Spoiler Discussion for Not a Happy Family

Spoiler Discussion for Not a Happy Family

This Spoiler Discussion for Not A Happy Family by Shari Lapena will contain:

Not a Happy Family: The Crime

Not a Happy Family: A List of Suspects

Not a Happy Family: Who Was the Murderer?

A Discussion of the Ending of Not a Happy Family

Not a Happy Family: The Crime

The police are investigating the murder of Fred and Sheila Merton, a wealthy couple in their 60s with three grown children. Fred and Sheila spent Easter Sunday having dinner with their three children. Sometime between that dinner and the following Tuesday morning, Fred was stabbed to death and Sheila was strangled.

The police found a recent prescription for Xanax under Sheila’a name. Valuable jewelry is missing from the house. The police think Sheila opened the door for the killer. The police also learn that Fred had terminal cancer, and only a few months to live.

Not a Happy Family: The Suspects:

Catherine, the Merton’s oldest child.

She has a husband, Ted. Driven and perfectionistic, Catherine was upset that Easter dinner when her parents announced they were selling the family home, which she wanted. After dinner, she drove back to talk to her parents, and found her mother’s bodies.

She didn’t call the police because she thought her brother Dan killed her parents. Cameras at the neighbors suggest she left her house around 11:00 pm and returned at 12:40 am. She also stole a favorite pair of earrings off her mother’s body.

Dan, the middle Merton child

He was hoping to take over his father’s company, but his father had no faith in his son’s abilities and sold it. Now Dan is out of work and in financial trouble.

Dan has a wife, Lisa. They drove home after Easter dinner together, but then Dan went out for a drive to clear his head. Witnesses say Dan was gone from t0:00 pm to 1:00 am. Police find a package of disposable coveralls and booties in his garage. Uh-oh!

Jenna, the youngest Merton child

She’s the wild child and works as a sculptor. Jenna’s parents support her financially but don’t approve of her bohemian lifestyle. She has a boyfriend, Jake.

Jenna was the last one to leave the dinner, about an hour later than her siblings. During that time, her father told her he was changing his will.

She has no alibi for the night of the murder. Her aunt Audrey suspects Jenna was the murderer as she remembers her as being violent when angry as a child.

One of her hairs was found in Irena’s car, which was seen outside her parents’ house on the night of the murder, but Jenna insists it could have transferred to Irena when she hugged her after dinner.

Rose Cutter

She is a lawyer and Fred Merton’s illegitimate daughter. She was also Catherine’s close friend back in school.

The Merton kids and Rose all claim they didn’t know they are half-siblings. But Rose’s friend did the Merton’s legal work, and told Rose she was a beneficiary of Fred’s will. Rose is also the reason for Dan’s financial troubles, as she persuaded him to invest some money, which she lost.

Ellen Cutter

Rose’s mother and Audrey’s close friend. She knew from Audrey that her daughter Rose would inherit considerably less money if Fred changed his will.

Audrey

Fred’s sister. She was told by Fred that he was changing his will and leaving her half his fortune. Except he didn’t get around to it. Alibi: She would have been at dinner, but was conveniently home with the flu.

She’s hiding some family secrets, including the fact that Fred killed his own father and staged it to look like suicide. As she’s snooping around about the murders, someone breaks into her house and tries to poison her.

Irena

The housekeeper. After all the Easter dinner arguments, she left the house. She found the bodies, and the carving knife that killed Fred.

She washed the knife and put it back in the wooden block. Irena’s car was seen at the house around the time of the murder, but she insists that everyone knew where she kept her keys. She also has an alibi.

Not a Happy Family: Who was the murderer?

It was Jenna. After the dinner, she drove to Dan’s, snuck into his garage, and took one of his disposable coveralls. Then she drove to Irena’s house, borrowed Irena’s car, then drove back other parents’ house. She put on the coveralls and some extra socks. when her mother answered the door, she strangled her with an electric cord. Her father heard the noise and came downstairs, where she slit his throat and stabbed him. Then she stole her mother’s jewelry. She hid all the evidence: the jewelry, the bloody coveralls and socks, and her parents’ wallets, in a canvas bag, which she  buried in a place where a new concrete floor was about to be poured. She also poisoned Audrey’s iced tea.

Not a Happy Family: The Epilogue

Audrey has long suspected Jenna but is extremely frustrated that she can’t prove it. One day when she was following Jenna, she saw her stop along a country road at a house. She asks the woman inside about the new concrete poured in the back of her house. She tells the police, who say they don’t have enough evidence to dig up the concrete. After Audrey receives her inheritance, she buys the house where Jenna buried the evidence.

Spoiler Discussion for Not a Happy Family:

What did you think of Not a Happy Family?

I was guessing up until the end. The characters were not all that well-developed and not very likable, but I honestly had no idea who did it.

What did you think of Audrey as an amateur detective? She suspected Jenna all along, and she was right.

We have a great discussion going about the true crime inspiration of Not a Happy Family, our questions about the unresolved ending, and more. I hope you will join the conversation. If you toggle the bell on (next to the comment box) you will receive an email when someone responds to your comment!