The Family Tree – Steph Mullin and Nicole Mabry
The DNA results are back. And there’s a serial killer in her family tree…
Liz Catalano is shocked when an ancestry kit reveals she’s adopted. But she could never have imagined connecting with her unknown family would plunge her into an FBI investigation of a notorious serial killer…
The Tri-State Killer has been abducting pairs of women for forty years, leaving no clues behind – only bodies.
Can Liz figure out who the killer in her new family is? And can she save his newest victims before it’s too late?
I received a review copy of the book from the publisher through Netgalley.
Last year I read a book which had DNA testing as a central theme. A few months later I had been recounting the plot to my wife and we had a conversation about the increase of DNA testing and how the process was now accessible to so many people these days. Many commercial operations have the ability let people know more about their roots than has ever been possible in the past. This can lead to unexpected discoveries, people have been learning the people they believed to be their parents or their siblings are actually an adoptive family and not their natural birth family.
I had never considered the implications of this, however, through her work my wife had become aware of charities who provide support or counselling for people who find out accidentally that their families adopted them. It was literally the next day I began reading The Family Tree and met Liz Catalano – she and her cousin had completed an ancestry test only for Liz to discover she did not share any relatives in common with her cousin. Liz was understandably traumatized by this discovery and my conversations with my wife gave me deeper appreciation around how Liz’s world had been turned upside down.
Liz wants answers, she needs to understand where her roots lie and it puts a real strain upon the relationship she has with the people she believed to be her parents. This part of the story is beautifully represented by Steph Mullin and Nicole Mabry as the reader cannot help but feel empathy for the situation Liz finds herself experiencing and the horror and anguish of her parents who lost the ability to share this information with their daughter in the manner of their choosing. The fact they waited and never told Liz of her background is addressed and it’s easy to understand why families put off such a big conversation. Liz and her parents are a family and although Liz does understand this, there is a feeling of betrayal and curiosity of the unknown which will drive her actions through the story in The Family Tree.
Liz uploads her DNA to a national database in a bid to find more familial links and hoping to trace her natural parents. This act of sharing her DNA triggers a whole new problem for Liz. Her DNA is a close match for DNA which the police have been monitoring as it looks like Liz may be related to a killer – the notorious Tri-State Killer who has evaded authorities for over 20 years. The authorities will be knocking on Liz’s door, they want to know more about her but the information they need (Liz’s family history) is something she herself does not know.
The Tri-State Killer has been active for many years and is a notorious and dangerous predator. He abducts two women in one event every couple of years. The women remain missing for many months before, ulitmately, their bodies are discovered dumped and scrubbed clean.
I loved how the authors addressed the Tri-State Killer in the story. We take a jump back into the past to read about the first two women abducted, readers see how their killer managed to gain entrance to their apartment and how he was able to subdue them both. The story then returned to Liz and her endeavours to trace her family – it is progressing and she believes she may have found her grandparents. Then back to the Tri-State Killer and we pick up the narrative on what happens to the abducted girls after the killer has them at this mercy. But this time it isn’t the first two girls who were abducted but the third and fourth! A delightful twist which brought home the impact of the killer’s actions and a pattern which repeats through the book. Each time we return to the story of the killer it is viewed through the eyes of the women he has abducted, a different pair of women each time. The fifth and sixth women, then the seventh and eighth and so on. Each time we return to Liz and her discussions with the family she never knew only to return to two new abductees. We know their fate and we know more women will be abducted – it’s compelling and it’s grim but it makes for great reading.
I flew through The Family Tree in super quick time. The switching narrative between past and present made me want to keep reading. Liz may be related to a killer but she and the investigators cannot know who that killer may be. She continues to meet with members of her new family (despite warnings to be careful) and she puts herself at risk each time. But Liz wants to know the truth about her natural parents and she also wants to help identify a killer – but what if she destroys her new family in the process?
I never tire of finding wonderful gems like The Family Tree to read. I really enjoyed this one and it’s due for release in just a few weeks – highly recommend getting this ordered. It spins an emotive drama around a dark serial killer story and the writing just flows to keep those pages turning.
The Family Tree is published by Avon on 10 June 2021 and will be available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08R6QPT3F/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0