Not a Happy Family Shari Lapena

Hello Beautiful People! Welcome back to another Baddie Book Review! So happy to have you here!

For this review, I got into Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena. Not a Happy Family is the classic whodunnit mystery book revolving around the death of two wealthy parents and their adult children being at the center of the mystery. Let’s get into it!

Main Characters:

• Fred and Sheila Merton: Parents to Catherine, Dan, and Jenna. Were murdered in their homes on an Easter Sunday
• Catherine: Married to Ted, a doctor, the ‘favourite’ of the kids
• Dan: Married to Lisa, has been without a job for some time after his father sold his company
• Jenna: The ‘wild child’ of the family, is the creative, lives off of her parents
• Audrey: Fred’s sister
• Irena Debrowski: The families long time nanny/maid, found Fred and Shelia in the house
• Ellen and Rose Cutter: Long-time friends of the different family members, Ellen is Rose’s mother

My Review

I have to give this book a 9/10 because once I started it this fine Thanksgiving weekend I managed to crush it out in a day’s time. The book was fast and fun, and just an easy enjoyable read. This book with its whodunnit theme definitely keeps you thinking the whole time but with the relatively small band of characters, and their obvious connections to each other things don’t get confusing. It also helped that Shari made all the siblings, who are at the center of the mystery very different from one another. It’s kind of the classic opposite siblings. The book revolves around the story of when the Merton parents are found murdered in their mansion after having Easter Sunday dinner with their children. When the topic of inheritance comes into play the Merton children are thrown at the center of the mystery. As the police try to investigate the siblings, and as the siblings try to evade them, we the reader are often left wondering who in the family killed the parents.

Catherine is the more poised, put-together, ‘better’ sibling. While she defiantly presents herself to be this way and hopes that others will view her in this way, it’s shown throughout the book she’s not as put together as she seems. Her husband is definitely the glue to the relationship in this story and sees through her often fakeness. Dan is the ‘screw up’ without having ever actually screwed up. Fred is a dictator of a father and loves to berate his children and his favourite to berate is Dan. All Dan tries to do is impress his family, specifically his father, with little to no recognition for what he does. Jenna is the ‘free spirit’ who is an artist mostly living off of her parent’s money. I thought it was interesting that Jenna was presented as the second favourite child. I mean given the direction of the book it seems like she would be more of the screw-up than Dan. I never really figured out what exactly it was about Dan that made his Dad dislike him so much, I mean there were some things about him that weren’t great but it just honestly didn’t make sense to me. Maybe their dad just really enjoyed hating his children.

I have to say that Fred is a terrible man. He never had anything nice to say to his children and often enjoyed making them uncomfortable or upset. Some would say that maybe the siblings act the way they do in the book (often coming off as spoiled and not caring that their parents are dead now that they’ll get the inheritance) because they were spoiled by wealthy parents as children. I would more so say they act the way they do because they always had to prove they were worthy of their parent’s love. They were never given love unconditionally by anyone other than their nanny Irena, and realistically her love just wasn’t enough. Don’t get me wrong I am not excusing any of the siblings for what they inevitably do in the book but I can see why they kind of turned out the way they did.

The dynamic and apparent differences between all of the characters make this an enjoyable book to read. You get locked into all the aspects of everyone’s life in a desperate attempt to try to tell who murdered the parents. I will say I definitely had a different idea of who the killer was before it was exposed at the end.

Summary and Commentary

***Please be aware this section will have spoilers***

The book starts off before the murder occurs. We get an introduction to Dan and his wife Lisa. They are getting ready to head off to his parents’ home for easter dinner. We get an idea from Dan that he’s struggling with money and plans to talk to his dad about a loan at easter, and isn’t excited about having to do it. We then get a look at Catherine and her husband Ted. We see the standard that Catherine holds herself to which is a high one. Her husband sees that she puts on a facade while with her family and doesn’t enjoy being around it. We then get a look at Jenna who is hanging out with her boyfriend Jake. She presents to be carefree and doesn’t seem to care much about what her family thinks. We then get a look at Ellen and Rose Cutter who are friends of the Merton family. Rose presents that she’s done something stupid, kind of making the reader think that she could have something to do with the murder. I assumed that this was just a tactic to get the reader thinking but I guessed she had nothing to do with it so I didn’t pay this much mind. We also get an introduction to Audrey who is Fred’s sister. She won’t be making it to the dinner due to being sick but assumes she’ll be missing out on some drama so I wondered what was to come.

When Catherine arrives at her parents’ home her mother Sheila tells her that there’s something that she wants to talk with her about. They don’t get a chance to chat before everyone else arrives. The siblings described their dad’s greeting to be cold which I assumed was how he often was. We also learn that Dan has a need for money because his dad had sold the family business out from under him. The plan had always been that Dan would take over the company but when his dad sold it unexpectedly he lost his future and his job. Dan seems to heavily resent his father because of this which definitely made sense to me. Irena the family’s ex-nanny/cleaner is also there for dinner but seems to be doing lots of the work for it too. It’s clear Irena cares a lot for the kids and seems to be the only one that does.

After dinner is done Fred announces to the family that he and Sheila plan to sell the family home. This is a huge shock to the siblings as it seemed that the home would be in their future inheritance. Furthermore, Catherine seemed to have the idea that she would inherit the home in the future and felt she had the rug pulled out from under her. I mean I thought Catherine seemed a bit spoiled in this part. It made sense that she was upset about the house but the reality is it’s not her house so she never had any right to it. When the kids press why they are doing this Fred presents that all of the kids have been a disappointment to him and he doesn’t feel any of them deserve it. I felt like this was kind of harsh. I mean how can you tell people in their 20’s and 30’s that they’ve been a disappointment? They’ve barely been able to do anything at this point. I thought Fred was such an ass. After the blow-up everyone quickly leaves the house. One thing I didn’t love was that Sheila just sat by and watched her husband talk to her children this way, and probably always has. I mean if she agreed with him that’s one thing, but it didn’t seem like she did. She just can’t stand up to him.

After Dan and Lisa get home he eventually tells her he’s going out from a drive. This made me as the reader wonder if he was going to go back to his parents’ house and commit the murder. I mean he’s broke, realistically he could really use that inheritance money. Lisa back at home questions if Dan is okay. She believes he’s been lying to her about going to interviews and thinks his pride is starting to get the best of him. I think Dan doesn’t have much pride though it’s that he’s trying to find some. Back at home with Catherine and Ted, Catherine abruptly announces she going to go to her parents to see what her mom wants to talk with her about. I thought this was so weird. I mean she could have just waited till the next day, or talked to her when she was at the house? Why was she so worried about going back there now?

Back at the Merton home, we are at the present with the detectives working on the murder. Irena found Fred and Sheila when she went to go clean the home a few days later. Sheila was killed in a kinder manner, whereas Fred’s murder was clearly done out of rage and anger. The house has been staged to look like a robbery but the detectives assume otherwise based on how brutally Fred was attacked. It’s clear the killer also came prepared as there isn’t much for clues, and no DNA and fingerprints in the house. The detectives question Irena about the kids and it’s clear she takes up the defence for them. She tends to dodge the detective’s questions regarding their inheritance. I thought Irena probably suspected that it was one of the kids which was why she was acting this way. The detectives go to talk to Catherine and she’s clearly shaken up by the murders. She also dodges questions about her parent’s worth. When Catherine calls Ted one of the few things she tells him is that she told police she was home after dinner on Sunday, which she was not, and asks him to tell them a similar story. I found this so interesting. I mean I understood that she didn’t want to be a suspect but it’s more suspicious if she lies and they eventually find out rather than her just being honest and saying why she went back over to the house.

When the siblings get all together to talk about what’s happening Dan is the first one to say something fucked up. He seems somewhat upset about the murders but not as much as one would expect. He mentions to his siblings that they are now free, and like I get it because his dad was an ass but at the same time like just keep it to yourself man. Dan really presents himself to not be upset about the murders. I found this weird because again I get it his dad was terrible but he didn’t care at all about his mom? You’d think he’d at least be a bit upset that she was killed to get to his dad, I get that she wasn’t the best at standing up for her kids but she didn’t deserve to die just because people hated Fred. Ted to himself questions why Catherine wanted him to lie to the police, and if she had just missed the murderer when she went to the house. I think he’s thinking what we are all thinking and wondering if something went down at the house when she was there.

