlight themes in the Lamb family story?Ok I'm cutting myself off lmao. Anyways. I'm obviously an outlier (what's new) but really this book just fell a part in the last 25% and I couldn't in good conscience give it anything higher than a one. The Family Remainsis a domestic drama/mystery/thriller about found remains and the connection to a notorious crime scene from 30 years ago. Actually : this book is not a mystery or thriller. Of course there’s a crime investigation conducting by DI Samuel Owosu after a mud larking professional found bones of 25 years old ballerina thrown at Thames River. Other authors are at a ten out of ten, for me, and Lisa is a solid hundred.” —Gillian McAllister, The Sunday Times (London) bestselling author of Wrong Place Wrong Time I’m so sorry. But yes. And he appears to have been murdered, with a stab wound, several days ago. He has been dead at least since the weekend.”