He Started It

AN INSTANT INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

"Wholly original. Scarily clever. Completely mesmerizing. You will never look at family road trips the same way again."--Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author

A most anticipated book by Hello Sunshine Cosmo Entertainment Weekly Betches Hollywood Reporter Parade PopSugar OK! Magazine Hello Giggles ∙ Bustle ∙ Yahoo! She Reads ∙ Book Page ∙ CrimeReads New York Post Best Book of the Week ∙ Goodreads

From the twisted mind behind mega hit My Lovely Wife comes the story of a family--not unlike your own--just with a few more violent tendencies thrown in....

Beth, Portia, and Eddie Morgan haven't all been together in years. And for very good reasons--we'll get to those later. But when their wealthy grandfather dies and leaves a cryptic final message in his wake, the siblings and their respective partners must come together for a cross-country road trip to fulfill his final wish and--more importantly--secure their inheritance.

But time with your family can be tough. It is for everyone.

It's even harder when you're all keeping secrets and trying to forget a memory, a missing person, an act of revenge, the man in the black truck who won't stop following your car--and especially when at least one of you is a killer and there's a body in the trunk. Just to name a few reasons.

But money is a powerful motivator. It is for everyone.

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400 pages

Average rating: 6.9

21 RATINGS

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4 REVIEWS

Community Reviews

JHSiess
Feb 03, 2024
8/10 stars
Author Samantha Downing's debut novel, My Lovely Wife, was not a fluke. Full of diabolical, unimaginable plot twists and turns, My Lovely Wife left many readers shocked, amazed, and amused by Downing's deliciously pernicious imagination. But that was just the beginning.

Downing's sophomore effort, He Started It, ramps up the madness. It is a twisted tale not about a married couple locked in a compellingly dysfunctional relationship. Rather, three siblings who went their separate ways many years ago are forced to reunite if they want to claim their respective shares of their grandfather's estate. There are fourteen days of a hellish road trip remaining when the story opens with a first-person narration from Beth, the middle child. She and her husband, Felix, sit, appropriately enough, in the middle seat of the rented SUV. Her brother, Eddie, two years her senior, drives with his wife, Krista, in the front passenger seat. And Portia, six years younger than Beth, sits alone in the back. She is not married and, according to Beth works as a dancer in Las Vegas. They are transporting their grandfather's ashes in the trunk. They started the trip in Georgia and are en route to the California coast, stopping along the way at the same places they stopped twenty years ago when they made the same trip with their grandfather, sharing expenses and two hotel rooms per night -- relegating Portia to sharing a room with each couple on a rotating basis to save money.

About their first road trip twenty years ago, Beth relates at the outset that their grandfather "wanted to show us the world, starting with as many states as possible. Instead, it turned into one of those things we don't mention, don't talk about. It stays in our heads, swimming around in denial, in disbelief, even in delusion." She anticipates that the trip upon which they have just embarked will "be the trip of a lifetime. And when it's over, everything is going to be different. Just like the first time."

Beth's narrative is broken up by journal entries from the summer of 1999. They consist of responses to writing prompts set forth in a diary entitled Your Feelings: A Guide -- Thoughtful Questions for Thoughtful Girls.

As the days count down, Beth describes the group's journey through several states and the places they stop. For instance, they zigzag their way through Mississippi and into Louisiana where they visit a museum dedicated to Bonnie and Clyde that features black-and-white photos of the bank robbers' bullet-riddled bodies, as well as the men who shot them. The actual car in which they died is on display. Beth's descriptions of their pilgrimage back to the places their grandfather insisted upon showing them are often darkly hilarious, and she compares the siblings' current reactions with the way their responded all those years ago.

The siblings deal with being followed and having their vehicle sabotaged, the grandfather's ashes going missing, being terrorized when they stop in seedy motels, and trying to figure out each other's secrets. Beth reveals what transpired during their first trip -- the telephone calls home to their parents, the way their grandfather treated them, and the discoveries the siblings made along the way about the real nature of the trip and their grandfather's motives. The grudge at least one of them held. What they did when they found out the truth -- which explains a great deal about what kind of adults the siblings have become. Not to mention what Eddie, Beth, and Portia never brought home from that trip, and how that omission impacted their parents.

For the most part, Beth is a reliable narrator, but Downing makes the most of the points in the story when she is not. She deftly times those moments for maximum impact and, after the first major shocking development, keeps the surprises coming fast. She skillfully makes Beth empathetic . . . to a point. The story's initial solid pace quickly accelerates with successive grisly plot twists and revelations, each more surprising than the last. Readers learn each character's real agenda at the same time as Beth, who plots and schemes to outsmart her siblings when she uncovers the truth.

Alliances are formed and splinter, the siblings betray each other, secrets are revealed. And it all concludes with a pulse-pounding finale that will separate readers into two camps. Some will find it brilliant, while others will be completely frustrated by its ambiguity.

Despite the controversial ending, He Started It is witty, gripping, and will keep readers guessing until -- literally -- the very end of the story. Downing is quickly establishing herself as a master at creating twisted, fiendish characters and compulsively readable stories filled with wickedly disquieting, but delectable surprises. He Started It is one of the best thrillers of 2020.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
AlexGJ
Aug 16, 2023
2/10 stars
The more I think about this book the more annoyed i get. It's the embodiment of my least favorite trend in modern media - of prioritizing shock value above all else and sacrificing good storytelling for a gotcha twist. The book is pretty boring and then the author beats you over the head with like ten plot twists in the last chapter with no build up, no resolution, no character beats, nothing. And they were all meaningless! Every 'plot' that is uncovered and character secret doesn't actually do anything! It's revealed, explained in a ridiculous villain monologue and then they are immediately shot in the head so that ANOTHER character's scheme can be revealed, wash rinse repeat until the entire main cast is dead

How all the twists manage to be so predictable and yet so unearned, unexplained, and narratively unimportant is genuinely baffling.
Mary Raven
Jan 28, 2023
8/10 stars
I didn’t see it coming

Well, it had lots of twists and turns combined with people you love to hate. I don’t see the ending coming which is high praise from me.
KeriB
Jan 11, 2022
8/10 stars
Really enjoyed this one. Lots going on and shocking. The ending left me hanging

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