Publisher: Century

Publication Date: 21st July 2022

LONDON. Early morning, June 2019: on the foreshore of the river Thames, a bag of bones is discovered. Human bones.

DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene and quickly sends the bag for forensic examination. The bones are those of a young woman, killed by a blow to the head many years ago.

Also inside the bag is a trail of clues, in particular the seeds of a rare tree which lead DCI Owusu back to a mansion in Chelsea where, nearly thirty years previously, three people lay dead in a kitchen, and a baby waited upstairs for someone to pick her up.

The clues point forward too to a brother and sister in Chicago searching for the only person who can make sense of their pasts.

Four deaths. An unsolved mystery. A family whose secrets can’t stay buried for ever …

Sequel to her popluar novel The Family Upstairs, Jewell herself admits that she does not like writing sequels, but she recevied so amany requests asking what happened after the Family Upstairs ended that she decided to tie up the loose ends and questions that were left.

She does introduce some new characters to tie up a plot point that occured outside of the main family story but is still important to understand that characters motivations and dynamic.

Well written with the characters akready well defined if you have already read the previous book, however there is enough inoformation regarding the previous events that you do not need to read the first book, however I cannot imagine why anyone would not want to read it as the first is a brilliant book.

The Family Remains is a great sequel to ‘Upstairs’ bringing a thrilling yet heartbreaking at times conclusion the story of the Lamb family.

The only issue I found is that for the first 15 or so chapters I was confused as to how certain family members were related, getting Lucy and Libby confused at times and, a family tree at the begining of this book would have not only helped but would have been in keeping with the style of the story.

Another great read from Lisa Jewell, whose characters, plots and writing style never disappoint.

4 stars