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A Beautiful Family

A Novel

Author Jennifer Trevelyan
Hardcover
$28.00 US
| $37.99 CAN
Doubleday Publishing | Doubleday
On sale Jun 24, 2025 | 320 Pages | 9780385551359
Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
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Over the course of one sunbaked summer vacation, a family is pulled into a web of mysteries that the younger daughter sets out to solve. A tense, page-turning debut of childhood, innocence, and evil.

At ten years old, she catches more than her parents and older sister suspect. Over their summer break, her mother plans to finish her novel, her father wants to grill and watch cricket, and her fifteen-year-old sister hopes to catch the eye of a local lifeguard. With everyone around her distracted, she teams up with a new friend to solve a mystery that haunts this vacation community: they'll close the case of what happened to Charlotte, a child who was presumed drowned two years earlier.

But things aren't quite as they seem, and as the children look for clues, they inadvertently dislodge information they wish they'd never uncovered. Are her parents happy together? Is her sister putting her trust in the wrong people? Is their vacation rental as safe as it seems? And when someone else goes missing, the family find themselves at the center of an urgent police investigation. 

Debut novelist Jennifer Trevelyan viscerally captures the confusion and frustration of childhood, the fraught but unshakeable bond between sisters, and the dangers that lurk in the white lies we tell--especially about the people we love most.
"I absolutely loved this page-turning family mystery and didn’t want it to end. The author so effortlessly transported me to another place and time, and every character leapt off the page. An extraordinary, exquisitely written debut." --Liane Moriarty, New York Times bestselling author of Here One Moment

“Dappled in sand and shadow, A Beautiful Family is part coming of age story, part taut thriller, part travelogue, perfectly transporting the reader not only to summer holiday on the New Zealand coast but also to that magical age between childhood and adolescence when the world starts to reveal its dark secrets and everything is more complicated — and, yes, beautiful — than it has seemed. Jennifer Trevelyan’s immersive debut is atmospheric and aching.” –Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of Family Family

"An absolutely riveting read. A Beautiful Family held me captive from the first page to the last, both through Trevelyan's uncanny ability to maintain inexorable tension throughout, and her wholly believable narration of a ten-year-old trying to make sense of the adult world around her. I loved it." --Hannah Kent, international bestselling author of Devotion

"Taut yet tender, A Beautiful Family examines the precariousness of childhood through the lens of a long, hazy summer of secrets. Proving the maxim that all unhappy families are unhappy in their own way, Trevelyan has crafted a coming of age story that perfectly balances the nostalgia of summer holidays with a looming sense of danger. Find a sun-lit corner and devour this sensational debut in one session (like I did)." --Jacqueline Bublitz, international bestselling author of Before You Knew My Name and Leave the Girls Behind
With a background in photography and children’s publishing, JENNIFER TREVELYAN is now a full-time writer living in Wellington, New Zealand, with her husband, son, daughter, dog and cat. When not at her writing desk, Jennifer can be found in the garden. View titles by Jennifer Trevelyan

About

Over the course of one sunbaked summer vacation, a family is pulled into a web of mysteries that the younger daughter sets out to solve. A tense, page-turning debut of childhood, innocence, and evil.

At ten years old, she catches more than her parents and older sister suspect. Over their summer break, her mother plans to finish her novel, her father wants to grill and watch cricket, and her fifteen-year-old sister hopes to catch the eye of a local lifeguard. With everyone around her distracted, she teams up with a new friend to solve a mystery that haunts this vacation community: they'll close the case of what happened to Charlotte, a child who was presumed drowned two years earlier.

But things aren't quite as they seem, and as the children look for clues, they inadvertently dislodge information they wish they'd never uncovered. Are her parents happy together? Is her sister putting her trust in the wrong people? Is their vacation rental as safe as it seems? And when someone else goes missing, the family find themselves at the center of an urgent police investigation. 

Debut novelist Jennifer Trevelyan viscerally captures the confusion and frustration of childhood, the fraught but unshakeable bond between sisters, and the dangers that lurk in the white lies we tell--especially about the people we love most.

Reviews

"I absolutely loved this page-turning family mystery and didn’t want it to end. The author so effortlessly transported me to another place and time, and every character leapt off the page. An extraordinary, exquisitely written debut." --Liane Moriarty, New York Times bestselling author of Here One Moment

“Dappled in sand and shadow, A Beautiful Family is part coming of age story, part taut thriller, part travelogue, perfectly transporting the reader not only to summer holiday on the New Zealand coast but also to that magical age between childhood and adolescence when the world starts to reveal its dark secrets and everything is more complicated — and, yes, beautiful — than it has seemed. Jennifer Trevelyan’s immersive debut is atmospheric and aching.” –Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of Family Family

"An absolutely riveting read. A Beautiful Family held me captive from the first page to the last, both through Trevelyan's uncanny ability to maintain inexorable tension throughout, and her wholly believable narration of a ten-year-old trying to make sense of the adult world around her. I loved it." --Hannah Kent, international bestselling author of Devotion

"Taut yet tender, A Beautiful Family examines the precariousness of childhood through the lens of a long, hazy summer of secrets. Proving the maxim that all unhappy families are unhappy in their own way, Trevelyan has crafted a coming of age story that perfectly balances the nostalgia of summer holidays with a looming sense of danger. Find a sun-lit corner and devour this sensational debut in one session (like I did)." --Jacqueline Bublitz, international bestselling author of Before You Knew My Name and Leave the Girls Behind

Author

With a background in photography and children’s publishing, JENNIFER TREVELYAN is now a full-time writer living in Wellington, New Zealand, with her husband, son, daughter, dog and cat. When not at her writing desk, Jennifer can be found in the garden. View titles by Jennifer Trevelyan

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