"We are a family of assholes. You can blame that on Grandpa, he started it."
With this description, how can one not want to read more about the Morgan family in Samantha Downing's acerbic thriller He Started It?
Grandpa recently died, and his last wish is for his grandchildren Eddie, Beth and Portia to re-create a road trip they all took with him when they were children. They must revisit the same landmarks in various states and not end up in jail if they want to inherit his millions. The ostensible purpose is to scatter his ashes at the final destination.
Along the way, the siblings--plus Eddie's wife and Beth's husband--encounter a black truck that seems to be following them. They keep hearing an old song that carries unsettling reminders of the original road trip. And something mysterious happens to Grandpa's ashes. Tempers flare, suspicions simmer and perhaps not everyone will survive the trip.
Unlike the bickering Morgans, readers will enjoy the offbeat tour across the United States, featuring real landmarks like a Bonnie and Clyde museum--complete with bloody dummies in a car--and a burial site for Cadillacs. Beth, the narrator, states at the beginning she isn't sure who the hero of the story is but it's definitely not her. Downing (My Lovely Wife) explores what makes someone a hero or villain, depicting characters who could be neither or both but are always compelling. No one trusts anyone else, so readers are never certain what will happen next. The ending might be polarizing but it's dark and bold, like Downing's prose. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd