Next of Kin

4.5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

She could not deal with the horror of what lay before her.

Next of Kin was an emotionally intense, gripping story that pitted against and brought together a family. Leila has always taken care of her younger sister Yasmin, even filed to become her ward when Leila first turned eighteen. Growing up poor, their mother committed suicide, Leila has fought and clawed her way to the top and is a partner in her own architecture firm. While her professional life is going great, she's currently separated from her husband Will as she has suffered numerous miscarriages and wants to adopt and he doesn't. Yasmin's life is different with a lower paying job as secretary but married to Andrew and they have a happy three year old Max. Leila frequently helps them out with money, some behind Yasmin's back, and watches Max at least once a week. But when Andrew calls her in the morning to take Max to nursery, she resents a little the always intruding and thinking she can because she doesn't have children, even though she desperately wants one. Leila always helps out though, and when on the way to work and drop Max off, she gets a frantic call from the office about missing blueprints needed immediately for an important meeting, she forgets Max is in the car and goes straight up to her work.

'They say she left Max on purpose.'

The unthinkable happens and Max doesn't survive the three hours in the hot car. While Leila, Andrew, and Yasmin are dealing with the pain of loss, Detective Shep comes into the picture and Leila finds herself suddenly charged with manslaughter. Most of the story is told from Leila's point-of-view but we also get some from Yasmin, Det. Shep, and Andrew. With what Leila is charged with, this was obviously an emotional story. The first half was great at flushing the characters out and allowing the reader to get to know them, giving the reader time to learn the make-up of some of the characters and decide if they are/were reliable narrators.

That was the thing about grief: once the tears ceased, you were left with a hatred of everything.

Part two starts about the midway point and begins the court case. This did have some legal thriller/drama to it but, other than some of Shep's pov, it stays away from procedural and is more nestled in getting better looks at the four immediate family characters. Through the witnesses brought on the stand and Shep's inability to let the case go and continuing to search, there were some bombshells dropped; some I saw coming and others that were a complete surprise and kept me from fully coming to a concrete answer on Leila.

Now she saw that the very thing that kept her together might also be her undoing.

I inhaled this story, the writing style and Leila's character drew me in while having me sympathize and be aghast at their family dynamic. Each character was full in their own right, the jealousy between the sisters, their husbands attitudes toward their sister-in-laws, each relationship brought in depth drama that was highly engrossing.

And that was how it started.

Part three and the last twenty percent really lit up the drama, maybe a bit too many swings?, and even though the court case is over, the fallout continued. Almost all the questions get answered (I have some lingering thoughts on Andrew) and the ending was neither a high or a low for me and after all the reveals in the end, I was simply wrung-out. If you or your book club is looking for a mystery, thriller, and drama, this had all that in spades with high emotion.