Skip to main content

HER PERFECT FAMILY

 



SYNOPSIS

It’s their daughter’s graduation and Rachel and Ed Hartley are expecting it to be one of their family’s happiest days. But when she stumbles and falls on stage during the ceremony, a beautiful moment turns to chaos: Gemma has been shot, and just like that, she’s fighting for her life.

PI Matthew Hill is one of the first on the scene. A cryptic message Gemma received earlier in the day suggests someone close to her was about to be exposed. But who? As Matthew starts to investigate, he finds more and more layers obscuring the truth. He even begins to suspect the Hartleys are hiding something big―from him and from each other.

While Gemma lies in hospital in a coma, her would-be killer is still out there. Can Matthew unravel the family’s secrets before the attacker strikes again?


Title: Her perfect family
Author: Teresa Driscoll
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Publication date: Novermber 1, 2021



REVIEW

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

What should have been a really happy day for the Hartleys turns into a nightmare when Gemma is shot during her graduation in front of her parents, Rachel and Ed. Immediately chaos ensues and PI Matthew Hill finds himself in the midst of it. Alongside DI Melanie Sanders, they will soon uncover some family secrets that could be behind the shooter’s motivations.

The story takes off with a bang with some really tense first scenes and then takes the foot off the gas to go back and forth between past and present through several POVs to tell us about all the members of the Hartley family and their secrets. I liked both Gemma and Ed’s chapters but found Rachel’s chapters at the hospital a bit repetitive at times. Ed’s backstory was really surprising. I had never heard about that condition and thought it was quite terrifying!

It’s always a pleasure to meet back Matthew and Melanie. They make such a great duo and it’s always great seeing them in action.

The police investigation had several unexpected twists that helped to create suspense and cast some suspicion upon several characters. I guessed the who but not the why, and once it was revealed I found it pretty disturbing.

Her Perfect Family is a really good psychological thriller that makes a great addition to the series and that, in addition to being a fantastic whodunnit, it has a really interesting mother/daughter relationship at its core that adds a nice layer to the whole.

Thanks to the publisher for my gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

MURDER IN MANHATTAN

SYNOPSIS Glitzy parties, sightseeing at the Statue of Liberty and strolls through Central Park with Gladstone the bulldog… Lady Eleanor Swift is loving her first trip to the city that never sleeps, until she witnesses a murder! After crossing from England on the SS Celestiana, Lady Eleanor Swift sets up her home-away-from-home in a lavish apartment in New York City. She is soon the toast of the town, with no high-class soirée complete without her presence. Of course, she drags her butler Clifford and Gladstone the bulldog along to every party too. But when she witnesses the charming doorman of her building, Marty, knocked down and killed in a hit-and-run, she finds fashionable society suddenly closes rank. The only local detective interested in helping her find the culprit is street-smart beat cop, Officer Balowski. Resolved to get justice for Marty and his family, Eleanor searches Marty’s tiny apartment and is shocked to find five rolls of banknotes tucked under the floorboards. Money...

HELLO, IT’S ME!

  I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to read... MY BRAND NEW BLOG! (Look at me plagiarazing   drawing inspiration from Adele for my very first entry).                                                               She approves! So, if you're here reading this...THANK YOU for tuning in! For those who don't know me my name is Javier and after more than a year writing reviews on sites as Goodreads and NetGalley I decided to create my own blog to share my love of books with the world. When I first started writing reviews I was not able to put two sentences together, but as I kept writing I realized I had lots to say about the books I read. Rest assured my reviews will always be honest (no problems here telling when I don't like something) and spoiler free (I hate spoilers!). My personal preferences are:...

THE SANATORIUM

SYNOPSIS EVERYONE'S IN DANGER. ANYONE COULD BE NEXT. An imposing, isolated hotel, high up in the Swiss Alps, is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But she's taken time off from her job as a detective, so when she receives an invitation out of the blue to celebrate her estranged brother's recent engagement, she has no choice but to accept. Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge. Though it's beautiful, something about the hotel, recently converted from an abandoned sanatorium, makes her nervous - as does her brother, Isaac. And when they wake the following morning to discover his fiancée Laure has vanished without a trace, Elin's unease grows. With the storm cutting off access to and from the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic. But no-one has realized yet that another woman has gone missing. And she's the only one who could have warned them just how much danger they're ...