Mary gave away her baby when she was a teenager. Now her husband has died and she wants to find the daughter she has never forgotten. She is delighted to find her long lost daughter Cathy but her other children are not so thrilled…
The Family Reunion is a family drama and psychological thriller set in the UK.
Mary is devastated by the death of her beloved husband but thankfully she has her children to support her. Her heart is aching for her first child, a baby she gave birth to secretly then abandoned in a phone box. Mary never told her husband about Hope but now wants to find her long lost daughter. This is a huge shock for her other children Joanne and Jason, both of whom have secrets of their own…
There is an enormous emotional layering to this novel. Mary’s heartache is so easy to understand and imagine as she deals with grief for all she has lost. Cathy has also missed out on a great deal and Mary is eager to make amends but this creates a tension with her other children. Joanne and Jason have a believable sibling rivalry with each other and this is thrown into focus as they unite in their suspicions about Cathy.
Most of the book is written from Mary’s perspective so we clearly understand her feelings, choices and actions. There are other chapters which show other perspectives and the secrets that are being kept from other family members.
The psychological elements of the book come from strange incidents which make Mary feel unsafe. She fears she may be in mental decline but could she also be in danger? Cathy’s arrival signifies warning bells for Joanne and Jason as they feel their inheritance and relationship to be threatened. As further lies are revealed, it becomes clear that there could be darker motives at work within the family. The epilogue has a huge twist which made my jaw drop!
The Family Reunion is an intensely emotional novel with plenty of mystery and secrets.
She’s the daughter you never knew… But how far will she go to get the life she never had?
Today I’m hosting a family party. One that’s different to every celebration we’ve had before. Because I’ve invited my secret daughter to it.
I’ve never forgiven myself for abandoning her as a baby, with just a scrawled note tucked into her soft yellow blanket, saying her name was Hope.
As soon as she reached out, I knew I had to meet her. My family all seem ready to accept her with open arms, their forgiveness a blessing I barely deserve. And I dare to believe that maybe we are all going to have a happy ending after all.
So I try to put all those small, strange things that have been happening to me in recent weeks out of my mind. The missing money, my lost charm bracelet, the broken window, the fire…
But as the drinks are poured and everyone’s talking animatedly, I hear a knock at the door. And something in my heart tells me this family is about to be torn apart. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it…
An utterly gripping psychological suspense novel with a twist you’ll never see coming. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Mark Edwards and K.L. Slater.
Author Bio
Karen King is a multi-published author of both adult and children’s books. Currently published by Bookouture and Headline, Karen writes about the light and dark of relationships. Her third psychological thriller, The Mother In Law, was published in July, and her eleventh romantic novel, The Spanish Wedding Disaster, in June. A fourth psychological thriller will be published in January 2023.
Karen has also had 120 children’s books, two young adult novels, and several short stories for women’s magazines published. Her thrillers The Perfect Stepmother and The Stranger in my Bed and her romantic novel The Cornish Hotel by the Sea became International Amazon bestsellers.
Karen is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, the Society of Authors, the Crime Writers’ Association and the Society of Women Writers and Journalists. She now lives in Spain where she loves to spend her non-writing time exploring the quaint local towns with her husband, Dave, when she isn’t sunbathing or swimming in the pool, that is.
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