Samantha Downing was one of my favourite writers of last year with her debut My Lovely Wife, so I had incredibly high expectations of this book. Being frank, they weren't quite met, it didn't have the pizzazz of her first book. That being said, take away the comparison to My Lovely Wife and you have a twisted tale of intrigue and sibling rivalry.

We start on a road trip with three siblings, they're to recreate a trip that they took with their grandfather back in the 80s, except this time, it's with their grandfathers ashes. They're a bit of a misfit group, and it's clear that they're not exactly close. The best thing about Samantha Downing is how she creates these characters which are flawed ... well that might be an undertstatement, but you can't help be drawn to them anyway. They're engaging and fascinating.

I wasn't totally drawn in, I didn't finish it in a few hours, but I would definitely recommend it and am looking forward to seeing what she comes up with next!

Brilliant read! Her first book was thrilling but this one is absolutely fantastic. I have read it in one day and am blown away by it You have to read it #NetGalley#WhoStartedIt

It all started with a road trip as young children with their Grandpa. Now Grandpa is dead and wishes the adult children to complete the same road trip again to satisfy the conditions of his will. Eddie, Portia and Beth don't have a lot of contact with each other as adults and are all hiding their own secrets.
The road trip mirrors the one they took as a child, but as they revisit the same places, memories, questions and answers are needed to be uncovered. What did happen to Nikki, the fourth sibling who ran away and was never to be seen again. Did Grandpa treat the kids well or were there questions around his behaviour?
I loved the plot of this book and it was well written, and despite the ending being a good twist, I felt slightly let down and have more questions.

Firstly I’d like to thank Penguin UK for the ARC of this novel. Also thanks to NetGalley for facilitating. And of course thank you to Samantha Downing for writing another book!

So, as usual there will be no spoilers in this book review.

I was fascinated by Samantha’s first book, My Lovely Wife, so when I saw that she was releasing another book I knew I HAD to read it! Sadly, this book had no where near the same impact as the first but had a whole heap of potential!

The characters were complex and interesting. Every single one made me want to know their story and kept me turning the pages.

The story was also complex and full of twists and turns. This was certainly another book packed with the dark side of people. Plenty of secrets to uncover and they didn’t disappoint.

Much like with My Lovely Wife the twists were not obvious and so the book remained thrilling and a definite page turner that I couldn’t put down.

Now we come to the crux of it though, why the 3 stars when everything above is glowing... the ending. It was not good. At all. Such a let down and an anticlimax. The whole book had been building towards a moment that felt like it was over in a few short, lacklustre pages. There was no time to FEEL anything that was going on so the climax was very flat and emotionless as a reader. And it could have done with actually having a conclusion. It felt unfinished. All throughout the book I felt satisfied with the read, it was “filling me up” but after the book “finished” (or didn’t finish as it felt), I felt very deflated and “oh... that was it then...?” Not how it should have ended and felt like the anticlimax was a huge injustice to the amazing book that preceded it.

I absolutely loved My Lovely Wife and was so looking forward to this. However I found it hard to get into and the flashbacks were at times confusing. The family characters were interesting but the story itself I just lost interest in.

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book I have read by Samantha Downing I absolutely loved "My lovely Wife" and I would say it was one of my most memorial read so perhaps my expectations were simply too high but I am sad to say I didnt like this book at all. The book was very slow, too slow for me. I found I disliked all the characters so cared very little for what was going on and I was just wishing it would end. I did complete the book but I did skip quite a bit but even so I found it predictable and very uninteresting. This will not put me off reading more of Samantha's books but sadly for me this one missed the mark.

When their grandfather dies, Eddie, Beth, and Portia are set to inherit a life-changing sum. There is one caveat to this inheritance. They must repeat a road trip they took with their grandfather as children with a few specific rules that they must complete it exactly as it was originally made, without any deviation and must not end up in jail and scatter his ashes at the end.

The three are selfish and manipulative and being cooped up together on a road trip that had sufficient bad memories from the first time is going to be difficult.

