The Family on Smith Street by Elisabeth Carpenter
Genre: Psychological thriller, Suspense
Read: 10th August 2023
Published: 14th August 2023
★★★★★ 4.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
A happy family. A picture-perfect street. A secret someone would kill for.
My husband James and I love living on Smith Street, with its neat houses and friendly family barbecues. Our daughter Scarlett grew up playing outside with the other local kids – it’s somewhere nothing bad could ever happen. Or so I thought…
Because when I wake terrified, head pounding, in a cramped windowless room, I realise I was entirely wrong. As my eyes adjust to the dark, I see creased pictures of missing local people I vaguely recognise from the news covering the walls. Then my skin turns ice-cold when I notice the newest pictures are of me, of James, of Scarlett…
A terrified sob catches in my throat. It seems there’s been a killer hiding in our neighbourhood for years. And I’m their next victim.
I stare at the photos in horror. Because if they’ve got me, they could also have James or, worst of all, my precious daughter Scarlett... In that moment, I know I’ll do anything, everything, to save my family. Especially because, deep down, I know this is all my fault…
A completely compelling and page-turning psychological thriller perfect for fans of My Lovely Wife, The Serial Killer’s Wife and The Housemaid.
MY THOUGHTS:
How well do you really know them...?
How has it been so long since I've read Elisabeth Carpenter? When her debut "99 Red Balloons" was published, I devoured it it was THAT good! (Although my review of it is pretty crap - it was written in my early review days). And when a debut is THAT good, the bar is set that much higher and it is hard to beat. And this one comes close...very close.
Told through three different narratives, the story begins with Joanna who disappears on her way home one night after having a few too many drinks. She's clever enough to pretend to be walking up to her door when approached by a strange car but she's not quick enough to avoid a quick-thinking kidnapper from snatching her from the street. She awakes in a strange room that is eerily decorated much like her own at home...only it isn't. And she's tied up with a gag across her mouth. But why did they take her? What do they want from her? Surely, they have the wrong person. And the longer they hold her, the more she's convinced they have made a mistake. Nothing they tell her makes any kind of sense. She doesn't know these people. They have made a mistake.
Scarlett wakes the following morning surprised that her mum hasn't already beaten her to it, as she usually does. She gets herself ready for college and heads downstairs. The curtains are still drawn in the living room. Strange. And then she sees her dad still sprawled with his head on the table. Has he not been to bed yet? Wait...is he even breathing? Is he dead? Scarlett can almost taste the relief when she sees her dad slowly blink his eyes open. She asks him where mum is. Did she not come home? He assures her all is fine but Scarlett isn't stupid. Her dad may be saying all the right things but there's something he's not telling her. Does he know where her mum is?
Rewind back nearly forty years to 1985 and we meet ten year old Alexander, a young boy whose mother is an alcoholic and whose father may as well not even be there. By the time he's 14, his father has been arrested for his mother's murder and he is is shipped off to his maternal grandparents in Yorkshire. Life hasn't been kind to Alex but maybe now it will be. Because now he has grandparents who love him...like his mother never did.
As the story unfolds through the three perspectives, we are lead on a merry chase trying to figure out exactly why Joanna has been kidnapped and by who? And how do the two timelines intersect? It's clear as the past timeline starts to catch up that Alex is a very troubled individual. In fact, being inside his head was creepy but oh it was such fun!
We are fed snippets along the way - some red herrings, some real clues - but how to decipher the fact from fiction? There are many threads weaved around each other, cleverly crafted and deftly driven to give you just enough without giving too much away. And then twist after twist came, blowing everything out of the water. What I thought was true wasn't and then it was and then what the...? How did that happen? And when?
Elisabeth Carpenter has expertly maneovured each thread into an expertly woven tapestry. As you stand back, just look at the picture and I just think - WOW. She's done it again.
I was thoroughly entertained from start to finish which is the most important factor in a book. If I'm entertained, I'm happy. And happy I was. And thoroughly entertained. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough, even though I was falling asleep. I just wanted to keep reading.
Another absolute winner for me. Now I really have to find time to go back and read all the others in between her debut to now. Until then, I can't wait to see what she delivers us next!
I would like to thank #ElisabethCarpenter, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheFamilyOnSmithStreet in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Elisabeth was awarded a Northern Writers’ New Fiction award, and was longlisted for Yeovil Literary Prize (2015 and 2016) and the MsLexia Women’s Novel award (2015). She loves living in the north of England and sets most of her stories in the area, including the novel she is writing at the moment.
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