01 Dec / A Good Family by A. H. Kim [in Booklist]
Once upon a time, Beth and Sam Min-Lindstrom seemed like the perfect, wealthy family with two adorable daughters. But now Beth is in prison, convicted of pharmaceutical shenanigans. Without Beth’s oversight (never mind her hefty salary), Sam and the girls need his always-reliable older sister, Hannah – a partially-Harvard-educated, still-single law librarian – to step in (again). Meanwhile, Beth wants answers: Lise, their Swedish au pair, turned whistleblower, but she couldn’t possibly have had the smarts or savvy to have exposed Beth alone; Beth needs Hannah to uncover Lise’s enabler. As layers get deftly revealed, nothing is to be believed.
Joy Osmanski takes on Hannah, slightly flustered, somewhat resigned, desperate to hold on to the only blood relatives she has left; her one glaring misstep is overzealously growling through “Old Man Barker.” Abby Craden as Beth remains elegantly detached, calculating every step of her survival. Sarah Mollo-Christensen has the least airtime, but her incarnations of Lise’s depositions might be the most memorable – bewildered, naïve, manipulated, bordering on comic relief. Assured and addictive, Kim’s debut is a chilling, killing exploration of family dysfunction.
Review: “Media,” Booklist, November 1, 2020
Readers: Adult
Published: 2020