From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of None of This Is True comes another page-turning look inside one family’s past as buried secrets threaten to come to light.
Be careful who you let in.
Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.
She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.
Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.
In The Family Upstairs, the master of “bone-chilling suspense” (People) brings us the can’t-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets.
Add to your library to track progress and write reviews
Find The Family Upstairs Lisa Jewell in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
2 books in catalog
Suspenseful narratives centered on dark family secrets, intricate domestic tensions, and psychological twists define a vast catalog of bestselling fiction. British novelist Lisa Jewell has written over twenty books that have sold more than fifteen million copies worldwide and been translated into over thirty languages. She achieved widespread acclaim with psychological thrillers like The Family Upstairs and Then She Was Gone, which explore the hidden perils underlying seemingly quiet lives.
Born on July 19, 1968, in London, Jewell grew up in Totteridge, North London. She attended St. Michael's Catholic Grammar School in Finchley, completed an art foundation course at Barnet College, and earned a diploma in fashion illustration from the Epsom School of Art & Design. Before pursuing writing full-time, she spent several years working in fashion retail, including for Warehouse. She published her debut popular fiction novel, Ralph's Party, in 1999.
Following her initial success, Jewell expanded her bibliography with contemporary fiction and domestic dramas, including Thirtynothing (2000), Vince and Joy (2005), After The Party (2010), and The House We Grew Up In. She later shifted towards darker psychological suspense and mystery, becoming a #1 New York Times bestselling author. Readers can connect with her on X (@LisaJewellUK), Instagram (@LisaJewellUK), and Facebook (@LisaJewellOfficial).
Jewell's novels frequently combine emotional depth with complex suspense, focusing on multi-layered family dynamics, buried pasts, and unexpected revelations. Her narratives often employ shifting perspectives and alternating timelines, weaving domestic drama with psychological tension as ordinary characters confront disturbing secrets within their homes and communities.
The Family Upstairs
