The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

For three days I moved this book between the coffee table and my bedside table. I didn't open it or read it, I just kept moving it, downstairs then upstairs and back. The thing is, when you read a good book you never know whether the next book will be as good, and if it's not then there's always the disappointment, the loss and the grief you feel. I didn't want to read this in case it wasn't as good as Can you See me? the book I read previously.

When I did start to read it, it was at night in bed. I told myself that I'd just read the first couple of chapters. At just after midnight and seventy odd pages in, I had to stop and go to sleep, but even then I didn't want to put it down, I needed to know what happened, who each character was and how they were linked. To say this story gripped me is an understatement. I read the whole book in three nights.

The story is based around a large (very large) house in Chelsea, that is owned by Henry and Martina and their two children, Henry and Lucy. It is written in different time frames, in the past when the children were growing up in the house, and the present but with so many twist and turns. It is told from the perspective of Henry Jr who is looking back at his childhood in the house and from Lucy's in the present day and also from Libby's perspective. Even though it jumped from one to the other it doesn't distract from the story at all.

25 years ago, three bodies were found in the house and a baby was found alive in her crib, the other children had vanished and were never to be traced. The baby was adopted and when she turns 25 is when we meet her again and the start of the story. Libby is that baby and on her 25 birthday inherits the massive house in Chelsea. She then sets out to discovered what happened to her "parents" and the story behind the murders and what happened within the four walls of the house.

Henry and Martina open their house up to others and eventually there are two families living in the house along with another couple. The house becomes more like a cult and the children are treated badly, not going to school and being locked up within the house as they grow up.

Even though I quickly determined that Lucy was the daughter of Henry and Martina, the story had so many twists and turns that even to the end I was reading to find out if my predictions were correct.  The characters were really good, Lucy strong and determined, Henry confused and uncertain, their parents weak, the lodgers in charge, every aspects of the story had been well thought through.

It was an amazingly written book, I've always loved Lisa Jewell's novels but they just get better and better and this one really didn't disappoint me. It was a great read from start to finish.

I gave it five stars on Goodreads.

My only problem now is what do I read next?