Thirty Days of Darkness” by Jenny Lund Madsen – Book Review @OrendaBooks @JennyLundMadsen #ThirtyDaysOfDarkness #BookReview @edelweiss_squad @meganeturney November 26, 2023 The Merton family puts the word FUN in the word "dysfunctional"; making this "whodunnit" mystery challenging to solve. The real story begins when Irena goes to the Merton residence on the Tuesday after Easter to clean the house. She finds both Fred and Sheila Merton brutally murdered. On the upside? Lapena always keeps her character list short, which I honestly appreciate. Too many thrillers and suspense novels get cluttered with a bunch of people who either don't matter, aren't interesting, or seem to exist only to serve as potential suspects. This tightly-knit family provided just enough options without a bunch of filler. Three traumatized children: one of them or all may have inherited the genes of their father, suffering from same psychopathic tendencies to commit such a brutal crime!

I have now read all six of Shari Lapena’s novels, and have found them all to be entertaining! If you enjoy domestic suspense and haven’t yet read this author-it’s time to change that!The chapters are short and sweet, making it easy to pause if you need to...but propelling you to continue. Somewhere around 50% mark we all thought we figured out who the killer was, but I am glad to say we were wrong. Shari Lapena is the internationally bestselling author of The Couple Next Door, A Stranger in the House, An Unwanted Guest, Someone We Know and The End of Her. She was a lawyer and an English teacher before turning her hand to fiction. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

One of her hairs was found in Irena’s car, which was seen outside her parents’ house on the night of the murder, but Jenna insists it could have transferred to Irena when she hugged her after dinner. Now everyone in the family is a suspect. They all had a motive. Most of them had an opportunity. Who done it?I borrowed this one from the library because I'd read another by Lapena in the past and I didn't like it. But in this outing, I was hooked and this was a fun one brimming with people I didn't want to prosper Except Ted. As a singleton, I appreciated his trying to understand his wife and the relationship she & her siblings shared. I wanted him to have a good resolution. Surprisingly, there was even one character whom, while I didn't root for, I was pleased with their final move on the board in the Epilogue. All the points for being observant and biding one's time. What did you think of Audrey as an amateur detective? She suspected Jenna all along, and she was right. Not a Happy Family was my first Shari Lapena book and it really kept me guessing. If you loved Knives Out, this has a very similar vibe. One Easter Sunday, Fred and Sheila Merton host their three children for dinner. As always, the conversation turns to fights over money and favorite. Days later, the housekeeper finds Fred and Sheila dead in their home and all their squabbling, greedy family members are suspects. The family in this story, the Mertons, although wealthy, are not a happy family. Their holiday dinners get very messy indeed.

She’s hiding some family secrets, including the fact that Fred killed his own father and staged it to look like suicide. As she’s snooping around about the murders, someone breaks into her house and tries to poison her. The kids don’t spend much time with their folks, but holiday gatherings are a mandatory event, and Easter Sunday morning finds all three Merton offspring getting ready for dinner at their parents’ house. Catherine, the eldest, is a successful doctor married to an equally successful dentist. The only thing she looks forward to that day is being in the family home. She loves the lavish estate with its beautiful furnishings, tasteful and expensive artwork, elegant, pricey dishware and costly antiques. When her parents die, Catherine plans to take the house as her inheritance and let her younger siblings have all the cash. Her husband Ted doesn’t want to attend. He knows Fred will sta A well developed cast of characters were delightfully malcontent and rotten to the core which meant that I was on board with any one of them being held culpable for the misdeeds happening here.

Maggie Boyd

She didn’t call the police because she thought her brother Dan killed her parents. Cameras at the neighbors suggest she left her house around 11:00 pm and returned at 12:40 am. She also stole a favorite pair of earrings off her mother’s body. Synopsis: In the Merton family, everyone is keeping secrets–especially the dead. Even all their money can’t protect Fred and Sheila Merton when a killer comes to call. Bestselling author Shari Lapena knows a thing or two about secrets, and in Not a Happy Family, everyone’s got them – even the dead. When a wealthy couple is murdered the day after a contentious Easter dinner with their estranged offspring, their kids become instant millionaires—that is, unless it turns out that they’re the ones responsible for the murder. Strong Menendez Brother vibes with this one.” Yes! Unfortunately knives are not out! Because the poor caretaker Irena already washed away the murder weapon, cleaning the traces of blood and fingertips of the murderer. She has good intentions. She literally raised those kids and she truly knows how they suffered from controlling monster a.k.a real psychopath father of the year with a big ugly secret. Each family member(including the deceased couple) was repugnant, loathsome, and distasteful in different ways. One or more members of the Merton family is possibly a psychopath.

Congratulations for being nominated as one of the best thrillers for Goodreads Choice Awards! This book was definitely one of the best reads of the year!

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However, I am also sad to say that the big revelation didn't come with a bang and it felt like it was just mentioned and done. Fred and Sheila Merton are extremely wealthy but awful parents, Fred especially. He is cruel and dismissive, especially to his son Dan who is now unemployed after his father sold the family business so that Dan couldn’t get hands on it because he didn’t rate his business skills. He doesn’t care how much hurt he causes. He announces he is selling the family home despite knowing how much one of his daughters wants it. His wife Sheila is distant and unable to stand up to him.