Ontario’s Shari Lapena has had us completely hooked on her novels since her excellent Couple next doorto the point that it has become practically impossible to resist its new releases, which always make excellent summer reading.
His intrigues at the Desperate Housewives draw us into the dark little secrets of these well-off, seemingly irreproachable suburban families, and have earned her the nickname of “queen of the domestic thriller”, a genre of psychological thriller that has been flourishing for several years.
The family in his new novel is the Mertons. After a particularly tense Easter dinner, the parents are found murdered by their housekeeper. That’s when the guessing game begins: who killed them, when everyone is convinced it was one of the children, for inheritance reasons?
Their eldest daughter, who dreams of living in their house located in one of the most beautiful neighborhoods? The son, in debt and repeatedly humiliated by his father? Or the youngest, a rebellious artist, known for her outbursts? Cover-ups, betrayals, shameless lies, everything is there while the investigation follows its course.
The author manages to keep us in suspense until the end, while leading us from surprise to surprise. And even if the process can seem repetitive at times, we bite the bait and want more.
Family dinners
The City Press
347 pages