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The Family Remainsis a domestic drama/mystery/thriller about found remains and the connection to a notorious crime scene from 30 years ago. Can this domestic suspense thriller be read as a stand-alone? No. I was confused even with a vague memory of what happened previously. Furthermore, I would categorise Henry, Lucy, and Marco’s story as more family drama/secrets/tragedy, with Rachel’s being more domestic thrille I’m so sorry. But yes. And he appears to have been murdered, with a stab wound, several days ago. He has been dead at least since the weekend.”
Well, turns out Jewell had quite a bit left to say about the now-grown occupants of 16 Cheyne Walk.MY THOUGHTS: I am so grateful to Lisa Jewell for overcoming her dislike of writing sequels and penning The Family Remains. I admit to being underwhelmed by The Family Upstairs, but The Family Remains has cast it in another light, and I am sorely tempted to reread it to see if I feel any differently about it now. I am always a bit wary when an author writes a sequel in response to demand from fans, especially when the first book was a domestic thriller that wrapped up pretty well. Are they just appeasing their audience or do they really have something else left to say? Violence is what takes the narrative forward, forming the driving force. Trauma ensues from the violence, causing fear and anxiety in all the characters and forcing them to make decisions to run as far as possible from the memories of the past. Rachel, Lucy, Henry, and Phin are all victims of years of violence, albeit in different ways. While Henry and Phin have had some privileges of being men, the violence that the women characters like Rachel and particularly Lucy have had to face is terrible.
A: Absolutely. I always pledged that I would never write another sequel after I wrote After the Party, the sequel to my first novel, Ralph’s Party. I hadn’t enjoyed the experience and didn’t like the resultant book and thus was very adamant at first when readers were asking for a sequel to The Family Upstairs that I would not do one. But as the weeks and months passed and the pleas kept coming, I started to wonder about Henry and Phin and what might be happening in Botswana and then I wondered about Michael Rimmer’s wife, Rachel and then I wondered what might happen if someone found Birdie’s remains and then I thought, you know what, let’s give the people what they want, but make it something that I will really have fun writing. So I did. Apparently, the three people who were found dead had made some sort of suicide pact, and though there were reports of three to six teenagers missing, no one knew where they had gone. The child who was found in the crib, Libby Jones, inherited the house when she turned 25 last year, which she sold to a couple after that. On another timeline, we find Rachel Gold, a jewelry designer, waking up to a call from the French police stating that her husband, Michael Rimmer, has been found dead in the basement of his own house in Antibes. She isn’t much surprised, and she takes us on a ride through the events in her past—the first time when she met Michael and what followed. Michael was a rich businessman, owning an apartment in Fulham, a house in Antibes, and a few other properties here and there. He was charming, above 40, quite a bit older than Rachel, and had been married once before to a woman named Lucy, which had ended mysteriously with Lucy never allowing him to meet their child Marco. Q: We don’t hear from Libby as much in this novel as we did in THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS. Why did you decide to use her less in the narrative?This is slated as a standalone sequel, but if I hadn’t read The Family Upstairs before this, I’m not sure I would have been as invested in the plot or its characters. There are multiple timelines that are well defined and I felt such dread with the earlier timelines. As with the other book, there is physical, mental, and emotional abuse that is very distressing to read/hear. It was once we got away from the character of Henry that I really got into this story. I care so much for Lucy and her two clever kids. Marco is just the smartest thing and I loved his scenes. There are also new characters in this story that made an impression on me. At some point, I had to know what was going to happen despite all the disturbing things going on. This story won't appeal to everyone, just like the first book didn't appeal to everyone. But I enjoyed it and wouldn't mind seeing some of these characters again except that I know one of them remains as creepy and disturbing as ever. Other authors are at a ten out of ten, for me, and Lisa is a solid hundred.” —Gillian McAllister, The Sunday Times (London) bestselling author of Wrong Place Wrong Time And as far as Rachel is concerned, having been born and brought up in a loving family, she was entirely shattered by the truth about Michael. The realization of how one rash decision by her has changed her life forever and can change her innocent father’s too drives her crazy. She is adamant about taking revenge, and when she finds out the truth about Lucy, she vows to protect her at any cost. The line between right and wrong gets blurred because of years of violence and trauma, and as Justin said, none of the children could be blamed for what happened in that house for years.
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