A Game for All the Family

February 29, 2016
Former TV producer Justine Merrison, the narrator of this confusing standalone from Hannah (Woman with a Secret), leaves London for Devon, where she vows that doing nothing will be her new occupation. Justine’s opera singer husband, Alex, and their 14-year-old daughter, Ellen, settle in with her at Speedwell House. Trouble starts when Justine receives the first in a series of increasingly threatening phone calls from an anonymous woman, who purports to know something unsavory in her past. Meanwhile, Ellen is furiously writing a mystery story for school about the murderous Ingrey family, who live in a house suspiciously reminiscent of Speedwell. Justine worries about the tale’s grisly content, but she’s distracted by news from school that Ellen’s new best friend, George Donbavand, has been unfairly expelled. Later, the school authorities inform Justine that George doesn’t exist. In the first in a series of implausible plot twists, Justine discovers potential links between the mysterious Donbavand family and Ellen’s story. So much is going on that even dedicated readers will struggle to make sense of it all.