A GAME FOR ALL THE FAMILY

By Sophie Hannah

This tale begins with the story of a London TV producer by the name of Justine Merrison. Merrison has retired to Devon to get away from it all.

The day she begins her excursion into serenity, she sits in the car of her husband and opera singer Alex Colley. As they inch into traffic, she announces: “My name is Justine Merrison and I DO nothing.” She’s excited about living a life with no more early morning meetings, or having to provide unnecessary flattery to strangers, and no more guessing which TV series will be good or bad. There’s not even the passing sense of anxiety when Alex tells Ellen, their fourteen-year-old daughter, that they have changed their plans and have decided to move into a house that he points out to her on the highway.

Four months later, the house that was supposed to bring Justine peace causes her to be disturbed by telephone calls received from a woman who will only identify herself as Sandie. And all the woman states is that she knows why Justine really moved, and insists that she go back to London.

In the meantime, Ellen seems to have settled nicely into the new Beaconwood School by writing the story of a family whose youngest child, a daughter, is a murderer and a murder victim. Ellen’s good feelings for Beaconwood end, however, when her best friend George Donbavand is expelled for stealing. Things further heat up when Justine goes to the school to save the day and is told by the head teacher that there never was a student named George in the first place. This announcement is just another disturbing story that makes Justine have to face up to the real reason she left her old job and her old life far behind.

This is an odd, surprising, psychological tale where Hannah made sure readers will never be able to forget this extremely unique nightmare.