As we follow their present-day road trip, which includes visits to some more gruesome attractions such as the shootout whether Bonnie and Clyde met their fate, we are given flashbacks to the original trip and get some huge surprises along the way.

Very well written and an unpredictable plot.

I enjoyed My Lovely Wife but I loved this, you couldn’t imagine a more messed up but seemingly functional family than feature in this book, and not just the siblings either to be fair. A road trip can be testing even for those families that get on well but when you’re retracing a memorable (and not in a good way) trip you took with your grandad in your youth for the purpose of ultimately scattering his ashes with siblings you neither trust not can be trusted with it’s never going to end well. Not one character is likeable but they’re all the more compelling for it, you have no idea what they might do, whether any can be trusted and you’re left wondering what twist is going to hit you next. This is a creepy page turner that I raced through in no time as I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next and just how it would all end.

A good and solid suspense thriller. I did prefer the first half to the second I did think that it dipped towards the end however all in all an exciting book which maintains your attention.

Eddie, Beth and Portia are not close siblings but when their grandfather dies they gather together, as he has left them an unusual request in the will, they all repeat the road trip that they went on with their granddad.

The will stipulates; “That anyone who ends up in jail, who does not complete the trip, or who deviates from the original trip in any way, will get nothing”

There is a large inheritance for them if they can complete the road trip and scatter his ashes. Sounds EASY but you know this will be the road trip from hell and with siblings like these who needs enemies!! They are vile, manipulative liars who are out for themselves. So maybe not such a jolly holiday after all!!

The story is told in two timelines in the present and back in 1999 when they all went on their road trip, which sees them visiting some strange and gruesome tourist places such as where Bonnie and Clyde died!!

I simply couldn’t read this book fast enough as I was completely hooked and wanted to know the ending. I finished this and was like WOW, I felt like I had just come off a rollercoaster, dizzy and not sure what the hell just happened!!! Took me a second or two to comprehend the ending.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

Oh my goodness - what a twisted story this one is! I enjoyed the author's previous story immensely and this one certainly did not disappoint. It was shocking, hilarious in places and entirely un-putdownable and raced to a surprising conclusion. Highly recommended.

I can't review this as the copy I was sent to review is unreadable, with random numbers in every second line of text. I would be happy to read if a new download becomes available, however. It sounds like my kind of novel.

Love Samantha ! Like her deliciously awfull characters
Dark twisty tales , unsympathetic characters never quite sure wat the truth is
I did have a confusing time at times as I strangely thought the twist way at the start ...then half way through thought ahhh it's that person and actually I'd been right from the off
This was down to slightly confusing journel. It was almost too ambiguous who's voice we meant to think it is so I thought it was the characters I thought it was right from the start not through being clever just um muddled
Then with the reveal I thought it I thought that from the v begining
However doesn't ruin it just pay attention
Great intrigue
Lots of dubious characters
Lots of untruths
Enjoy the road trip and u will crave another
one
Ty netgalley and publishers for this advanced copy

I was a huge fan of My Lovely Wife so was very excited to read Samantha Downing's latest book. While this doesn't initially strike as a typical thriller, I'd struggle to label it as any other genre. When this group of siblings were children, their grandfather took them on a very unusual road trip. In his will he declares that his significant inheritance will be left to them only on the condition they complete the same trip again and scatter his ashes in a designated spot. I found this book totally gripping and I genuinely could not put it down- I finished it in just over a day. It's so unlike anything else I've read recently and I wholeheartedly recommend it!

Sophmore slump, unfortunately.

A road trip does not lend itself to a thriller. You shoot yourself in the foot almost immediately because you slow down the pace. From the first couple of chapters, you lose the tension, you lose the tight pacing that makes a thriller something you want to gobble up in a handful of sittings. Downing's first book 'My Lovely Wife' had that in spades - but it's missing here. Sadly, I just didn't enjoy this one as much as her debut - and I definitely didn't get the same kind of feeling reading it as I did before.

