This week I was looking for a good page-turner of a psychological thriller, and Nicola Marsh’s Our Perfect Family really scratched that itch. Set in a small town in Australia and centered around an affluent family that is seemingly – well – perfect, this melodramatic, fast-paced novel will be loved by fans of John Marrs’ Keep it in the Family (which I’ve previously reviewed here).

The story is told through three alternating perspectives: Austin, the teacher from a family of renowned doctors who grew up extremely wealthy and always got what he wanted; Kate, the perfect housewife with a mysterious background of poverty and hardship before meeting her husband; and their teenage daughter Mia, who in the beginning of the book becomes the victim of a cybercrime committed by one of two peers (who keep pointing fingers at each other). Flipping back and forth between past and present, you have to pay close attention to who is narrating and when, but with so many details pulling you in, it’s hard to lose interest.

The twists keep coming with every chapter, and frankly you can’t trust any one of these narrators to get the story right. It’s especially hard to get Mia’s story straight – not for any fault of her own, but because she was taken advantage of while intoxicated, which makes a trigger warning necessary here. Her parents, by contrast, are narcissistic and generally unreliable. Honestly, Mia is the only member of this family who comes across as truly likeable.

At its core, the novel is a reminder that the past will always come to light, and there really is no such thing as “the perfect crime.” It’s a compelling take on the common issue of keeping up appearances, especially within one’s family, and how fragile that façade can be when secrets are buried beneath it.

Marsh did an outstanding job of making each narrator feel like a completely different person, which made the book even stronger. Often in multi-perspective thrillers, the voices blur together, but here each character had a unique rhythm and tone that made them more believable.

For fans of domestic suspense thrillers, this one is a must read!