Review: Such a Perfect Family

It's pretty well documented at this point that I just don't do paranormals (Gothics notwithstanding). I'd never say paranormals are "stupid" or "terrible" nor would I question any reader who loves them or authors who write them.  Despite having read a few over the years, they're just not my bag. This is a longstanding thing for me - I was the girl growing up who couldn't be bothered with any story that had a whiff of fantasy in it. But Nancy Drew? Solving mysteries? All in. So my experience with Nalini Singh's work is entirely wrapped up in her suspense novels, and while she has stuck to one central theme in her entire suspense oeuvre thus far (more on that in a minute), she concocts the type of slow-burn character driven stories that tend to suck me in in record time. Such a Perfect Family was one heck of a ride.

Tavish Advani is son of a famous Hollywood actress, a borderline savant in the world of finance (he's made people a lot of money, including himself) and forty-three days ago he impulsively married Diya Prasad. Diya is a pampered, sheltered daughter of Indian doctors from New Zealand, on a bachelorette party trip to the States when she meets Tavish and it is love and first sight. Bingo-bango, quickie Las Vegas wedding and now Tavish has relocated to New Zealand to settle down into a new life with his wife and try to win over the disapproving in-laws. Even though they're already married, the official story is Tavish and Diya are "engaged" and plans are underway for a lavish Indian wedding ceremony. One morning Tavish heads to town to pick up wedding cake samples. When he returns he discovered the Prasad home engulfed in flames, Diya and her sister-in-law with multiple stab wounds, gravely injured, and his brother-in-law and Diya's parents nowhere to be found, presumably dead in the inferno. 

House fires happen, but two women found outside said home with multiple stab wounds, both now in comas at the local hospital are harder to explain. The cops are immediately on the scene and it doesn't take long for them to start sniffing around Tavish, despite the fact that he has (somewhat) of an alibi - he wasn't home at the time the fire erupted, albeit he could have set the whole thing in motion prior. Also, there's the teensy tiny issue that Tavish left Los Angeles with not one dead woman in his past - but three. All wealthy, older women and Tavish benefited from each and every one of their mysterious deaths. Despite his wife lying in the hospital, Tavish knows he's very close to being prime suspect #1, which means he's going to have to do his own investigating because his experience has taught him cops always look for the easiest explanation, even when it's wrong. And the more he digs into the lives of his in-laws? The more he realizes his wife's perfect family is anything but.

Singh takes her time setting up this story which opens up with a bang, Tavish returning to his in-laws home to find it ablaze. Then it's a series of shifting timelines as Singh peels back the layers on her (somewhat) unreliable narrator. Tavish's mother is a Movie Star (in capital letters) but any maternal instincts started and stopped with his oldest brother. Tavish was left with Mommy Dearest.  Hence his attraction to older women - even he recognizes it as hopelessly cliché. There's a cop in Los Angeles who is convinced Tavish is a serial killer and Tavish's father who has spent his life making up for his wife's shortcomings with their second child. But he's desperately in love with Diya and thinks it's all behind him, until it's not.  Seriously this guy doesn't go looking for trouble, it just seems to find him. 

While there's a cop in Los Angeles gunning for him, there's a cop in New Zealand who isn't quite so sure, and the whole thing ends up twisting and turning, spinning out to a conclusion that makes my soap opera loving heart sing. Singh may not be able to leave obsession alone as a theme in her suspense novels, but there's a good reason for that. Human beings are rather simple creatures and our motives for killing don't tend to be overly complex (greed, power, jealousy, rage etc.).  I'd argue it's only natural for Singh to keep exploring obsession in her novels, it's fascinating, there's a lot to unpack, and you can twist it around enough that it never feels like you're repeating yourself. And this one is a humdinger. Good Lord is this family screwed up. 

It all turns out somewhat right as rain in the end. I mean, our bad guy is caught but the family is decimated, and people are still dead. But it's a satisfying conclusion to a story that kept me riveted from the first to last page. I typically reserve A grades for things I'm desperate to find time to reread, and I'm not sure this one hits that threshold, but hot damn, it's a good 'un.

Final Grade = B+