Lucy and Henry want to find another survivor who hasn’t been seen since the night they all escaped the house of horrors. Meanwhile, a body has been found that seems to come from the old mansion on Cheyne Walk, but has clearly been moved, sparking an investigation that leads to questions into all the missing people from the first book. The feeling is very different from the dark, gothic mystery in the first one. This time I wondered if the survivors would be forced to relive their trauma and re-explain themselves, as the police got closer to the truth. Prepare to be hooked by the much-anticipated stand-alone sequel to The Family Upstairs from multi-million bestselling author Lisa Jewel. Small note for other American readers: I absolutely bought all of the cult, the house of horrors, the remains found, the reversals, etc., but then a character eats an In-n-Out burger in Chicago? No way. That is false. There is no In-n-Out in Chicago. There is no In-n-Out in Illinois. There is no In-n-Out in the Midwest, or on the East Coast, while we’re at it. Apparently my suspension of disbelief in fiction accepts two ex-wives in the same place on their separate murderous revenge plans, but does not accept a Californian burger in Chicago. Another brilliantly plotted and paced book from the much love psychological suspense novelist' PRIMA The sequel to The Family Upstairs has the same propulsive plot but you don't need to have read the first to enjoy this' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

A fiendishly well plotted, compulsively readable novel, teeming with secrets and lies' DECLAN HUGHES, THE IRISH TIMESAnother masterclass in thriller writing from the current queen of psychological suspense.' MARK EDWARDS The Last Tigers of Hong Kong: True Stories of Big Cats that Stalked Britain’s Chinese Colony • John Saeki

LONDON. Early morning, June 2019: on the foreshore of the river Thames, a bag of bones is discovered. Human bones. It's early morning on the river Thames and DI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene of a brutal discovery. A bag of bones has been discovered. Human bones. In The Family Upstairs, there’s a completely evil cult leader, and then the novel asks dark questions about complicity, as other characters are pushed towards abnormal and then disturbing choices. In the sequel, the evil person is already dead, and can’t possibly be held accountable for what he’s done. But there are still missing people and a new body’s been uncovered, and someone must be held responsible, right? And the way the first novel unfolded was just so complex, there seemed like no way the police could understand the whole story and no way the survivors could get away with all their secrets. The Family Upstairs, by Lisa Jewell, ends with a solid resolution and then a dramatic cliffhanger at the very last second. The new sequel, The Family Remains, promises to unravel that cliffhanger ending. This was a great thriller where I was able to jump into the action almost immediately because I’d already met the characters in the first one. The book’s atmosphere was entirely different from the first, but the author’s also good at investigation thrillers, so while I was surprised to find such a different feel, I still enjoyed it.The clues point forward too to a brother and sister in Chicago searching for the only person who can make sense of their pasts. Upon sending the evidence for forensic testing he discovers the bones belong to a young woman who was killed by a blow to the head many years ago. The bag also contains clues connecting to a cold case that left three people dead on a kitchen floor in a Chelsea mansion thirty years ago.