One Big Happy Family by Jamie Day

Jamie Day, author of the wonderful thriller The Block Party has another juicy, can’t put down, dysfunctional family murder mystery. Filled with shocking surprises and secrets and a few dead bodies, it also includes a lovable protagonist whom everyone will root for because she is so deserving.

Charley works as a maid at the Precipice, a larger-than-life hotel in Maine. Her mother dead, her nana in a home for dementia which money wise is draining her dry, Charley has resorted to not so legal activities at the hotel to make ends meet.

Now, the owner of the resort, George Bishop has died, and his family are all invading her sanctuary to sort the will out. Charley is very nervous. She can’t afford to be let go or for them to find out her secrets. Also, as the family travels to the Precipice, they are informed there is a hurricane approaching and with all the guests having to be cancelled, she must now be there alone, with her friend and manager Rodrigo. To say she is nervous is an understatement.

But, when the cast of characters make their grand, and I mean grand entrances, well Charley is a mess. Hopefully these high society snobs won’t figure out what she has been doing.

The big family include: Iris, an ex-con, Vicki, married to Todd (who is kind of creepy), their young son Oliver who only speaks in rhymes, Faith who is married to Hope (you can’t make this up!) but Jamie Day did! and Quinn, the very, very handsome college age son of Vicki. Also arriving is the attorney. Because don’t all rich people travel with their attorney?

The chaos really begins when the will is read, and all the sisters realize they have been left barely anything and Todd who is a nobody seems to be left the bulk of everything! Needless to say, the sisters are in shock as is Charley.

Unfortunately for Todd, he dies that night, of what the police believe was a heart attack. Until the next morning, a discovery will not only change that idea, but pin sister against sister, greed against blackmail, and past secrets which seem to keep coming up and shocking everybody. All the while, this hurricane is in full force and nobody is able to leave, except through murder as it looks like another person bit the icy cold.

As the sisters turn on each other, Charley becomes the voice of reason, Oliver gives them creepy clues in rhymes and Quinn is stunned by the revelations of his mother and aunts. Needless to say, everyone is blaming everyone.

The big question for this big family is who is doing the killing? With so many reasons to dislike each other, it becomes hard to figure out who had the better motive. One Big Happy Family is one tumultuous murdering mystery. The story is very funny, yes even with murders happening, but also moving as more of their pasts are exposed, but don’t let any of that fool you…this story is deliriously deadly!

Thank you #St.Martin’sPress #JamieDay #OneBigHappyFamily for the advanced copy.