Well this was one twisty shocker of a book but I suppose I shouldn’t have expected any less when it was written by the author of My Lovely Wife-a very dark, disturbing and utterly brilliant book that I read and loved last year. Yes, Samantha Downing has done it again with a creepy but utterly compelling storyline that you won’t be able to put down. It will have you desperately trying to work out what the hell is going on as we travel alongside a group of siblings on a very special road trip. But I guarantee you will be shocked by the unexpected twists that are perfectly propelled into this journey from hell.

To start with it seems like a normal family trip to scatter the ashes of a recently departed family member but there are some very strange conditions attached to this one. Beth, Portia and Eddie are recreating the trip their grandfather took them on when they were children so that they can scatter his ashes and also, more importantly, inherit the money they will get if they pull off the journey without any mishaps. Accompanied by Beth’s husband and Eddies new wife, they find themselves thrown together in a situation none of them are particularly happy about. It definitely reminded me of those summer outings we have all been on as kids, all packed like sardines into the family car and with cry’s of “are we nearly there yet?” every 5 minutes. Believe me, it will take more than a game of “I-spy” or “number plate bingo” to distract this group from their bickering and backstabbing as they remember past grievances, looking at the past with fresh eyes. Being thrown together doesn’t bring this family any joy and the secrets and lies that have been festering beneath the skin for years start to bubble back to the surface.

This book introduces us to a cast of very unlikable characters but you physically can’t tear your eyes away from them as they start to self destruct. As the siblings become aware that they all remember things a little differently, their sibling rivalries bounce back to bite them all on the backside! Mistrust, envy and greed all raise their ugly heads to eyeball this group but flashbacks to the original trip start to show things (and people!) in a very different light.

He Started It was downright disturbing at times but utterly, utterly gripping and I could not put it down until I found out exactly what secrets these 3 were hiding. And I came to actually care what happened to them which surprised me as I don’t think I’ve ever come across such a strange and awkward family setup before and couldn’t believe the antics they were getting up to! Neither could I work out who I could trust as they also made very unreliable narrators. So I would recommend that you probably don’t even bother trying to work out what’s going to happen, just jump right in and enjoy the rollercoaster ride! It’s definitely one you’ll remember!

After My Lovely Wife I didn’t think another novel could be as good this exceeded my expectation
Totally gripping I read it in one sitting and highly recommend this book as a summer / lockdown read
Twisted dark gloriously addictive loved it

I was bowled over by My Lovely Wife and was eager to see what Samantha Downing would do next. In 'He Started It', Downing captures the intensity and fragility of sibling relationships as three siblings (and a few spouses) embark on a road trip to recreate a fraught trip from their childhood. Of course, these characters know how to push each other's buttons and there is an incredible claustrophobia to the atmosphere, in spite of the miles they're covering. But... these siblings are adults and there is plenty they don't know about each other too - who they were once, and who they've grown to be. This is Downing's gift - to play on relationships we all know so well and use them to create real narrative fireworks and the kind of twists we've come to expect from her. A great read.

What a book! I really enjoyed ‘my lovely wife’ so when I saw Samantha Downing has a new book available to review, I jumped at the chance to read it and I wasn’t disappointed.
I felt like I was on the road trip with the siblings in this book and I didn’t know who to trust at any one time. It really did keep me guessing and I did not see that ending at all!!!!

He Started It is very bit as good as “ my lovely wife”. When I got granted access to this I was to say very excited and couldn’t wait to get stuck in.
Eddie, Beth and Portia are the main characters, they aren’t close siblings but need to get along to claim their grandads inheritance that is rather large to say the least.
To claim the inheritance they need to go on the road trip they did when they were young with their grandad. There are stipulations to claiming the will and must be adhered to. Beth is the main narrator and although she is completely crazy she is likeable.
Sooooo much happens on this trip that I really can’t say as it will spoil it for you all but it is a very, very twisted book but I did enjoy it.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Penguin UK, Michael Joseph for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

Dark, twisty and smouldering with tension, nothing is as it seems in this spectacular thriller.

Lured by the promise of inheriting life-changing wealth, siblings Beth, Eddie and Portia are reluctantly recreating the road trip they took with their Grandpa twenty years ago.
Things happened on that first trip that they have never discussed again, not even amongst themselves, the memories tormenting them as they retrace their journey. And when they realise they are being followed, the siblings begin to wonder if this trip will end just like the first, or if this time they will manage to emerge unscathed...

