Book Review of ‘The Family Remains’ by Lisa Jewell

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

It doesn’t feel like it was two minutes since I was reading my first Lisa Jewell, and falling in love with her domestic psychological thrillers. She’s now one of my go-to authors and I automatically add each of her new releases to the top of my TBR list. This latest novel did not disappoint!

Okay, so the first thing to say is that this isn’t a stand-alone novel, and that you do definitely need to read ‘The Family Upstairs’ first. It does recap on the basic plot of the first book, but the real joy in reading this one is that it fills in all the gaps that were gaping wide open after the first. If you’ve forgotten what happened in the first novel, then you can find a reminder here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Family-Upstairs/Lisa-Jewell/9781501190117

So if you know the background to the family (or families), then you’ll know about Lucy, Henry and Phin’s twisted past, and the uncomfortable circumstances surrounding Libby’s birth. Well, now it’s 2019 and we’re back in London. The house has been sold, but a bag of human bones is discovered on the foreshore of the river Thames. When a mudlark resurrects the bones, he brings to the surface painful memories for the surviving family memories.

DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene and quickly send the bag of bones for forensic examination. It is revealed that that the bones are those of a young woman, killed by a blow to the head many years ago. Is this sparking any memories for you yet? Can you see where we’re being taken with this murder investigation? The forensic clues lead DCI Oswusu back the house in Chelsea, and inevitably leads him to Lucy, Henry, Phil and Libby.

‘The Family Remains’ is a terrific sequel to ‘The Family Upstairs’. This second instalment will fill in all of the gaps and tie up all of the lose ends from the original novel, whilst adding a couple more layers to this psychological thriller. If ever there’s a new Netflix series waiting to happen, then this is it!

‘The Family Remains’ is released on 21st July 2022. Thank you to Netgalley UK, Lisa Jewell and Random House UK for this ARC is return for my honest review.