The Family Game by Catherine Steadman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Harry is on top of the world: with a hit novel under her belt, she's recently engaged to her wonderful - and incredibly rich - boyfriend, Edward, who comes from a well-known family. When his estranged family gets in contact with her about spending the holidays together, she decides to give it a try, though Edward seems wary, calling his family "weird." And as Harry is about to find out, the infamous Holbeck family is indeed not your ordinary family. Not just because of the odd holiday traditions they share, but because there are some dark secrets hiding in its past, which the family patriarch Robert, reveals to Harry, under the guise of giving her an audiobook to review. Can Harry figure out what game this family is really playing before she ends up its latest victim?
This book has a great atmosphere, with a darkness that really settles over the plot right from the beginning, as we see Edward take such a wary approach to his family from the get-go. You know it's only going to get better from there. And boy does it. Every interaction with the Holbecks just ratchets up the tension until things are just ready to explode, and you're ready for it to happen!
Yes, that ending was quite something! It was a little bit of a blue as things happened very quickly, but I imagine that's quite what it was like as events were happening. I can't give things away, but it seemed very true to the situation. I wasn't disappointed at all, and found it really juicy. I also really didn't see it coming. I suppose the clues were all there, but I have to say, they were nice and hidden in there, so that the twist was good and exciting.
I also loved the mysterious over that seemed to hang over the characters. It made the book better to never quite know who you could trust. It also like a locked room mystery, but the characters were roaming about, lol. They were all just in the same family. And, no, you had no idea who to trust, because any one of them could have turned on you.
Overall, this is one of the best books of the year. Get it now if you like mysteries and thrillers!
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