THE FAMILY PLOT

4 stars out of 5

Wow - what a twisted plot! It's also a little implausible, but so what? It's such an intriguing, engaging story that I just went with it - and happily stayed with it to the end.

The Lighthouse family, you see, isn't just your run-of-the-mill mom, dad and four kids. For starters, they live on a rather isolated island; beyond that, they're obsessed with murder. All four children, for instance, are named after people connected to prominent killings; for the main character, Dahlia, it was the Black Dahlia (she has a twin brother, Andy, and much older brother and sister Charlie and Tate, respectively). The names in and of themselves would give most people pause, but these parents took it seriously by home-schooling their kids and holding ceremonies to "honor" the deaths of much-publicized murdered namesakes.

As the story begins, the children have long since left the nest (Dahlia lives on the nearby mainland). Their father's recent death has brought three of them back home to visit their mother; only Andy is missing. Dahlia has been trying for years to locate him with no success. She's almost in shock, then, when Andy's body turns up in the burial spot intended for her late father - killed by a blow to his head with an axe he used as a kid on trees to take out his frustrations.

The family probably couldn't have chosen a more appropriate place to live; island itself is no stranger to death. Over two decades, seven women have been murdered, presumably by a serial killer who was never caught. For the most part, the rest of the islanders shun the family because of their strange behavior; only an aging caretaker shows up each day to help maintain the property.

Each of the family members tries to deal with the loss of their husband and father and Andy in different ways; for Tate, that means making bizarre drawings of murder scenes. For Charlie, it's trying to convert their childhood home into a museum that will be open to the public. For their mother, it means burying her head in the sand; for Dahlia, it's trying even harder to find out who killed her twin brother - and why.

Needless to say, there are revelations throughout until the end (some rather predictable, others not), when the truth finally emerges. Then comes the decision of which family secrets will be revealed and which will (hopefully) remain a closely guarded secret. Well done - and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.

The Family Plot by Megan Collins (Atria Books, August 2021); 320 pp.