DESCRIPTION:
A week in paradise—with the family from hell.
When Patrick is invited by his girlfriend to join her and her family on a luxury holiday in a remote and beautiful part of Scotland, he has no idea that he is about to be plunged into a nightmare of a family, sinister behavior…and a plot to murder the patriarch’s younger fiancée.
Arriving at the house, Patrick meets Holly’s dad, self-made-millionaire Charles, along with her brother Lewis and older sister Miranda. Also on the trip is the widowed Charles’ bride-to-be, Jasmine, who—in her early forties—is around the same age as the three siblings. Lewis and Miranda are horrified by their dad’s impending marriage to this younger woman. Surely, she is just after his money—and is going to steal their inheritance from them. To make things worse, Jasmine is an almost exact doppelganger of their mother before she got sick and died at forty-two.
Patrick finds himself in the middle of this viper’s nest, trying to keep out of the family crosshairs. He starts to suspect that Lewis has dark plans for Jasmine—putting himself in peril as a potential witness who could mess up his scheme. Perhaps more than one person won’t escape this family of snakes…
Patrick is thrilled when he and his girlfriend, Holly Grant, travel to Scotland to celebrate the New Year with her family. As the title suggests, Patrick hopes that this visit will offer him the opportunity to allow him to become one of the family. While the story occasionally shifts to other perspectives, Patrick remains the main protagonist, and I enjoyed experiencing much of the story through his eyes.
Right from the outset, there is drama. Patrick quickly sees how upset Holly is that her father is engaged to a much younger woman. Not only is she about the same age as Holly and her siblings, she bears an uncanny resemblance to Holly’s mother. But there is much more to the situation than meets the eye. As the story shifts between the present and 2006, we see Holly was a teenager, when at the time a young man died under questionable circumstances. At the same time, Holly’s mother was seriously ill, adding another layer of grief to an already difficult period in her life.
In this atmospheric and increasingly tense story, Patrick navigates around a family where everyone seems to be holding onto secrets. And some secrets are dangerous enough to kill for. As Patrick begins to uncover more about both the past and the present, he becomes increasingly aware of the toxic environment surrounding Holly’s family.
Mark Edwards skillfully draws readers into the mystery alongside Patrick as long-buried secrets begin to surface. Then, as the weather turns increasingly hazardous and Patrick discovers a body, the stakes become even higher. Patrick now knows that one of the family members is a killer. More than that, the killer may be willing to do whatever it takes to keep deeply buried secrets from ever being revealed. With danger closing in and trust becoming nearly impossible, Patrick realizes that he may be fighting not only to uncover the truth, but to stay alive long enough to expose it.
One of the Family, with its atmospheric, suspenseful, and intricately woven narrative, kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end. The book’s exploration of secrets, twists, and the dynamics of a dysfunctional family captivated me, making it impossible to put down.
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