Audrey Fred’s sister gets left out of the news of the murders and finds out on the radio when she’s driving. I thought it was kind of messed up that the kids didn’t reach out to her at all. The police discover at the house that the murder weapon used on Fred was a knife from in the house. Along with that the murder weapon had been picked up and cleaned and put back in the knife block. They notice this because there is a dried shape made of blood on the floor that is clearly the exact shape of the knife. They suspect Irena did it but wonder why. Audrey decides to go to Catherine’s home because she suspects the kids will all be there and wants to share some news with them. Apparently, Fred told her that he planned to change his will to make it so Audrey got half of his wealth, and the rest was split between the kids. The siblings of course are all shocked and think she’s lying. This is such a messed up family. I mean all they can talk about is the damn money.

As Jenna goes back home she thinks about how the murders affected her, her exact words. Then started talking about the money. So Jenna is just as messed up as Dan I guess. I mean clearly all three of the kids are but at least Catherine was at least upset about it. Jenna thinks about how Jake agreed to not tell the police about the argument. I guess when everyone left the home on Sunday Jenna and Jake stayed behind for a bit to talk to her parents. Some fight clearly ensured but we don’t yet know what it was about. Back with the police they canvas the neighbourhood and find out that a strange truck was driving around, but aren’t sure if it has any connection. We also find out that Ellen is connected to the family because she and Audrey are BFFS. Also, we finally get a bit of humanity from Dan as he sheds some tears for his parents. It didn’t convince me of much though, maybe he just realized he was talking about the money too much and needed to act like a human. But then he goes right to calling the lawyer about the will so I was like oop never mind still a bad guy.

Audrey goes to talk to Fred’s lawyer believing his will to now have her named as a beneficiary to half of his wealth. However, the lawyer informs her that he was away before Fred died and he was never able to change his will. This of course is a shock to Audrey. She believes this means that one of the kids found out about his plan to change the will and killed the couple before Fred could do so. Jenna goes to Catherine to share her concerns about Dan. Apparently, the sisters believe he was the one who killed their parents, and that he’s starting to lose it. The police find out that Jenna stayed at the house later than the rest of the kids on Sunday and wonder why she originally lied to them about it. At this point, I really wasn’t sure who the killer was but I thought it had to be Dan or Jenna. Maybe Jenna and her boyfriend killed them together, it would make sense.

When the police talk to Irena they question her on the cleaning of the murder weapon. Irena ultimately admits that when she found the bodies she picked up the knife and cleaned it. When questioned as to why she would do that she admits that it’s because she felt like it was one of the siblings who did it, and she wanted to protect them. When she gets out of the police station she goes to Catherine’s to admit to them what she did. Of course, they are all pissed and offended that she would even think it was one of them. I mean to be fair she knows them pretty well and with the small look we get in the book it makes sense she would think it’s one of them. When the police question Dan he doesn’t do the best job of presenting himself as a loving son. Dan doesn’t play it cool and freaks at every question they ask him. This definitely made me suspicious of him. When Dan leaves the station he goes to tell his siblings that he thinks the police suspect him and he asks for a lawyer. Catherine offers to pay the fees for him which made me think she definitely thinks he did it. Dan was like really freaking out though so I wondered if he was feeling like the walls were closing in.

We find out Rose Cutter’s connection to the family as she is BFFS with Catherine and worked on a business deal with Dan in the past. She goes to Catherine’s to comfort her. Rose makes this weird comment that the family can’t find out what she’s done and this made me wonder if she maybe killed the Merton’s or something, but that wouldn’t make much sense. Dan’s wife Lisa lies to the police for him. She told them that he was home during the night despite him going for a drive. I wonder how all of these people manage to be so comfortable lying to the police because when Jake goes to talk to them he does the exact same thing. The detectives get a call from the coroner and they let them know that Fred was ill with a deadly stage of cancer and would have died in a few months had he not been murdered. Catherine is in a panic back at home. Ted tries to calm her and thinks that she’s worried because she lied to the police. She makes a comment believing it is Dan who killed them. When Ted presses her as to why this would be we find out that when Catherine went back to the house to talk to her mom that night she found them in the house dead. Like what? You’re telling me she went to her parents’ home, found them dead, proceeded to not call the police, and then left them for days for the maid to find? This made me wonder if Catherine maybe did it. I still wasn’t convinced it was her but this was weird. Even if she thought it was Dan not reporting the bodies wouldn’t have stopped the police from figuring out it was him. Also, that made me think that the Merton parents were obviously killed not that long after everyone left because Catherine went over around 11pm-midnight. When the detectives go through video footage from a neighbour in Catherine’s neighbourhood they find out that she lied and that she left the house again that evening. Ted, Catherine’s husband thinks about the fact that when she returned home that night she asked her how everything went and she said everything went fine. That made him think that Catherine may be crazy because who the hell says that after finding their parents brutally murdered? Unless you were the one to do it?

