Book: The Happy Family by Jackie Kabler

Having progressed through the crime books I'd accidentally acquired, at least for a while, I absentmindedly pick up a psychological thriller. Where have I got these recommendations from?

The story of a recently divorced GP Practice manager in Cheltenham who is happy with her lot; friends, workmates, amicable ex-husband, 2 kids, decent house. So ample privilege.

However there is a deep dark secret childhood being prepared to be told on top of the mystery of her mother disappearing 3 decades ago and never re-surfacing with only her elderly father left behind..

A third of the way I found myself shouting - can you not work out that all the bad stuff started happening when she arrived? 

And then halfway through ‘She’s not who you think she is’. The reader didn’t have any more info than the protagonist but it wouldn't be a psychological thriller if she wasn’t blind to it all.

So I did speed-read 50 frustrating pages in the middle that kept saying the same thing with a different scenario over and over again but I got to the end. Phew.

The fact that I second-guessed the twists - except the deep dark secret which I stopped caring about early on  - wouldn’t detract if you are a fan of these types of books.

It’s sure different from the last book called Happy Families I read which was my favourite read of last year.