'He Started It': Reliving a bumpy family road trip

From the beginning of the highly entertaining "He Started It," Beth Morgan makes it clear why she should not, cannot, be your heroine. Her flaws and behavior won't allow her to be considered a heroine. But she does have a story to tell, she says, and it is a doozy.
The witty, self-deprecating and observant Beth is locked in a mind-numbing cross country road trip with her estranged brother, Eddie, and sister, Portia, as well as her husband. Felix, and her new sister-in-law. Krista. Their controlling grandfather's will demands that they recreate a trip they took 20 years before with him when they were children. This time it's to bring his ashes to California. If they succeed without deviating from the original trip, they will share their grandfather's fortune. That means stopping at every landmark they visited as children. Who knew there were so many tourist markers for Bonnie and Clyde?
That original trip had been meant to give their parents a chance to mend their marriage. Instead, it tore apart their family as each child witnessed just how angry, nasty and domineering their grandfather was. This new trip may be even worse as decades of grudges, betrayals and lots of lies rise to the surface. Then there is that black pickup that seems to be following them, the frequent flat tires, the constant sniping. And just how did those ashes get lost when the urn supposedly was safely ensconced in the trunk with their luggage?
The worst dangers, as Beth often notes, come from her own family. "I love my siblings, all of them, I really do," Beth says. "I also hate them. That's how it goes — love, hate, love, hate, back and forth like a seesaw."
A stunningly surprising ending adds the finishing touch to "He Started It," a melding of domestic drama with psychological thriller.