The family upstairs, lisajewell. Spoilers!

Hi there. This is a massive spoiler so don't read if you've not finished the book. I've just finished and am left with a few questions, the main one being that how Lucy could know for certain whose baby it was if she was sleeping with both Phin and David? In the book it was assumed that it was based on how the baby looks - as in just like Phin - but, as Phin could've been the baby's brother, if David was the father then that would make sense. Also, David was very manipulative, and if his major interest in Lucy was to get her pregnant then he would definitely know when this was most likely to occur and if she became pregnant when he had not been having sex with her then he would've known it was not his.

Because the police thought it was a suicide pact, they didn't bother to search?

MarigoldEntwin. Didn't the investigator find Phin? He worked out he had spelt his name slightly differently but looked like him.

Hi, was it a calendar reminder? Or Henry?

I loved this book. I couldn't put it down. I got a bit confused with the characters so I wrote them in the front of the book so I could see who was/belonged to who. I have a question about the ending but don't want to spoil it for others.

Enjoyed this book very much, there was a Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine quality about it, at her best she weaved a great tale, a much missed writer.

Loved the book, couldn’t put it down
But ... who sent the first ever text to say The baby is 25?? Nobody knew where Lucy was, who she was or her phone number ?

I’m torn ... I was very compelled and read it very quickly but there were some things I just was a bit baffled by.

• What happened to Justin?
• Why when Libby met Clemency did she tell her the entire story so easily ... basically telling a stranger about you being involved in helping to cover up a murder?
• How was Phin found? Thought he only told Henry his dream of being a safari guide?

The ending just felt rushed in my opinion

It’s well written and I mostly enjoyed it, but there were some things that annoyed me a bit. (SPOILER WARNING FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T READ IT.). There were quite a few things that stretched credibility IMO. One being that it would be highly unlikely that a house would be left empty for 25+ years for someone to inherit. If it wasn’t going to be sold, the solicitors managing the estate would have had to at least make it income-generating e.g. rent it out. Also, there would at least be people going in to clean / maintain it (or squat in it!) over the years - it was all a bit convenient that various items were just left there for the characters to find later. I liked the “cult” aspect of the story and wished there was more time spent exploring that and in particular how the mother character was sucked in. To me, it lost its way about 80% of the way through, when the characters came together and it all became a bit implausible and rushed. Some of the ends were tied off in a way that didn’t convince me and didn’t seem to do justice to what had gone before. So like I say she can clearly write and there was some interesting stuff there but I was a bit disappointed by it overall.

I read The House We Grew Up In on holiday and got a bit annoyed with the constant leaps forward and backwards in time. Does she do this in all her books?

Just finished it. Agree about the ending I read the last paragraph and was expecting another chapter. I assume he was only wanting to see her to find Phin. I agree though strange that Henry was forgiven for clearly locking them in and wiping their phones. I almost feel as though it was left open to have a sequel.

I really want to read this but I'm not paying that much!
I absolutely loved, "the house we grew up in"
Her recent books are good, not keen on the older ones though.

Yes I thought that. Or that he's poison them all together once he'd got his "family" back

Have just finished it. (Another one got in the way - had to read one of the books on which Deep Water is based.)
Really liked this one. I was, however, all geared up for a final twist - the house money disappearing.
Alex Marwood's new one has a similar theme of children being warped by isolation from the real world.

Was Henry going to go and drug phin again?

As with her other thrillers I think the characterisation is so strong you kind of get swept past the dodgy plot bits. It suffered a bit from too many unreliable narrators and ‘oops! And then she/he was dead!’ twists but it still knocks spots off other books in the genre.
Just a smidge more polish needed with the pacing of the plots? Not that I wouldn’t buy them as soon as they come out, so why not finish them after a couple of large vodkas, as she says in the Afterword

Yes I wondered that as surely the police would have conducted a thorough search of the house and grounds. It seems unlikely they wouldn't have found it as it doesnt seem to have been that well hidden.

Massive spoiler here...

The bit where he was talking about pulling the bones apart on the roof and putting them in a bag made my stomach churn. I cant imagine how anyone could talk about that so matter of factly.

I couldn't understand that either. There was definitely something about him. He was one weird character.

I finished this one this morning. I read it quickly and I enjoyed it but I didnt love it. I was disappointed with the ending I think. As you say it all felt very rushed.