She Treads Softly: The Family I Lost

Sunday, May 1, 2022

The Family I Lost

The Family I Lost by Ali Mercer
5/10/22; 358 pages
Bookouture

The Family I Lost by Ali Mercer is a highly recommended mystery within a dysfunctional family.

Lisa has grown up knowing that her father was sent to prison for some crime and that the family of her mother, Julie, completely cut off all ties with them. When Julie passes away Lisa finds an address of someone who may be a relative of hers, Amy, so Lisa writes to her in hopes of some connection. Oddly enough she then meets Amy's husband Joe, and the two realize that Lisa and Amy are cousins. Lisa is invited over and meets Amy, Joe, and their daughter Tilly. Amy is pregnant and due soon, and not especially cordial to Lisa, but when their son is born and Joe's away for the summer Amy reaches out to Lisa to help her.

Lisa does end up helping Amy while Joe is gone. As she helps care for Tilly, she persistently feels as if she has been in their house before. Perhaps the answer to her father's crime and the family secret can be uncovered while she is there. It also becomes abundantly clear that Amy's family and their grandmother have a skewed outlook on events.

Lisa is a sympathetic character as she deals with the dysfunctional family she never knew. Amy is a dislikable character, enough so that readers will wonder why on earth Lisa agreed to help this selfish, self-centered woman. It is imperative that these two women meet and question what they have been told or know about their family history because they have both been keep in the dark about the facts.

While the writing is very good and the plot moves along at an even pace, you have to set your disbelief aside in order to appreciate The Family I Lost, especially regarding Amy calling Lisa after one meeting, asking her to help, and then Lisa agreeing to help for months while Joe is gone. Once you've accepted this rather far-fetched premise, then you can sit back and watch the mystery unfold. 3.5 rounded up.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Bookouture via NetGalley.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.