The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Lisa Jewell introduces us to three characters, Libby, a twenty something kitchen designer, who receives news that she has inherited a mansion. Lucy, a woman certainly down on her luck in Spain with two young children. And then there is Henry, a young boy who lives with his rich parents and a younger sister. We learn more about their stories and how a house on Cheyne Walk, Chelsea ties them all together. This is a compelling read, with a theme of betrayal and manipulation running through it. There are skeletons in every families closet; some are darker than others.

I was intrigued from the offset about how these characters were linked, trying to fit together clues as if they were pieces from a jigsaw puzzle. I was most taken with Henry, a pretentious little boy shaped by the circumstances around him and his story is the more sinister of the three. But Lucy has her own menacing side and again, her past has had an influence on her behaviour and shapes the woman she is. Libby is the lighter side of the book, intrigued about her past, an empathetic character that the reader can relate to.

The story appears to wrap up nicely, with what seems to be a happy ending of sorts. I initially felt a little disappointed, but then an ominous twist appears which satisfied me. Perhaps Henry is not quite the innocent as we are led to believe, a black seed that now has bloomed into a terrible flower.

This was a book I just couldn’t stop reading, but felt I had to ration myself as didn’t really want to get to the end. Characters that are well written and with three quite different personalities the reader is able to have a balanced perspective of the story. A clever well-paced novel, with some interesting twists.