His father hates him the most and has made no secret of that. The person who least wants to attend this little get together is Dan, the middle child. To annoy her dad, she brings along James, a young artist she recently met, and the two of them smoke pot on their drive to upstate New York from the city, giggling over the fact that they will reek of marijuana when they arrive. Jenna has zero desire to see her family, but she lives off a stipend her parents provide and has no choice but to go when they demand it. An artist who specializes in sculptures of female genitalia, she spends most of her time partying in New York City. Youngest daughter Jenna is the family wild child. He knows Fred will start an argument with someone and doesn’t want to get caught in the middle of it, but Catherine pushes him into going. When her parents die, Catherine plans to take the house as her inheritance and let her younger siblings have all the cash.

She loves the lavish estate with its beautiful furnishings, tasteful and expensive artwork, elegant, pricey dishware and costly antiques. The only thing she looks forward to that day is being in the family home. Catherine, the eldest, is a successful doctor married to an equally successful dentist. The kids don’t spend much time with their folks, but holiday gatherings are a mandatory event, and Easter Sunday morning finds all three Merton offspring getting ready for dinner at their parents’ house. She never challenges Fred’s abuse and is concerned only with what their equally rich neighbors think of them. Matriarch Sheila has survived her marriage by drawing completely into herself. Fred, the patriarch, is malicious and makes his adult children miserable with his endless sly manipulations and vicious put downs. Lapena is a master of that sub-genre, and this is a not-to-b- missed read for fans of those books.Īs the title suggests, the wealthy Merton Clan is not a happy family. Not a Happy Family is bestselling author Shari Lapena’s new suburban domestic thriller.

Fallout by Lisa Henry