Wow! Samantha Downing has done it again. Her debut, My Lovely Wife, was one of my favourite books of 2019 so I was eagerly anticipating this follow up and hoping that lightning would strike the same place twice. Thankfully it did. The story is cleverly crafted, deftly plotted and expertly written and I was utterly transfixed from start to finish. With her singular style, Downing has created another masterpiece and secured her place as one of the most talented thriller writers out there. The story is cleverly crafted, deftly plotted and expertly written and I was utterly transfixed from the first pages. With her singular style, Downing has created another masterpiece and secured her place as one of the most talented thriller writers out there.

The Morgan family are a family held together by gossamer threads and haunted by the ghosts of twenty years ago. They are fractured, troubled, well-written characters who are each full of secrets and their own hidden agendas for agreeing to this road trip, besides the money of course. The narrator, Beth, tells the reader from the start she’s no heroine, giving us a small hint of the turbulence to come as the layers of her character are slowly peeled away.

He Started It left me reeling, I did not see that ending coming at all and was left with my jaw on the floor. An absolute tour de force, this is a thriller you don’t want to miss.

That was a trip!
I’m still getting over the journey I’ve just been on with this book and can’t honestly say if the ending is genius, philosophical, poetic or just a bit lame!? Maybe all of them but it’s worth reading. A twisted family and the story of how they end up on the trip,
There are so many twists and turns and unexpected revelations that I feel like I could read this book again and still discover something.

A dark and twisty family drama

I really enjoyed this book- right up to the last sentence! I was gripped from the start. It is a well paced thriller, with relatable characters, with all their annoying habits and character flaw. It’s a great road trip, and would make an excellent movie. I will certainly lookout for other books by Samantha Downing.

'He Started It' was published in hardcover,ebook and paperback on April 30th by Michael Joseph-huge thanks to Sriya for the blog tour invite and gifted ebook copy of this barnstorming thriller!

Samantha's debut, 'My Lovely Wife', was the book everyone  was talking about last year-now 'He Started It' is about to say 'Hold My Beer' and knock your socks off.

Three siblings-Portia, Beth and Freddie are on a road trip to take their Grandfather's ashes to their final resting place.

Accompanied by 2 spouses-one reliable, steady and just this side of boring, the other a shotgun wedding bride who the others have never met) they have to replicate a roadtrip they went on as children. No deviation, no hesitation, no getting locked in jail, or the sibling forfeits their portion of a sizeable inheritence.

Told by narrator Beth, with sidesteps to her journal from the first time they made this cross America trip, this manages to be a tight wire of tension as these siblings clearly do not get along.

Each chapter reflects the state which the family have arrived in, the state motto and the cultural history of that state so you have this neat parrallel between getting to know the family AND where they are going.

The claustrophobic nature of being pent up in the car juxtaposes so neatly with the wide open spaces of a road trip and the tnesion builds to unbearable levels as they take the reader along with them.

This is truly a novel to drown yourself in-absorbing, toxic, unrelaible and shocking, you have no idea what happened, what is about to happen and it is unpredictable(in my humble opinion). You feel like you have been packed in with their luggage and have this voyeuristic sense of peeking into the 3 sibling's most intimate moments then WHAM! your jaw is on the floor again, and you get whiplash from the plot turning back in on itself.

And this is only Samantha's second novel!!

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery, a thriller which will challenge the nimblest of minds-I don't include mine in that description!-and a damn fine character study of the complicated realtionships that brothers and sisters have.

Their shared history and experiences can either drive them apart or bring them together-but what is waiting for them at the end of this literal, and metaphorical journey?

Read 'He Started It' to find out!

Very interesting like her first book! Loved it and enjoyed it lots. If you liked her first book, you'll like this one.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

Firstly, the cover and title of this book are fantastic and immediately made me want to read this book!
I've read Samantha Downing's previous book "My Lovely Wife" and really enjoyed it so i had high expectations for this too.
This is a really clever book and written in such a way that i could not put it down.

I won't say much about the plot as i think you should always go into thrillers knowing as little as possible but i would say that this is 100% worth the read.

This was a thrilling read and i'm so glad i picked it up.

I remember there being such a buzz around Downing’s previous book, My Lovely Wife so I was really interested in reading He Started It and I’m really glad I did. The story follows three siblings on a very strange road trip that their recently deceased (and wealthy) grandfather has forced them to go on in his will, that is if they want their inheritance, which they definitely do! The trip is a repeat of one that the siblings and their grandfather took in the 1990s. As they travel through numerous States things get crazier and crazier as we learn more about each of the siblings and what happened on the original road trip.

