Sara-Jayne Townsend is a published crime and horror writer and likes books in which someone dies horribly. She is founder and Chair Person of the T Party Writers’ Group. http://sarajaynetownsend.weebly.com/
Robin Davis hasn’t spoken to her family in six years. Then she gets a call from her sister Melanie summoning her back home: her family are fighting for their lives after a violent attack.
This is a psychological thriller told from Robin’s point of view, and dealing with an extremely dysfunctional family. Robin is a psychological mess, dealing with panic attacks and other problems. She fights constantly with her sister Melanie. Robin’s father is now married to her childhood friend Tara, who has a 12-year-old daughter, Cassidy, from a previous relationship. Cassidy has been injured in the attack, which killed Tara and left Robin’s father in a coma. Robin’s brother Alec, who was once Tara’s boyfriend, seems keen to distance himself from the family, to the degree that Robin starts to wonder if he had something to do with the attack.
It’s difficult to sympathize with any of the characters in this novel. Robin is a therapist, but I found it difficult to accept that someone with so many psychological problems herself, can make a living advising other people on how to deal with their own psychological problems. Melanie comes across as being extremely bitchy, and Cassidy speaks and acts like someone much older than she’s supposed to be. All three of them (in their own way), could be the eponymous bad daughter.
The only likable character is Robin’s fiancé Blake, who seems extraordinarily patient, especially given the family he’s about to marry into. Nevertheless, the story had me gripped.
As Robin delves deeper into the mystery of who attacked her family, she starts to suspect that it has to be someone close to the family. Could the attacker be her brother Alec? Melanie’s autistic teenage son Landon? Landon’s darkly brooding friend Kenny, who seems to have a creepy obsession with Cassidy?
The ending is perhaps not as explosive as it could have been, as I had started to suspect the truth by the time it was revealed. But I still found this book an engrossing read, and it will appeal to people who like psychological thrillers with plenty of family drama.
