The Family Game by Catherine Steadman
Published by Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: 29th September 2022
Book Description:
THE RULES
1. Listen carefully
2. Do your research
3. Trust no one
4. Run for your life
Harriet Reed is newly engaged to Edward Holbeck, the heir to an extremely powerful American family.
When Edward’s father hands her a tape of a book he’s been working on, she is desperate to listen.
But as she presses play, it’s clear that this isn’t a novel. It’s a confession to murder.
Feeling isolated and confused, Harriet must work out if this is all part of a plan to test her loyalty. Or something far darker.
Because this might be a game to the Holbeck family - but games can still be deadly.
READY OR NOT, HERE THEY COME . . .
My Thoughts:
I know they say you don't just marry your partner but also their family, but Catherine Steadman has taken this concept well and truly to the extreme in this novel. Thriller novelist Harriet has moved to the US to be with the love of her life Ed, who does seem just a little too good to be true to be honest. Call me old and cynical if you will but I don't believe anyone can be that perfect a partner - an opinion which comes into sharp focus when he introduces Harriet to his family. Straightaway the red flags are flying strongly when Ed's family rearrange Harriet's work diary to suit their request to meet her - I would have been out of there faster than Lewis Hamilton if faced with that scenario!
Then, having reluctantly agreed to go ahead with the meeting she has effectively been manipulated into, the events which Harriet is subjected to at the family pile (it's way beyond being called a home) leave her feeling traumatised. Does she walk away? No. Because Ed's father has dangled a big juicy carrot of a mystery in front of her; one which the thriller writer within her cannot resist trying to solve.
This is the point where I had to suspend reality while reading as I cannot believe anyone would get involved with Ed's family as deeply as Harriet willingly allowed herself to be. Every member of the family - and everyone who had ever been connected to them - has their own level of weirdness, but to tell you any more than this will just spoil the book. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the story, but it is rather a little too far-fetched for my liking. I didn't click with any of the characters, but I get the feeling that was the author's intention. While I kind of sympathised with Harriet to begin with, I ended up just wanting to shake her back into the real world by the end of the book.
If you're happy to go with the flow - in the way you would when the group in a horror film predictably decides to split up to look for clues/a way out/whatever - then this one will work for you. If not, you will end up throwing the book across the room in frustration! Not a book I would willingly subject myself to reading a second time, but it achieved what it set out to overall.
About the Author:
Catherine Steadman is an actress and author based in London. She has appeared in leading roles on British and American television but is perhaps best known for playing Mabel Lane Fox in the series Downton Abbey. As well as on screen she has also appeared in the West End where she has been nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award. Catherine lives in Hackney, North London.
Catherine's first novel, Something in the Water, was a number one New York Times bestseller with rights sold in over 30 territories. Film rights were picked up Reese Witherspoon's production company, Hello Sunshine, with Something in the Water becoming a Reeses's book club pick in the US and a Richard and Judy Book club pick in the UK.
Mr Nobody, her second novel, was listed as one of Newsweek's 20 Most Anticipated Books of 2020, and her third novel, The Disappearing Act, released in 2021, was number #1 in on the iTunes Audiobook chart.
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