Review by Booklist Review
Jewell doesn't usually do sequels, but fans will be very glad she made an exception this time. In 2019's The Family Upstairs, she used multiple time lines and a large cast of characters to tell a dark, twisted story. Now, the house in London's Chelsea that was the scene of so much tragedy has been sold, and the new owners have made a frightening discovery: human remains. The police launch an investigation, and soon the characters from Upstairs are once again the focus of attention. Interestingly, (and rather daringly), Jewell finds a clever way to incorporate backstory here, providing a different experience for those who have read the previous book and those who have not. Yes, there's plenty of standard backstory, assuring that newcomers will be on firm footing, but there are also events in Remains that will come across to new readers as plot twists, while those familiar with Upstairs will see them as re-creations or continuations of events in that book. For both kinds of readers, though, the novel delivers surprises and thrills. Intense reading from a master of the domestic thriller.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestseller Jewell's lively sequel to 2019's The Family Upstairs juggles three different story lines that eventually overlap. In 2019, Det. Insp. Samuel Owusu investigates skeletal remains in a black trash bag that have washed up on the bank of the Thames. In 2016, 30-ish Rachel Gold, a London-based jewelry designer, meets Michael Rimmer, with whom she has a whirlwind romance that ends with Michael's murder in Antibes in 2018. The third plot strand focuses on creepy Henry Lamb; Henry's sister, Lucy Lamb, who was once married to Michael; and Lucy's daughter, Libby Jones, whose escape from their childhood "house of horrors" was the centerpiece of the previous book. Henry's obsessive search for Finn Thomsen, a companion from his terrifying and traumatic youth, worries Lucy, who tracks Henry to Chicago, while Libby is intent on finding her biological father. By rapidly jumping around in time, Jewell effectively keeps readers off balance all the way to the happy ending. Though this tale of child abuse and mayhem works as a standalone, those who haven't read The Family Upstairs will immediately want to rush out and do so. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary. (Aug.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
When Rachel Rimmer's husband, Michael, is found murdered at his home in France, the police blame his gangster connections. But Rachel blames Lucy, Michael's former wife, the last person to see him alive and living heedlessly in London with her children. Now Rachel is after her. From the No. 1 New York Times best-selling author; with a 250,000-copy first printing.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
In this sequel to The Family Upstairs (2019), two siblings continue to deal with the fallout of their traumatic childhoods. Lucy Lamb is living with her brother, Henry, after the two have been reunited, and she's focused on reconnecting with her eldest daughter, Libby, and building a more stable life for her younger kids. But when Libby locates her birth father, Phin Thomsen, who lived as a teenager with Lucy and Henry--all their parents were part of a cult led by Phin's father and died together in a suicide pact--the family begins making plans to go visit him in Botswana until word comes that Phin has taken a leave of absence from his job. After tracing Phin to Chicago, Henry leaves abruptly to go find him and cuts off all communication, prompting deep concern in Lucy, who knows of Henry's dangerous obsession with Phin (which goes so deep that Henry has fashioned himself to look like Phin). Meanwhile, human remains have been found in the Thames and traced to the childhood home Libby inherited, which leaves all three wanted for police questioning when it is determined the victim lived with Henry, Lucy, and Libby in their childhood home and was murdered. Separately, an unrelated character named Rachel Rimmer remembers her disastrous marriage when she is contacted about her abusive husband's murder. In this latest thriller, Jewell dives back into the psyche of Henry Lamb, one of her most unsettling characters. She attempts to weave together four narratives but takes too long to develop connections among the disparate stories (especially Rachel's), which means the novel is weighted down with unrelated murder victims and minor characters, both of which detract from the suspense of Henry's pursuit of Phin. An unevenly paced thriller that fails to match its predecessor's level of intensity. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
