Not a Happy Family

Does the responsibility for the murder extend beyond Jenna? Consider the novel’s major themes with your answer.

Why does Shari Lapena set Dan up as the most suspicious character? How does his backstory—the situation with Tina, the incident with Rose, and so on—affect his character? Does Lapena do anything similar with Catherine and Jenna? Why or why not?

Contrast the detectives with Audrey. How are their efforts similar? How do they differ? Use evidence from the text.

How does the novel use Easter to create context about the villainy of the Merton family? Could Lapena have achieved the same effect with a different holiday?

Examine Lapena’s use of red herrings—false clues that misdirect the reader and point to someone other than the killer. What are some major red herrings in the book? How does Lapena’s use of them affect the pace and progression of the story?

How does the novel foreshadow the revelation of Jenna’s crime? Use evidence from the text.

Develop a what-if analysis of the novel. What if Chapter 63, which details Jenna’s killing of her parents, is eliminated? How would that impact the novel? How would things change if Jenna were caught, instead of getting away with the murder?

Research the genre of domestic noir. How is the genre different from classic crime novels or classic family novels? Use as a starting point Lapena’s epigraph, which is the famous opening line from Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”