The Family Inside
A Novel
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3.7 • 30 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
"This plot isn't just twisted—it's down-right gnarled." —People Magazine
It takes a special family to turn a home into a nightmare.
Since her husband’s unsolved murder three years ago, Iris Blodgett’s life has unraveled. Awash in grief and buried in debt, she can’t pay her mortgage—and now that she’s lost her job, she has no idea how she’ll provide for her unruly teenage daughter, Ellory.
Facing eviction, Iris turns to her new beau, prominent architect Hugh Smoll, for a shoulder to cry on. But the seemingly perfect Hugh offers her something more: an invitation to move in to his mother’s centuries-old mansion while he renovates the property.
It seems like the perfect solution, but when Iris and Ellory arrive at Ravencliff, the family inside isn’t quite what they expected. Iris didn’t even know Hugh had siblings, much less that they’d all be living together.
With repairs underway, the house gives up its dark secrets one by one. Before long, Iris unearths a chilling family history—and the terrifying reason she and Ellory were invited in the first place…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Garner's engrossing latest (after The Night It Ended) succeeds thanks to some well-executed sleight of hand. Iris Blodgett and her daughter, Ellory, are still mourning the death of Iris's husband three years ago when they receive notice that the bank is preparing to foreclose on their home. Iris's new boyfriend, Hugh, suggests they move into his family estate with him and his mother, sister, brother, and sister-in-law. Though she's only been seeing Hugh for two months, the typically careful Iris agrees. After the Blodgetts' first night at Ravencliff manor, however, Ellory vanishes, prompting a hysterical Iris to hire a smarmy private investigator to find her. Then Hugh's sister-in-law disappears as well, and Iris starts to wonder why, exactly, her new boyfriend was so eager to gather everyone under one roof. Mysterious heirlooms, signed murder confessions, and midnight hallucinations raise the temperature on what at first appears to be a standard domestic thriller, and Garner ushers the proceedings toward an audacious final twist that recasts everything that came before it in a new light. This is stay-up-all-night reading.
Customer Reviews
Wow…just wow
I could explain it but then, uh, I don’t think I actually could explain it. Some breadcrumbs were whimsically left along the way, some red herrings and some twists. Very satisfying ending. Fave book in quite a few months.