Review: The Family

Book Review: The Family, by Martina Cole, 4 stars

 ✩✩

Family is everything for the Murphy clan. Philip runs his business empire with the help of his brother, and dotes on his two sons who will, one day, take over.
His wife Christine is his perfect match. She'd always dreamed of a big happy family and, when she married into the Murphys, she thought she'd found one. But when that illusion is shattered, she's already in too deep.
The Murphys are dangerous and Christine can't unsee the horrors she has now been forced to open her eyes to. But nor can she escape them.


Genre: fiction, suspense 

Publication date: October 2010

Mature content: yes

Review: The Family is like Mario Puzo's The Godfather on steroids - and with a cheaper language. When you start reading it you enter into an alternative reality where crime and violence are as normal as going shopping or cooking dinner. In the Murphy family they are all criminals in one way or another, bound by a strange code of loyalty and honor - they will go to church on Sundays and then kill, maim, steal and beat from Monday to Saturday.No one is safe from their violence, not even other family members.

To be honest, it was a bit too dark and creepy for my taste, some parts psychologically very heavy, though I do think the plot is cleverly crafted. Even if you dislike the story, you feel a strange compulsion to read it until the end. Call it morbid curiosity, but I needed to know how the book unfolded - and yes, the twist at the end is brutal, in every sense of the word.


I did find the language used hard to follow. It's full of slang and sometimes I had to read passages more than once to fully grasp their meaning. And I also didn't care for the vulgarity and the swearing all the characters included in their dialogs. I do understand they are being portrayed as criminals, but some parts even shocked me, and I'm not easily shocked by a book.

I'm rating it with four stars because of the quality of the plot, but this is a very dark thriller and as such it may not be an appropriate book for everyone.


Happy readings, 


the book worm, book blog



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