Book Review: One Big Happy Family by Jamie Day

If you liked the dark, ironic, comedic mystery Knives Out, you would certainly enjoy One Big Happy Family.  The patriarch is dead: farewell to George Bishop.  George’s life was devoted to the Precipice, “a legendary, family-owned hotel on the rocky coast of Maine.” For a person whose life was hospitality, he was a thoroughly unpleasant man, particularly as seen through the eyes of the overworked nineteen-year-old chambermaid, Charley Kelley. George may be dead, but the work continues. 

When I took this job, George Bishop, the former owner (former because he’s dead) didn’t explain that I’d have to deal with the worst waste humanity had to offer. But here I am. Ready to deal.

 

I go to my cart, which I’ve parked in the hallway. It’s packed with all the stuff you’d expect to find on a maid’s cart—sheets, towels, sanitizer, window cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, your basic dusting and polishing cloths, etc., etc., But what I need for this room is a hazmat suit. I text Rodrigo. He’s the front desk manager and my only friend at work—really one of my only friends in town.

 

OMG the Magnolia Room. Come. You won’t believe your eyes.

 

I can’t believe my nose, either. I’ve been to bus stations that smelled better.

N.B., I can guarantee you’ll want to increase the tips you leave for hotel staff after you read One Big Happy Family. Kelley’s the sole support of her increasingly dotty grandmother, who’s a resident of a nearby nursing home. The Precipice is Kelley’s home (a teensy room off the kitchen) and she’s privy to its secrets and scandals. She’s no saint—she’s a little light-fingered when she discovers money in guests’ rooms. And unbeknownst to anyone, Kelley has been persuaded by Bree Bradford, a desperate new acquaintance, to allow her to hide out in the hotel. Her friend is being abused by her boyfriend—she has threatening texts on her phone and bruises on her arm to prove it. Kelley stashes Bree in the Library Room (every room has a name).

The Precipice is empty of paying customers after Bishop’s death because a hurricane (Larry) is descending on the Maine coast and the guests have fled. That said, his three daughters, Iris, Victoria (Vicki), and Faith are on their way to Maine to listen to the reading of George Bishop’s will.  Who will inherit what and what will that mean to the future of the Precipice? It’s interesting watching events unfold through Charley’s eyes because although she’s an expert on the aging hostelry, there are countless events that happened in the not-so-distant past that will impact the hotel’s future. What if they close the hotel—how will Charley support gramma? Maybe it’s being nineteen that makes Charley sanguine, but she thinks even if Vicki, Iris, and Faith turn out to be her new bosses: “Lord knows, they can’t be worse than my last.” 

George was an inveterate collector of objets d’art, oddities, “odd figurines and small sculptures.” A guest once quipped the hotel was “a burlesque theater that collided with a fortune-teller’s den.”  The Precipice has just got more crowded and cluttered since the three Bishop sisters grew up there. Vicki and her husband Todd arrive: Vicki demands to be put in the Library Room. Kelley dissembles rapidly, saying the room is a total mess; she and Rodrigo are preparing the room to withstand the ravages of Hurricane Larry. Todd suggests his wife calm down and take another room but it’s the first and last time he’s considerate (he spends most of his time making snide remarks and drinking bourbon). The other family members pile in, Faith, her wife Hope, and their son Oliver, and lastly, Vicki and Todd’s son Quinn, who has driven his aunt Iris. Let’s not forget the lawyer, Brenda Black. Cook Olga quits and Hope steps up to create a vegetarian dinner for the crowd. The atmosphere is tense. Charley observes it all from her corner of the dining room.

“We sure are giving Charley an interesting glimpse into our complicated family,” says Faith with her wry smile, unfortunately drawing attention to me. “Relax, Charley,” she continues as I try to melt into the corner of the room. “We Bishops are well known for putting the fun in dysfunctional. 

 

Vicki abruptly stands up, getting everyone’s attention.

 

“Rather than endure more family chitchat, why don’t we just jump right into the reading of the will, shall we?” She turns to attorney Black, who appears apprehensive.

Darn right Brenda Black is apprehensive. She tells the family, “And I’m glad we’re all sitting down, because I think you’re going to be quite surprised—and I suspect not all of you will be happy.” The meat of the matter is that the will is divided three ways BUT Iris’s share is to be held “in conservatorship under the direction of Iris’s brother-in-law, Todd Davis, her appointed conservator.” Only Todd can decide when Iris is “cured from her chemical dependency.” There’s more—Faith’s share, the third of the estate she’s expecting, is left to George. Mayhem ensues. Charley finally gets to sleep.

She wakes up to the sound of a piercing scream. Charley scrambles up the “grand staircase,” hearing “noises, panicked shouts, utter chaos,”—there’s “a cluster of people gathered outside the door to the Library Room.” She sees a figure on the ground: Todd. Vicki performs CPR, Hope takes over for her but to no avail. Todd is dead.

It’s a classic closed estate mystery—who hated Todd enough to kill him and why? Jamie Day grabs your attention and never lets go. Every particle of information about the past is important, the Precipice has secrets to share, and Charley makes the perfect guide. Brava!