A wild ride, in every sense of the word, Samantha Downing’s He Started It is a thrill-ride that you will be unable to put down!
Taking a family road trip that no one wants to be on, three siblings (and two of their spouses) set out to recreate a trip they took with their grandfather when they were children. However, this is not a joyous recreation of treasured childhood moments, though. This is part of the instructions included in their grandfather’s will. They did not enjoy the trip as children, and they aren’t enjoying it now.
As they travel through Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and other states, heading to the west coast, they stop at the various local and roadside attractions they had visited the first time they made this trip, now seeing these museums and oddities through adult eyes. Each of them start to question events from the past, as well as just what the current trip is all about.
Between the stops they make, as they travel, they start to talk. Secrets come out, old jealousies resurface, and as the long road means long hours in the car, old resentments inevitably arise. Those miseries experienced by the characters, however, are pure gold for the reader! The twists and turns, revelations and backstories, dark humour and suspense never stop.
Siblings Eddie, Beth, and Portia have their entire dysfunctional lives on display throughout this long road trip, and it will be difficult for most readers to find anyone they can consistently call ‘likeable’. (For readers that are not concerned with likeability, you are in for a big treat!)
While I would never want to be on this road trip, being able to comfortably sit back and read about it is an absolute joy! This clever tale of greed, betrayal, and family is edgy and entertaining from start to finish. It is a pure fun, escape-from-the-world type of book, but with lots of sneaky little details and an interesting way of telling an outlandish tale.
Fans of Samantha Downing’s My Lovely Wife will certainly enjoy He Started It. I predict the ending may be a little controversial and will certainly lead to a lot of discussion. People will be thrilled with it or furious about it, but it certainly works for the family we come to know in those pages.
He Started It is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
Will you be picking up He Started It? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
Beth, Portia, and Eddie Morgan haven’t all been together in years. And for very good reasons—we’ll get to those later. But when their wealthy grandfather dies and leaves a cryptic final message in his wake, the siblings and their respective partners must come together for a cross-country road trip to fulfill his final wish and—more importantly—secure their inheritance.
But time with your family can be tough. It is for everyone.
It’s even harder when you’re all keeping secrets and trying to forget a memory—a missing person, an act of revenge, the man in the black truck who won’t stop following your car—and especially when at least one of you is a killer and there’s a body in the trunk. Just to name a few reasons.
But money is a powerful motivator. It is for everyone.
