A Beautiful Family

A Novel

By: Jennifer Trevelyan

Narrated by: Ruby Hansen

A New York Times Best Thriller of 2025

Over the course of one sunbaked summer vacation, a family is pulled into a web of mysteries that the younger daughter sets out to solve. A tense, page-turning debut of childhood, innocence, and evil.

"I absolutely loved this page-turning family mystery and didn’t want it to end. . . An extraordinary, exquisitely written debut." --Liane Moriarty, New York Times bestselling author of Here One Moment

At ten years old, she catches more than her parents and older sister suspect. Over their summer break, her mother plans to finish her novel, her father wants to grill and watch cricket, and her fifteen-year-old sister hopes to catch the eye of a local lifeguard. With everyone around her distracted, she teams up with a new friend to solve a mystery that haunts this vacation community: they'll close the case of what happened to Charlotte, a child who was presumed drowned two years earlier.

But things aren't quite as they seem, and as the children look for clues, they inadvertently dislodge information they wish they'd never uncovered. Are her parents happy together? Is her sister putting her trust in the wrong people? Is their vacation rental as safe as it seems? And when someone else goes missing, the family find themselves at the center of an urgent police investigation.

Debut novelist Jennifer Trevelyan viscerally captures the confusion and frustration of childhood, the fraught but unshakeable bond between sisters, and the dangers that lurk in the white lies we tell--especially about the people we love most.

Good read - frustrating end

The read was good, pulled me in and had me on the edge of my seat, but the end was so incredibly frustrating. It left so many unanswered questions and unresolved issues

Lovely characters interesting story

I hated to saygoodbye to her very well drawn characters and the well done story.

Family drama, mystery, adventure

Read this after hearing about it from the Allen & Unwin newsletter. Didn't know much about it going in but it turned out to be an enjoyable story that I read very quickly. There are several concurrent plot lines, some of them mysteries, some of them dramas, and the author does a good job of letting the reader see them through the perspective of a young girl. The book is fast-paced. I would recommend.

Took me back in time

I grew up in a similar time (though in the US) and remember, at 10 going on 11, trying to puzzle out parents, boys, and creepy people (my creepy guy lurked the public library aisles). I was truly riveted by the story and performance - portions of my daily commute became a blur. I was surprised to see a couple of '1' ratings. I feel this book is definitely worth a listen!

Don’t Bother- seriously

Absolutely frustrating book. Multiple storylines that never really come to a close. Don’t waste your time or your money!