The Daughter

Families Can Be Murder

By: Liz Webb

Narrated by: Clare Corbett

Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

I lean in and whisper the question I have never let myself utter in 23 years.

‘Dad…did you murder Mum?’

Hannah Davidson has a dementia-stricken father, an estranged TV-star brother and a mother whose death opened up hidden fault lines beneath the surface of their ordinary family life.

Now the same age that Jen Davidson was when she was killed, Hannah realises she bears an uncanny resemblance to her glamorous mother, and when her father begins to confuse them, she is seriously unnerved.

Determined to uncover exactly what happened to her mum, Hannah begins to exploit her arresting likeness, but soon the boundaries between Hannah and her mother become fatally blurred.

©2022 Liz Webb (P)2022 Allison & Busby Ltd

Critic reviews

"A page-turner about family, fame and the secrets behind closed doors, that will keep you guessing until the end." (Alan Davies)

"A compelling, darkly amusing debut with an intriguing premise and a quirky protagonist at its heart. I was desperate to unravel the secrets of this unusual family." (CD Major, author of The Other Girl)

"A gothic heroine for our times bestrides this dark, intriguing and, at times, laugh-out-loud, thriller. Constant surprises and twisting turns keep the narrative sprinting along. Totally engrossing." (Jo Brand)

Let down by ending

I want to preface my review by noting that Liz Webb is a very good writer and her plot is ingenious and different from the usual. I love an unreliable narrator and Webb has provided us with an especially fascinating one here. The descriptions of the daughter's mental illness were detailed and accurate. The whole thought process, carefully detailed, about what happened with her job at the stationery store was so realistic. The sudden screaming at people in public and radical changes in moods were all very convincing, not to mention the alcohol abuse. This is very difficult to write well and the author was successful. And the reader straps in for the ride as the daughter begins to find out shocking things about her beloved mother and as she begins to doubt everything she has believed about her life to the present.

So far, so exciting BUT, as with many domestic thrillers, everything is undercut by the ending. In this case, Webb pastes on an impossibly happy ending for everyone but the baddies who, of course, die. All trauma and personal addictions disappear with a few sentences. Liz Webb is clearly a talented writer with a sensitive imagination and perhaps she will have more confidence in her gifts when writing her next novel. I rated this one with 4 stars because of the first 4/5ths of the novel. Too bad the final chapters left such a bad taste for such a very good book.