Review: THE PERFECT PARENTS, J. A. Baker

• 
  this edition made available by my local library
  
• published in Great Britain by Boldwood Books 2024
• ISBN 978-1-80415-398-7
• 389 pages

Synopsis (publisher) 

Jackson and Lydia Hemsworth are pillars of the community, feted for having the perfect marriage and three wonderful children – Florence, Jessica and Ezra.

But appearances can be deceptive.

Because behind closed doors Jackson Hemsworth rules his family with cruelty and control. His marriage is a sham; his children for years have cowed in fear.

Until the day that Jackson and Lydia throw themselves off Newport Bridge in a joint suicide pact – the final cruel blow by Jackson to control his wife and torture his adult children.

As the Hemsworth siblings return to their family home, they must try to make sense of their parents’ last act. But there are many dark secrets waiting to be unearthed at Armett House.

Like, why are the townsfolk so suddenly hostile towards them? And who are the strangers who arrive at Armett House unannounced? And why has their mother’s body still not been found?

In the aftermath of their parents’ death, it becomes clear that something terrible is about to be exposed about the Hemsworths’ perfect parents.

A secret they may all wish had stayed hidden…

My Take

The story proper begins with  Jackson and Lydia jumping in tandem off the Newport bridge into dark and swollen waters. From that point on the main narrative voices are their two daughters Flo and Jessica. 

The girls had left home years ago but it is now they and their brother Ezra who have to death with the aftermath of their parents' suicide. For while their father's body has been recovered from the river, their mother is still missing. And the catalogue of the dreadful things their father has done over the years begins. And the bodies begin to pile up.

A real page turner.

When you've finished reading this story, do go back and re-read the Prologue, and decide whose voice this is.

My rating: 4.5

About the author

Website: https://jabaker.substack.com/

Twitter: thewriterjude

J. A. Baker was born and brought up in the North East of England. She has had 15 books published and recently completed book 16.

When she's not writing and thinking up new and inventive ways of killing off her fictional characters, or looking after her young grandchildren, she can be found pottering around her garden with her madcap dog, Theo or in a coffee shop eating cake with her long suffering husband.