I really enjoyed He Started It, it’s a fast paced, exciting and explosive journey that I could not stop reading. I intended to just read a few chapters when I started the book and then before I knew it, it was 2 AM and I’d read more than half! It is such an addictive read, where you never really know who is telling lies and who is the real villain. Downing teases and reveals just enough in every chapter to keep the reader totally hooked. To be honest, pretty much all the characters in this story are terrible people but that just made it more fun to read. The road trip aspect works fantastically well, and was one of my favourite things about He Started It. They visit some seriously quirky and strange tourist attractions including the Bonnie & Clyde Museum which I had no idea was a real thing. I quite like the macabre so if I’m ever in America, I’ll definitely be visiting some of these places! Overall, He Started It is a fast, witty and unpredictable book that I had great fun reading and which I would definitely recommend if you are a psychological thriller fan and you’re looking for something to take your mind off everything going on in the world.

Beth, Portia, and Eddie Morgan haven't all been together in years. And for very good reasons—we'll get to those later. But when their wealthy grandfather dies and leaves a cryptic final message in his wake, the siblings and their respective partners must come together for a cross-country road trip to fulfil his final wish and—more importantly—secure their inheritance.

But time with your family can be tough. It is for everyone.

It's even harder when you're all keeping secrets and trying to forget a memory—a missing person, an act of revenge, the man in the black truck who won't stop following your car—and especially when at least one of you is a killer and there's a body in the trunk. Just to name a few reasons.

But money is a powerful motivator. It is for everyone.

I really enjoyed this author's debut novel, My Lovely Wife, so when I heard about her second book I was really looking forward to reading it. This latest one follows the Morgan family who have recently lost their grandfather and they are brought together by his solicitor when he declares that to gain their inheritance they must relive the road trip that he took them on when they were children and scatter his ashes at the end of the trip, but this is a trip that none of them are looking forward to, it's only the money that spurs them on.

The story is told over two timelines, 1999 on their first road trip, and the present day and is narrated by Beth on both occasions. We all think our family are dysfunctional, but you don't know the meaning of the word until you meet the Morgans, they all have secrets, some from their childhood and others more recent, none of them can be trusted and would stab each other, quite literally, in the back at the drop of a hat. They all have their own quirky personalities which come to light quite early on in the book. I didn't particularly like any of them, but did feel quite sorry for Beth who seemed to take the blame for most of what went wrong during their trips. This is a gripping read with a twist in the tale!

I'd like to thank Penguin UK Michael Joseph for the approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

Three siblings (and two spouses) undertake a road trip in order to inherit. Their grandfather's will stipulates that Eddie, Beth, and Portia are to replicate the trip they all took together twenty years ago before they can receive their share of his estate. Things take a strange turn when they notice they are being followed and their car keeps being sabotaged. Does someone not want them to complete their journey and why?

The narrator of this book is Beth with interspersed chapters from a journal by another character - but all is not as it seems. It started off well and I was really intrigued with how it was going to pan out, but about halfway through, I just became irritated with the characters. I think the author did a good job of showing the fraught relationships that we have with our siblings, but I hated the ending. I vacillated between 3 and 4 stars but finally decided on 3.5 (rounded up to 4).

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Penguin UK - Michael Joseph, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

WHAT WAS THAT?
WHAT. JUST. HAPPENED?
That ending was so unsatisfying, but I loved it? What?

"I love my siblings, all of them, I really do. I also hate them. That’s how it goes – love, hate, love, hate, back and forth like a seesaw."

I'm shocked and in awe. It's time to admit that Samantha Downing is one of the best thriller authors out there. This book is set entirely on a road trip and I don't even like books about road trips, but it still did it for me. I would totally call this book a thriller for slytherins.

I really loved My Lovely Wife, especially because of how twisty it was. When I started this one I was worried I wouldn't like it as much since it seemed like it lacked that quality. But boy, was I wrong! This is as twisty and juicy as My Lovely Wife, just in a different way. The plot is all over the place and I'm saying this in a good way. There are so many things at play you don't know where to look first, it's like watching three ping pong matches simultaneously.

I think He Started It is a very different thriller from the ones that are being published in the last years. Its main focus is family relationships and everything that could go wrong with them. The first pages let me think this was going to be a slow-burn all about the road trip, but after a while I realized it was about the messed-up characters instead. I love that the book is told from Beth's perspective because she is so incredibly bitter and mistrustful, and her voice and personality made the book even more fun. But honestly, I really loved all the characters.

If that's not enough for you, know that this book is literally impossible to put down. Even when I wasn't currently reading I couldn't stop thinking about the story and the characters. Together with the story, Samantha's writing style made this book an addiction I couldn't stay away from. Even the most trivial things in this book, like the detail of the cigarettes and the whole marriage situation of the protagonist had me completely hooked.

