Richard & Judy Introduce The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell

Old bones discovered in a black bin liner on the banks of the Thames mark the beginning of this wonderfully gripping story of what happened to the Lambs, a rich and twisted family whose lives fell apart in their Chelsea mansion thirty years ago. Four deaths, and a dark secret history; a terrific complex thriller with a satisfying heart.

Judy's Review:

I adored this book. I’ve been craving to read the sequel to THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS ever since I finished it, and Lisa Jewell hasn’t let me or her millions of fans down.

A black bin liner full of old bones found on the banks of the Thames leads the police back to the Lamb family. Their rich and privileged lives in a Chelsea mansion were destroyed thirty years before by a deranged cult leader who moved his family into their house.

The children (their parents left for dead) disappeared and are now tracked down in this engrossingly captivating sequel. Lucy Lamb, her brother Henry, and Phineas Thomsen, the son of the psychopathic control freak who invaded the Cheyenne Walk mansion, have been scattered by trauma.

Now, decades on, they are reunited, with heart-stopping results.

Richard's Review:

Don’t worry if you haven’t read The Family Upstairs; Jewell’s new book is a first-rate standalone thriller, as we discover early on when Rachel Rimmer, who lives in London, gets a call one morning from the French police. They inform her that her husband, Michael, has been found dead, apparently murdered, in the cellar of his house in the South of France.

Rachel “stared blankly for a moment toward the window, where the summer sun was leaking through the edges of the blind. She sighed heavily. Then she pulled her sleep mask down, turned on her side, and went back to sleep.” We are immediately hooked.

Who was Michael, why did he die, and how was he connected to the Lambs and their horrific murder-suicide pact thirty years before?

This first-rate twisty thriller is a terrific read.