How To Kill Your Family - Bella Mackie

Crime Fiction

Rating: 9/10

It’s not often in crime fiction that you may find yourself rooting for the murderer, but I defy you to resist the particular, let’s call them charms, of killer queen Grace.

In an understatement of epic proportions, Grace has some issues.  Putting pen to paper while falsely imprisoned for a murder, she delights in teasing us that that doesn’t mean she isn’t a murderer. She has in fact creatively, sometimes brutally, dispatched several members of her family while executing a rather crooked set of life goals. All while avoiding any reflection on her own moral fibre.

But it’s not her fault. Certainly not from her perspective. She is avenging her mother, who was cruelly rejected by a millionaire playboy who left them to live a life of poverty. That would be Dad, not a top pick if consulted, but this is where we are.  Grace’s plan for vengeance results in a killing spree, picking off all those close to Daddio.  The description of each murderous act reads almost like a novel within a novel, a brilliant technique on the author’s part.

I am not easily shocked, but nothing could have prepared me for the twists in the final section of this novel, an absolute stroke of genius!

A wickedly sharp and savage read that is a perfect for anyone who loves dark humour mixed in with their crime fiction.

Book Pairing(s): This Story is A Lie by Tom Pollock, Of Vengeance by J.D. Kurtness, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano