The Family Plot

Start with one seriously messed up true-crime addicted family, add in a runaway teen, a mysterious series of unsolved murders and the discovery of a body in a family grave meant for someone else and you have the recipe for a truly dark, disturbing, addictive read.

To say the Lighthouse family is unique would be an understatement. The parents are obsessed with murders and the people who committed those murders to the point where all of their children are named for murder victims including Dahlia, the narrator of the story. She was named for The Black Dahlia, an American actress brutally murdered in 1947. The four Lighthouse children are homeschooled in the secluded island mansion in which they live. They are assigned subjects such as writing “murder reports” and they hold “honouring ceremonies” on the death anniversaries of the victims they learn about.

When the family patriarch dies Dahlia, who had escaped the island and her demented family years ago after her brother’s disappearance, returns for the funeral. Not long after her arrival a body is discovered in the grave meant for her father and questions emerge. Who is buried in Dahlia’s father grave? What ever happened to Dahlia’s twin brother Andy? What is the property caretaker hiding in the locked storage shed? Who is the mysterious girl hiding in the woods watching the family and what ties does she have to Andy? Soon all will be revealed in this twisted, gritty, atmospheric tale.