I have a TBR list that is way too long, and Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs has been repeatedly sinking to the bottom of that list for way too long! I generally like the psychological suspense/woman in danger genre, so when Atria Books and NetGalley provided me with a copy in exchange for my honest review,  I expected to hop on it right away and spend a day enjoying some escapist fiction…and now, more than three months later, I am admittedly dismayed to see that it is still on the TBR list.

So for at least the third time, I dove in. The beginning was fairly clear: a young woman named Libby Jones,  who has just turned twenty-five, comes home from work and sees a letter…one she’s been waiting for literally her entire life. Well, at least since she was ten months old. Libby is excited, thinking she will finally know who she is.

Invited to the office of a solicitor, she is shocked by the news that she has inherited a mansion on the bank of the Thames in Chelsea (London), and is suddenly worth millions.

Then we switch to Lucy who,  along with her young son and daughter and her dog, is living on the street, clueless and penniless. She goes to her daughter’s grandmother’s house (we infer this is the mother of her ex) and is told the girl can come in out of the cold and stormy night, but she and the boy and the dog have to find somewhere else. Desperate, the next day she sneaks into a place to shower, cleans everyone (including the dog) up, and goes to the home of her wealthy (or not?) ex, who we learn was abusive, driving her away.

Then it’s back to twenty-five years ago, found a healthy ten-month-old baby crying in a house where there were three dead bodies, a note, and missing children. Turns out the baby is Libby, the children may or may not be siblings, the house is a mess, and we are about to bounce through chapters told by various members of one or more families all living in Libby’s inheritance. I think. TBH, I tried. Several times. And I could tell this book is classic Lisa Jewell. But I just couldn’t get into it. I’m giving it three stars, with the caveat it might be a five star read, or maybe it is three (or fewer). I’ll try it again when I emerge from this dark place I am in. Lisa Jewell, it’s not you, it’s me!