A Beautiful Family: A Heart-Stopping, Intensely Atmospheric Summer Mystery
Jennifer Trevelyan
Jun 2025 · Pan Macmillan
Ebook
288
Pages
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About this ebook
'Trevelyan expertly sets up multiple mysteries that converge, stunningly' - The New York Times
'A charming debut' - The Guardian
'Atmospheric, disturbing and beautifully evoked' - Daily Mail
Discover this breathtaking debut novel of family secrets and searing atmosphere set over one long, hot summer on the New Zealand coast. Perfect for fans of The Paper Palace, The Lovely Bones and The List of Suspicious Things.
In the past, we had always spent our summer holidays in remote places. That had always been my mother’s preference. This year was different . . .
As the long summer holiday stretches ahead, ten-year-old Alix wants to spend every second on the beach and in the water. But, with her parents unusually distracted and her older sister now more interested in boys, she finds herself alone.
Then she meets Kahu at the beach and he tells her about The Mystery. Two years ago, a girl went missing and none of the adults could find her. So the new friends decide to investigate - because people don’t just disappear.
But as Alex and Kahu search for clues, they stumble upon secrets they wish they’d left alone. Is Alix's holiday house as safe as it seems? And is her sister putting her trust in the wrong people?
Brilliantly page-turning and tensely atmospheric, Jennifer Trevelyan's A Beautiful Family will leave a lump in your throat and a hole in your heart.
‘Extraordinary . . . I absolutely loved this page-turning family mystery’ – Liane Moriarty, bestselling author of Here One Moment
'Riveting . . . [It] held me captive from the first page to the last' – Hannah Kent, bestselling author of Devotion
'Part coming of age story, part taut thriller' – Laurie Frankel, bestselling author of Family Family
'A charming debut' - The Guardian
'Atmospheric, disturbing and beautifully evoked' - Daily Mail
Discover this breathtaking debut novel of family secrets and searing atmosphere set over one long, hot summer on the New Zealand coast. Perfect for fans of The Paper Palace, The Lovely Bones and The List of Suspicious Things.
In the past, we had always spent our summer holidays in remote places. That had always been my mother’s preference. This year was different . . .
As the long summer holiday stretches ahead, ten-year-old Alix wants to spend every second on the beach and in the water. But, with her parents unusually distracted and her older sister now more interested in boys, she finds herself alone.
Then she meets Kahu at the beach and he tells her about The Mystery. Two years ago, a girl went missing and none of the adults could find her. So the new friends decide to investigate - because people don’t just disappear.
But as Alex and Kahu search for clues, they stumble upon secrets they wish they’d left alone. Is Alix's holiday house as safe as it seems? And is her sister putting her trust in the wrong people?
Brilliantly page-turning and tensely atmospheric, Jennifer Trevelyan's A Beautiful Family will leave a lump in your throat and a hole in your heart.
‘Extraordinary . . . I absolutely loved this page-turning family mystery’ – Liane Moriarty, bestselling author of Here One Moment
'Riveting . . . [It] held me captive from the first page to the last' – Hannah Kent, bestselling author of Devotion
'Part coming of age story, part taut thriller' – Laurie Frankel, bestselling author of Family Family
About the author
With a background in photography and children’s publishing, Jennifer is now a full-time writer living in Wellington, New Zealand, with her husband, son, daughter, dog and cat. When not at her writing desk, Jennifer can usually be found in the garden. A Beautiful Family is her first novel.
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