One Big Happy Family Review

Author: Jamie Day

Publisher: St. Martins Press

Release Day: July 16, 2024

Many thanks to St. Martins Press for an arc of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Review published in Mystery & Suspense Magazine

The newest, riveting summer suspense by the author of The Block Party, Jamie Day.

Review:

ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY is a domestic thriller that takes place in a famous family-owned hotel sitting high on a cliff in Maine. With a hurricane brewing in the Atlantic, the three troubled Bishop sisters return to the hotel to claim their inheritance after their father's death. All three are concealing dark secrets and are anxious for the reading of the will for their own sordid reasons. Anxiously watching everything go down is chambermaid Charley Kelley who lives and works at the hotel and is desperate to keep her income to continue caring for her grandmother. Not entirely innocent, Charley has a few secrets of her own that she'd just as soon not become exposed. She may or may not have developed a bad habit of pilfering through the guests' belongings, and it's minutely possible she's hiding a darker, more dangerous secret too. In her defense, she has a good reason for everything she's done, not that the greedy sisters will understand. What will happen to her if she loses her job? Or the hotel closes? She can't allow that to happen.

When the reading of their father's Will doesn't go as expected, nasty accusations are tossed around, and fingers pointed. Someone manipulated their father into changing his Will. Was it one of the sisters or someone else? Maybe the seedy lawyer? If that's not enough, just as the hurricane closes all escape routes and all communication with the outside world is cut off, a body is discovered. Stranded with a murderer walking among them, nerves are frayed, patience is thin. One of them is a murderer. Who is it?

Author Jamie Day expertly manipulates characters and readers through another domestic thriller in ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY. A locked room style mystery, the threat of a killer hidden somewhere within the hotel and the storm raging outside combine to drive a swift pace as the story unfolds. Tension escalates as skeletons are rattled and one by one, secrets start slipping out. While the sisters' greedy behavior is unattractive and highly questionable, a couple of the support characters deserve readers empathy. Although I tuned into the real villain incredibly early on, it didn't diminish my reading pleasure as I kept turning pages just to watch the drama play out.

ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY is a highly atmospheric, convoluted domestic thriller in which readers and characters are charged with solving a mystery by identifying a killer. While a bit predictable, I found it to be a well plotted, witty and entertaining mystery. Highly recommended to fans of locked room style mysteries and domestic thrillers.

 Synopsis:

The Precipice is a legendary, family-owned hotel on the rocky coast of Maine. With the recent passing of their father, the Bishop sisters—Iris, Vicki, and Faith—have come for the weekend to claim it. But with a hurricane looming and each of the Bishop sisters harboring dangerous secrets, there's murder in the air—and not everyone who checks into the Precipice will be checking out.

Each sister wants what is rightfully hers, and in the mix is the Precipe's nineteen-year-old chambermaid Charley Kelley: smart, resilient, older than her years, and in desperate straits.

The arrival of the Bishop sisters could spell disaster for Charley. Will they close the hotel? Fire her? Discover her habit of pilfering from guests? Or even worse, learn that she's using a guest room to hide a woman on the run.

With razor-sharp wit, heart, thrills, and twists, Jamie Day delivers a unique brand of SUMMERTIME SUSPENSE.