My Readers Guide to One of the Family has my quick take on the book plus a character list, plot summary and a Q and A where my (many) questions are asked and sometimes answered.
Jen’s Quick Take on One of the Family
- I read and enjoyed The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards, but One of the Family was SO much more my vibe!
- One of the Family is about an insider who’s invited to spend the holidays with his girlfriend’s very rich family in the Scottish Highlands
- This book had Succession vibes, a fabulous Scotland setting (I have spent Hogmanay in Scotland, but no murder!), family drama and plenty of twists and turns
- Publication date: August 4 2026 by Atria Books. Thanks so much to them for my advance copy!
Spoiler Free Character List for One of the Family
The Grant Family
- Holly Grant: daughter of Charles Grant (36)
- Charles Grant: billionaire owner of the computer hardware company Gravitas
- Lewis Grant: Holly’s brother (37-38)
- Miranda Grant: Holly’s sister (39-40)
- Elizabeth Grant: Charles’s late wife
- Zack: Miranda’s second husband
- Bill: Miranda’s first husband
- Freddie: Miranda’s son from her first marriage
- Patrick Tolhurst: new boyfriend of Holly
- Jasmine: fiancé of Charles
- Morag Hamilton: Grant’s housekeeper
- Brenda Hamilton: Morag’s mother; owns the Bay Inn pub
- Jimmy: Brenda’s late son; died in 2006.
- Avril: Morag’s teenage daughter
- Samir Anand: died mysteriously a year ago
- PC Susan Williams: local constable
- Emma Fox: podcaster who investigated Samir’s death
Quick Plot Summary for One of the Family
Patrick is invited by his girlfriend Holly to spend Hogmanay in the Scottish Highlands at Applecross with her family. The last time the Grant family all gathered at Applecross was during Christmas-Hogmanay 2006, right before Holly’s wife Elizabeth died.
Patrick is a documentary filmmaker (and part time delivery driver) and feels out of place. The tension rises as Charles introduces the group to his thirty-six year-old girlfriend, Jasmine. The Grant siblings are disconcerted about Jasmine’s resemblance to their late mother.
When Brenda, the local pub owner, finds out that Patrick made a film about a missing man, she mentions that the area had an unsolved mystery a year back, when a young English guy, Samir Anand, was found dead of hypothermia. No one knows how he got to town or why he was there.
Patrick also meets Zack, Miranda’s husband and Charles’s right hand man. He also takes Jasmine with him to talk to the local police constable about Samir’s death.
The group plays “two truths and a lie” which causes some tension.
There’s a flashback to summer 2006, when Holly, Lewis, Morag, and Morag’s brother Jimmy become friends.
Back in the present, Lewis offers to take a group to see the Serpent Stone, a rock carving that is supposed to bring good luck to brides-to-be. Later at the pub, Jasmine drops a bombshell: she and Charles are already married. Miranda is upset and tells her siblings that Jasmine and Charles are going to have children and that they will spend all Charles’s money.
Holly tells Patrick about another tragedy:
Morag’s brother died on New Year’s Eve 2006. His body was found in the local caves. Holly, Lewis, and Morag had been with them and they were all taking drugs. They all left besides Jimmy, who was thought to have fallen, hit his head, and drowned.
Patrick overhead Lewis making a weird phone call, so he doesn’t feel great about the fact that Lewis and Jasmine are in those same caves right now. He decides to go look for them.
Where he gets there, he finds Lewis’s body. Jasmine is missing.
Patrick leaves the cave and finds Holly. He’s freezing cold, and Holly gets him warm. Then he tells her that Lewis is dead. He tells Holly his suspicions about Lewis, but she is skeptical.
Susan, the police constable arrives. She goes to notify the Grant family, while Holly takes Patrick to the local doctor, who mentions a death by hypothermia. Patrick, realizing that he means Samir, tries to pump him for information.
Patrick tells the family that he thinks Lewis wanted to kill Jasmine.
Charles tells Patrick that since he’s part of the family, they all have to stick together.
Zack suggests that there is something big going on at Veritas, which Miranda says is an app.
There’s a flashback to a year ago, when Zack and Charles are taking about their new app, which can find any person’s doppelgänger. In the present, Miranda accuses Charles of using the app to find Jasmine. Later, she tells Patrick he should try to get a payoff from Charles, like Morag.
Patrick speaks to Emma Fox, a podcaster who looked into Samir’s death. She said prior to his death, he’d been spending time at a garage near Coventry. Emma also got an aonomyous message saying that there will never be justice for Samir since “they” get away with everything.