Another thing I enjoyed was the double narration. Between chapters there is always a journal entry and I have no idea why, but I love when a thriller does that. This one was no exception, it was super interesting to find out why the journal was important in the end.

"‘These road trips are so screwed,’ Eddie says. ‘We always lose people along the way.’ Indeed."

Imagine if this book became a movie. It would be a perfect movie. I would die.

I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to read this book early. Thank you so much to Penguin UK for this arc! You made me a really happy reader. I can't wait to see what Samantha Downing writes next, she's on the way to become a new favorite author.

And who is going to finish it....?

Wow! This was a joyride in every sense of the word! Not only was I wondering about how it will end and who was playing mind games it also took me on a scenic drive through parts of America! Most of the sights the characters visited were new to me (some a bit obscure!) so over and above being a gripping story it was also very informative.

"You want a heroine. Someone to root for, to identify with. She cant be perfect, though, because that will just make you feel bad about yourself"

3 Siblings, 2 spouses, an SUV, the ashes of their grandfather and a road trip through parts of America. Just another ordinary story.......or not!
This is a wonderful story about family dynamics. It is a story about mind games and outmanoeuvring the other players because, in the end, it's all a game.
"I love my siblings, all of them..... I also hate them" This is true for so many families. But how far will you go? What will you do if you realize you don't need someone anymore.....Are you capable of murder?

Highly recommend!

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin UK, Michael Joseph for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was quite a disappointing read.
I'd previously read My Lovely Wife and enjoyed it, but He Started It sadly did not live up to its predecessor's promise.
I really believe that in order to get sucked into a book, I need to feel some kind of engagement with a character, preferably the protagonist. I don't necessarily have to be rooting for them or agree with their actions, but there needs to be some level of connection with them to keep me interested in where their story is going.
Unfortunately this book was lacking in this. Narrated from the point of view of Beth, it follows her as she goes on a road trip with her brother, sister, husband and sister in law. The siblings are following a stipulation in their bizarre grandfather's will that if followed, will leave them all very wealthy.

Beth is, at best, a lacklustre narrator, the other characters each seem to have one personality trait apiece assigned to them and not much further depth. The plot is confusing, winding and drags on as they progress on their road trip. Usually in a thriller, the reader is fed piecemeal bits of information to keep them guessing or give them clues, but throughout this book, there just wasn't enough to make the reader feel like they're along for the ride.
Like any thriller, it has a twist ending, but given the lack of engagement with the characters and the lack of involvement in the story unfolding, I didn't really get the point of the twist, nor did I care.

I can't deny that Downing is a good writer, and she's got a good idea here and her use of language is great - it's easy to read Beth's narrative and it's paced in a way that's consistent throughout the book.

However, the lack of any kind of 'draw' to the story or its characters just left me feeling entirely indifferent upon finishing and ultimately is one of those books I'll only remember I've read by going through my Goodreads list.

I'd be more than happy to read more of this author's work in the future, this one just wasn't for me.

A road trip with family, what could go wrong ?

Eddie, Beth and Portia are siblings that have drifted apart but suddenly the death of the Grandfather sends them on a road trip with each other and their prospective partners.

Their Grandfather has left them millions of dollars but in order to receive their share all three of them must repeat a road trip that they took with their Grandfather when they were younger.

We soon find out that not everything is as it seems both now and in the past but what is the truth ? All three of the siblings have secrets that they are trying to keep hidden but will anyone’s secrets be discovered before then end of their trip ?

This is a great psychological thriller where you don’t have a clue who to believe, is anyone telling the truth ?

Thank you to Penguin UK - Michael Joseph and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.

I loved My Lovely Wife and was looking forward to Samantha's new book. However I just couldn't get into it . This one isn't for me

After finishing this book I sat in a stupour for an indefinite period of time. I was shook. For the final 15% of the book I don't think I breathed. It's safe to say I really enjoyed this thriller. And also hated it in equal measure. For hurting my chest!

We follow Beth and her two siblings, Eddie and Portia, as they recreate a roadtrip they took with their granddad when they were younger. Once they complete the roadtrip, step by step exactly as it was first completed, they'll inherit their grandad's multi-million dollar estate. As soon as the trip commences, it becomes clear that the siblings are hiding deep secrets from themselves, from each other, and especially from the reader

Our narrator, Beth, is the most unreliable narrator I've ever experienced. And I loved it. I didn't believe a word she said, nor her siblings, as we're told constantly that the entire family are liars. I honestly didn't even try to predict any of the twists, I was just along for the ride, and when they all barrelled at me I was shook

I am now even more desperate to read Downing's first book, My Lovely Wife, and my faith in thrillers has been restored once more