Also a small thing, but the formatting on this was really weird - there was numbers and stuff all over it, which made it really hard to read.

Downing can write. She manages to put suspense into a ten-day road trip across the country.

The solution was a teeny-tiny bit predictable, but that's basically what kept me reading, I wanted to know whether I was right.

Downing excels at writing unsympathetic characters in a deeply entertaining way. How much you like the book may well depend on how much you enjoy a literal journey with horrible people.

Onto the plot:

Three adult siblings, Beth, Eddie and Portia are on a road trip across America - out of necessity, not affection. Their grandfather has died and they must replicate the same journey they completed as children if they want to take his inheritance. Two partners are along for the ride as well.

The journey starts off okay - there's bickering and awful museums to visit, but that's par for the course. Then they start being followed, tensions rise, and is that paranoia or are people really out to get them?

Beth warns you in the opening pages that she's not a heroine. That she's done bad things, that she'll probably keep on making bad choices. She soon alludes to family secrets, long-buried since their first trip with Grandpa, that start teasing their way out.

There's a lot she holds back from the reader and that both makes for a compelling page-turnery sort of read (and I read this in one day), but occasional irritation too. You're not reading to find out whodunnit, but what did he start (as per the title), and what does it mean? When you start to suspect that your main character has all the answers from the beginning, it can feel a tad frustrating when she keeps you hanging on for dear life.

Oh and don't start kidding yourself that Beth might transform into an underdog/good person heroine after all. Downing doesn't lie. And Beth doesn't transform.

It took me a little while to get into He Started It, purely because it took a while for Beth to actually tell me what the main plot was, but once she did I had to keep on reading.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for the moment, which means I liked it but didn't love it. Downing kept my attention and I'd certainly read her again, but I don't think I'd particularly want to spend any more time with this set of characters.

This was for me a really strange book to review as I’m still not sure just how I feel about it, I enjoyed reading it but I just didn’t connect at all with the characters. Full of twists and a very unreliable narrator in Beth it’s the story of a road trip by three siblings to scatter their grandfathers ashes and recreate a road trip they had originally done with their grandfather when they were much younger.
The story is a compulsive one but I did find at times it stretched belief and was rather slow however I found that I still needed to continue reading just to find out what exactly had happened in that first road trip and how that was affecting this later one. So it was a read I enjoyed but did not love although I think maybe others will, it was an original story and very well written and with a whole heap of secrets it did keep my attention so a 3+ read rounded up to 4 just for the craziness!!
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK - Michael Joseph for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A wicked-fun read with razor-sharp wit and a killer twist, He Started It is compelling, captivating, and deliciously dark. Samantha Downing writes with a wry, sparse elegance that steadily entangles you until you’re utterly addicted.

In He Started It, we get three unapologetically sinister siblings heading out on a road trip to fulfil their wealthy grandfather’s final wish and secure their inheritance. But none of them are exactly who they seem.

Like My Lovely Wife, He Started It blurs the line between who is good and who is bad, expertly exploring the theme of how much ‘bad’ you can do if it’s in the name of love. A novel that should be high on everyone’s must-read list for 2020!

From the author of "My Lovely Wife" comes this tale of twists, turns and power grabs. This tells the story of three siblings: Eddie, Beth and Portia who are dispatched on a road trip by their late grandfather. Their mission: to retrace the exact steps they took on the last road trip when they were kids. The rules: They must not deviate from the route, they must visit the same places, they must end in the same place, scatter his ashes and no one must get arrested. The Prize: A third share of his estate, estimated at around $8 million.

The action flicks backwards and forwards between the first road trip, taken when their grandfather took them away while their parents sorted out their problems, and this road trip. Haunted by the events of the past and a truck of heavies who appear to be following them, the tension ramps up between the siblings and for the reader too. This takes many twists and turns and the only thing that you can be sure of is that everyone is lying...

A great read that I just couldn't put down. I loved 'My Lovely Wife' but this is so much better!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.