Patrick thinks it’s odd that both Samir and the Grants are connected to Coventry and Applecross.
Patrick tells Morag that Brenda told him Lewis was Avril’s father. Morag says she still feels guilty for leaving her brother Jimmy in the caves twenty years ago and going off with Lewis. She offers to go with Patrick to the “bothy” a hiking shelter, to look for Jasmine.
Patrick tells Morag that it’s weird that Jimmy, Samir and Lewis were all found dead in the caves. She is clearly nervous about the topic and Patrick asks her if she sent the anonymous messages to Emma. She’s upset and tells him to stop asking questions.
Zack shows up and shoots Morag
After that, he throws the rifle at Patrick and flees. PC Williams shows up and takes Patrick to the local police station. Patrick tells her his theory: Morag and Zack had something to do with Samir’s death.
Susan points out that Patrick has now been found with two dead bodies. She starts driving him to the regional police station, when a white figure appears in the road. The car crashes, injuring Susan. Patrick uses her handcuff keys to unlock himself and flees.
After that, Patrick heads to the Bay Inn and finds Holly and Miranda, who were out looking for Jasmine. Patrick asks if Jasmine could be at the arts center that was being built in honor of Elizabeth Grant.
At the unfinished arts center, Patrick finds Samir’s ring and wallet. Inside, he finds Lewis’s name and phone number. He finally tells Holly that Zack shot Morag. He thinks this is because Morag saw Zack with Samir.
Miranda, who doesn’t know that Morag is dead, texts Zack telling him where they are. The three of them (Miranda, Holly, Patrick) head back to the Grant house. A car starts aggressively tailing them. It’s Zack.
Avril shows up and shoots Zack.
Zack isn’t dead, just wounded. Avril tells the group that she knows Patrick didn’t kill anyone. She is the one who saw Zack and Amir to gather last year.
Zack finally confesses to shooting Morag, but he swears he didn’t kill Lewis or have anything to do with Jasmine’s disappearance. Two years ago, he was frustrated because Charles didn’t want to get into AI. Zack found a resume and email from Samir, who said he had lots of ideas for apps. But that email had been forwarded to Lewis.
Zack saw Lewis and Samir together in Coventry and decided to convince Samir to work with him instead. But Zack killed Samir when Samir learned that Gravitas might be used for nefarious purposes.
Charles shows up with a gun. Patrick accuses Charles of telling Zack to kill Samir. Avril throws herself at Zack, shooting him dead. Charles seems to want to kill Avril but Holly throws herself in front of Avril. Patrick asks Charles how he can kill his own granddaughter.
In the present, Holly tells the group that back in 2007, she saw Morag embracing her father.
She knows Jimmy saw too. Miranda, who didn’t know, is furious that her father was sleeping with a teenager while her mother was dying. Miranda asks if Charles killed Jimmy after Jimmy confronted him about sleeping with his sister.
In all the chaos, Avril sneaks out and runs toward the pub and her grandmother. Patrick takes off after Avril with Charles in is wake. Patrick hears a banging in the pub basement and finds Jasmine, bound and gagged.
Brenda was the one who kidnapped Jasmine because she witnessed Lewis’s death. What happened to Lewis? Brenda was trying to get his phone and in the struggle he fell. Brenda thought Lewis was the one harassing Morag.
Brenda suggests they all sit down and talk.
- Charles admits to killing Jimmy to keep him quiet about his affair with Morag.
- Jasmine admits to being approached by Lewis, who found her on the app and wanted her to marry Charles and kill him for his money (their prenup only covered divorce.) Lewis took her to see the Serpent Rock and plot Charles’s murder.
Jasmine suggests that Charles pays everyone off:
Jasmine, Brenda, Avril. They agree to tell the police that Zack killed both Samir and Morag (true) and that Zack had then tried to kill Charles, who shot him in self-defense. And that both Lewis and Jimmy died accidentally.
Patrick refuses to take the money. He and Holly break up.
Four months later, Miranda invites Patrick to Scotland and tells him to make his film. She’s still angry about her father cheating with Morag and wants to burn it all down. She reminds him that Holly didn’t do anything. He agrees.
Questions about One of the Family
Charles, to keep Jimmy from telling everyone that he was cheating on a dying wife with a teenager.
Brenda, who was convinced that Lewis was harrassing Morag about Samir’s death.
Zack, to keep her quiet about Samir’s death.
Zach, on Charles’s orders.
Avril, presumably as revenge for killing her mother.
Have more questions? Think I got something wrong? Leave a comment!