Book jacket blurb:
I have killed several people (some brutally, others calmly) and yet I currently languish in jail for a murder I did not commit.
When I think about what I actually did, I feel somewhat sad that nobody will ever know about the complex operation that I undertook. Getting away with it is highly preferable, of course, but perhaps when I’m long gone, someone will open an old safe and find this confession. The public would reel.
After all, almost nobody else in the world can possibly understand how someone, by the tender age of 28, can have calmly killed six members of her family. And then happily got on with the rest of her life, never to regret a thing.
A wickedly dark romp about class, family, love… and murder.
Opinion:
When this was suggested for our Book Club, I did just check if it was a novel or instruction manual?
Once confirmed this was a novel, not an instruction manual (obviously I am not looking for tips to disappear
Bookworm Husband you understand), I managed to get an e-book from the library. If you’re not already a member of your local library, I highly recommend to head on down there, join and support the service while we still have it. They loan both paper and e-books so you can read your in preferred format, and even borrow e-books in the evening once you finished your latest amazing read!
Now, back to the book. How To Kill Your Family is told as if written by Grace, who discovers her father is an incredibly rich and frankly awful man who rejected her mother before Grace was born. The death of her mother motivates Grace to plan and take her revenge, by killing the entire family and taking the inheritance. We follow the planning and execution of the murders, each one more elaborate – and more fitting to the person – than the last.
The description of the family members was so vivid, these characters were immediately identifiable and unlikable, I was very happy for Grace to succeed in her quest. Interestingly, while all the other characters were so intricately described, the way Mackie talks of Grace is that she doesn’t stand out, very much blending into the background. This helped to describe how she could put herself in the situations to commit the murder and yet not be noticed.
There are a lot of digs at class, politics, ambition, etc so if you don’t take this book too seriously, it’s a good, fun, easy book. The chapters move along at a good pace, with each murder almost like a short story. I’m reluctant to mention there is a twist at the end, it’s a good one and almost better because I wasn’t expecting a twist. I found the book ended rather abruptly, building to the climax, then not quite wrapping it up. I wouldn’t rate this 5-star, but absolutely worthy of a summer beach read.
- Fiction
- Beach read
- Unexpected twist
