The Family Game

In this addictive novel of suspense from Thriller Award finalist Steadman (The Disappearing Act), there seems but a single hurdle standing between brainy, beautiful, bestselling thriller writer Harriet “Harry” Reed and that storybook future with the man of her dreams, dashing tech entrepreneur Edward Holbeck: his famously eccentric estranged family. Just how eccentric is something the newly engaged recent British transplant starts to glimpse following Thanksgiving dinner at the clan’s Manhattan mansion when, after swearing her to secrecy, charismatic paterfamilias Robert gives her a mysterious cassette on which he hints will be his thriller-in-progress. When Harry finally starts listening, it sounds less like a novel than a criminal confession; in addition, Robert details her own darkest secret. As the intrepid Harry attempts to covertly investigate how much of the tape might be true, bizarre Holbeck holiday celebrations—more Hunger Games than ho, ho, ho—put her in escalating peril. The bloodcurdling, cinematic climax plays out by moonlight Christmas Eve on the family’s snow-shrouded Upstate New York estate. Never mind the credibility straining twists. This pitch-dark fairy tale will leave most readers spellbound. Agent: Camilla Bolton, Darley Anderson Literary (U.K.). (Nov.)