The Family Inside: A Novel

by Katie Garner

Overview

"Part Ready or Not and part Knives Out, I was glued to the page and couldn’t wait to find out what happened next." —Samantha Downing, USA TODAY bestselling author

It takes a special family to turn a home into a nightmare.

Since her husband’s unsolved murder three years ago, Iris Blodgett’s life has unraveled. Awash in grief and buried in debt, she can’t pay her mortgage—and now that she’s lost her job, she has no idea how she’ll provide for her unruly teenage daughter, Ellory.

Facing eviction, Iris turns to her new beau, prominent architect Hugh Smoll, for a shoulder to cry on. But the seemingly perfect Hugh offers her something more: an invitation to move in to his mother’s centuries-old mansion while he renovates the property.

It seems like the perfect solution, but when Iris and Ellory arrive at Ravencliff, the family inside isn’t quite what they expected. Iris didn’t even know Hugh had siblings, much less that they’d all be living together.

With repairs underway, the house gives up its dark secrets one by one. Before long, Iris unearths a chilling family history—and the terrifying reason she and Ellory were invited in the first place…

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780778334460
Publisher:	MIRA Books
Publication date:	01/28/2025
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	133,566
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Katie Garner was born in New York and grew up in New Jersey. She has a degree in Art History from Ramapo College and is certified to teach high school Art. She hoards paperbacks, coffee mugs, and dog toys and can be seen holding at least one of those things most of the time. Katie lives in a New Jersey river town with her husband, little boy, and shih-poo where she writes books about women and their dark, secret selves. The Night It Ended is her debut novel.

Editorial Reviews

11/18/2024

Garner’s engrossing latest (after The Night It Ended) succeeds thanks to some well-executed sleight of hand. Iris Blodgett and her daughter, Ellory, are still mourning the death of Iris’s husband three years ago when they receive notice that the bank is preparing to foreclose on their home. Iris’s new boyfriend, Hugh, suggests they move into his family estate with him and his mother, sister, brother, and sister-in-law. Though she’s only been seeing Hugh for two months, the typically careful Iris agrees. After the Blodgetts’ first night at Ravencliff manor, however, Ellory vanishes, prompting a hysterical Iris to hire a smarmy private investigator to find her. Then Hugh’s sister-in-law disappears as well, and Iris starts to wonder why, exactly, her new boyfriend was so eager to gather everyone under one roof. Mysterious heirlooms, signed murder confessions, and midnight hallucinations raise the temperature on what at first appears to be a standard domestic thriller, and Garner ushers the proceedings toward an audacious final twist that recasts everything that came before it in a new light. This is stay-up-all-night reading. Agent: Melissa Danczko, Stuart Krichevsky Literary. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Garner’s engrossing latest succeeds thanks to some well-executed sleight of hand…. This is stay-up-all-night reading.” —Publishers Weekly


“The Family Inside is a wild, suspenseful, and unpredictable thriller. Part Ready or Not and part Knives Out, I was glued to the page and couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. Katie Garner has written a compulsive page-turner.” —Samantha Downing, USA Today bestselling author

“Nothing is as it seems in Katie Garner’s latest, The Family Inside, a psychological suspense with a dash of gothic horror. Garner gives us the goods: a claustrophobic old mansion filled with secret rooms, a hodgepodge family of eccentric, somewhat dodgy characters, and a dark and moody plot packed with surprises. A bingeable, five-star read.” —Kimberly Belle, USA Today bestselling author of The Paris Widow


“Set in a crumbling manor house and brimming with secrets, The Family Inside is irresistible Gothic suspense. An eerie, atmospheric mystery with twists around every dark corner.” —Allison Buccola, author of Catch Her When She Falls and The Ascent


“Amidst the ever-twisting plot, the question Garner keeps coming back to is: What makes a family? Spoiler alert: it's blood...but not in the way you think.”
—Jenna Satterthwaite, author of Made for You


"The Family Inside masterfully combines a creepy, atmospheric setting with the chilling secrets of a family shrouded in mystery. This page-turning narrative builds relentlessly towards a climax filled with jaw-dropping twists!" —Nishita Parekh, nationally bestselling author of The Night of the Storm


“Creepy and atmospheric from the very first page, The Family Inside is a twist-a-minute thriller featuring one of the most suspicious and unsettling families you’ve ever read. Fans of Colleen Hoover and Jeneva Rose will devour this one.” —Megan Collins, author of The Family Plot


“Katie Garner ropes you in with poignant characters and the simmering anxiety of family ties. Then she drops you into the creepiest gothic estate for an accelerating series of twists that will make you gasp.” —Maia Chance, author of The Body Next Door


“Brilliantly plotted and pulsing with suspense, The Family Inside gripped me from the first page and kept me hooked until the last shocking twist. Atmospheric and eerie, fans of Ruth Ware will devour this tilt-a-whirl of a novel.” —Lindsay Cameron, author of No One Needs to Know


"If you're searching for a haunting and captivating read for the new year, this one is definitely worth checking out.” —Women.com

From the Publisher