"How to Kill Your Family"
by Bella Mackie.
This is Bella Mackie's first novel, but she has written other books.
It reads as a woman's revenge on her rich, cruel family; but it also has a theme of class prejudice.
Grace bumps off all her relatives without being caught,
but is imprisoned for a crime she did not commit (some felt the wait to discover what the crime was was too long).
Then at the end her plans are turned over by her stepbrother in league with her not-as-stupid-as-she-seemed cellmate.
Most felt it was a promising idea that started brightly enough with lots of humour, but took a long time to get anywhere.
The main character was verbose and not very likeable, this being a problem as none of the other characters was nice.
Some felt it was reminiscent of Kind hearts and coronets, and An inspector calls.
Grace's style of speech seemed influenced by Lord Peter Wimsey or Bertie Wooster.
Some of the murders seemed like caricatures, and also went into too much detail (too dark?).
We wondered how such an intelligent, cold and calculating woman could in the end be taken in by her dumb cellmate - probably her snobbery.
Nevertheless one person liked it, one hated it, most felt it was a good idea poorly executed and in need of a good edit.
Doorly score: 3.0
SL. 2023
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