The police further find out that Dan was lying about leaving the house when they canvas his neighbourhood. I guess that is the benefit of living in a nosey neighbourhood and then being involved in a murder investigation. The police get a search warrant on Dan’s home to see if they find any of the stolen items. It was also concluded that due to the brutality of the murders, the killer would have had to been covered in Fred’s blood, so they also hoped to find bloody clothes. They don’t find much a Dan’s home other than some PPE (Personal protective equipment) that could be used to hide DNA evidence in a murder. Dan claims he had it for when he insulated their home, and that everyone knew these were there, and he leaves his garage unlocked, and his family knows this. This was strange to me because would one of the siblings really go out of their way to go into his garage to get these things? The family collects at Catherine’s to talk about the warrant on Dan’s home. Catherine tells her siblings about finding her parents and of course, everyone freaks out. Dan says she did it so they would assume him over her, and that made sense to me.

Audrey comes over to the house when they are all there (uninvited). She announces that she believes one of the siblings killed their parents, and she would stop at nothing to find out who. I mean look I respect her desire to figure out the mystery but I wouldn’t have exactly announced that to the potential killer. I ended up being right for thinking this. We come to find out that all the kids have some strange things about them that started to show up when they were children. Audrey knew things about them that others didn’t. Catherine as a child was a bit of a klepto and had the desire to take things that weren’t hers (despite her family’s excessive wealth), Jenna had a tendency as a child to have a bad temper that would sometimes make her a bit violent, Dan had a tendency to follow and stalk people who rejected him. The question to Audrey was which oddity could make a murder. At this point, I really wasn’t sure who it was. I mean all of them could lead to murder. Jenna was the only one who was violent but it didn’t mean that any of the other kids didn’t grow into that trait as well eventually.

At the parent’s funeral, Dan gets up to give a speech. He essentially talks crap about his parents, not exactly a good look with the detectives present. I mean I know people grieve differently but definitely not the time or the place to be sharing his hatred for his parents. He does share his love for his mom at least but still… very weird. We also find out that as children Audrey saw Fred kill their alcoholic father. She kept it secret all of these years. If I am being honest I wasn’t sure what the point of this was. I mean she confided this in Ellen so maybe Ellen would expose this, but I don’t feel like this would have anything to do with why Fred and Sheila died. It also didn’t make me hate or like Fred any less or more. I kind of still had the same feeling for him. This doesn’t really end up playing a significant role other than Audrey using this to explain how one of the other children could be murders as well. They got a psychopathy trait from Fred. When Audrey gets home she has some iced tea and it’s been poisoned. See told ya you shouldn’t announce to a murderer that you’re going to expose them. She doesn’t end up dying and gets help in time. Too bad for the killer I guess.

We find out that Catherine is pregnant. Not the best time but she seems happy about it. Ted not so much although he doesn’t show it. A warrant is also put on her home and the detectives find a pair of earrings that were reported as being taken from the home in the robbery. Catherine explains it away by saying her mom lent them to her. Based on the time of death, and when they believe Catherine was at the home they question her on what she saw. She admits she found them dead, and when they ask her why she didn’t do anything, she says it’s because she thought Dan murdered them. I mean girl… kind of a dick move to throw your brother under the bus like that. But I guess people will do whatever to save their own skin.

Walter, Fred’s lawyer gathers the kids to go over the will. The kids find out that Fred had an affair and has an illegitimate child who he has also named as a collector of his estate. It’ll be split four ways between them, and then Irena and Audrey get a solid million each. Come to find out the illegitimate child is Rose Cutter. So Ellen, Audrey’s friend never told her that her daughter was Audrey’s niece, and she clearly never told Rose Fred was her father. Apparently, Fred had been paying child support though which is also crazy. It’s weird that she and Catherine were friends and he just never said anything. Catherine wonders if Rose knew though and that is why she wanted to be friends. We find out from the detectives that what Dan does when he goes out at night is he stalks the property he invested in. The person living on the property sees him there often. They find out from the owner that Dan is not an investment owner in the property. This means Rose lied to him about the deal and did who knows what with his money. The owner saw Dan there the night of the murders. The home is in Fred and Sheila’s neighbourhood so it’s possible he went to their home. The detectives also wonder if Dan knew the deal was a bust. Audrey of course also freaks when she finds out her close friend has been lying to her for all of these years. She also realized she had been confiding in her on family things, not knowing she was a part of the family in this way. Now Ellen worries that since Rose is Fred’s child maybe she had a psychopathic gene as well, but concludes that can’t be it because she didn’t know anything about being related to the Merton’s.

It’s made to seem that Rose doesn’t know that Fred is her father and gets called to his lawyer’s office. She finds out that she is a beneficiary in the will, and is upset because she had been lied to for a long time about who her father was. When the police spoke to her they told her they knew about the fraud on the deal with Dan and planned to charge her for it. She knows her life is about to crumble despite her getting this money from Fred. At this point, I was certain it was Dan who killed them. I understood that the author was trying to maybe make it seem like Rose did it but I was still on the Dan train, with some suspicion on Catherine. The detectives find out that Rose knew about the will, and that Fred was her father. A friend of hers works for Fred’s lawyers and saw the will and told her. When the friend heard about the murders she spoke to police out of concern she played a role in the murders (exposing confidential information). The police question her about it but Rose stresses that she didn’t do it.

The police speak to Jenna’s boyfriend Jake because it’s been exposed to them that he actually left Jenna on Sunday night and went back home. He lied about staying over and being her alibi. Dang so now maybe Jenna was in the running for the killer since she was alone the whole night. Jake then exposes that during the argument when everyone else had left, Fred told Jenna his plan to name Audrey as the beneficiary for half of his wealth. So Jenna knew… dang. None of the other kids knew unless she told them. But at this point, I really thought it must be her or Dan. We also find out that Catherine plucked the earrings off her mom when she found the bodies… so at this point, I had no clue who did it cause clearly everyone was messed up.

The ending to the book felt a bit rushed. Irena is arrested because her car was reported as being at the Merton house late that Sunday night. Irena claims she was home the whole time, and this is backed up by phone records because she talked to a friend on the phone at the time her car was at the house. Apparently, Irena leaves a spare hidden and the Merton kids know this. I mean this seemed really weird that one of the kids would go to her house and take the car because that would have taken a lot of thinking and premeditation, but maybe one of the kids was really just that messed up. When they examine the car they find some DNA in there and you’ll never guess whose it was… JENNA! Dang, it was Jenna the whole time. I mean I had some suspicions early on but I had definitely thought it was Dan who did it.

We find out that Jenna went to Dan’s and collected the supplies from his garage. She then went to Irena’s to get the car and used the weapons from the home. After she finished murdering her parents she took the evidence to a construction site and hid it where cement was going to be poured. I mean very planned out and methodical, she clearly wanted to kill them. It’s just crazy to me she would do this and be such a good liar, clearly a lot like her dad. Since the police can’t find any major evidence (can’t find the things Jenna hid) they can’t charge her. Audrey clearly the grade-a sleuth she is, guesses that Jenna may have dumped it at this site, however, she can’t convince the police. We get a look a year later. Catherine and Ted live in the murder home which is weird as hell, I could never. We finish off with Audrey planning to use her million to buy the construction site. Insinuating that she plans to find the evidence and expose Jenna for good.

I really enjoyed the book and it was such a fun fast mystery. The ending did feel a bit rushed but I also really enjoyed the ending because I had a totally different idea of who the killer was before it was exposed.

I hope you enjoyed this review and I would love to hear what you thought of the book if you’ve read it before! Feel free to follow me on all social media platforms @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date for when I put out a new review!