There is little more satisfying than reading a mystery novel that keeps me guessing until the end, and Jack Heath’s KILL YOUR HUSBANDS did this perfectly.  I found this novel to be great fun, much to the concern of my husband who found its provocative title alarming on the dining table. 

I will address the pink elephant right at the top – the implausibility of the premise.  There are no spoilers here, the premise is on the blurb of the book. Three couples, friends since high school, go on a weekend trip away in a secluded mountain house. They decide to partner-swap on the first night, but one of them ends up dead. No one knows who killed them because they partner-swapped on the conditions that it would be random – rooms would be picked at random, the lights would be out, and no one will know who slept with whom.  Don’t think about it too hard because – what? How do you possibly not recognise your own spouse if you got them? How do you not recognise the physicality of friends you’ve known since high school, close enough to go on weekend trips away with? How flipping dark could it honestly be? Don’t ask because Heath has little to no answers – in fact, he has his lead detective openly talk about how unbelievable the whole situation was. Basically, Heath knows this whole thing is ridiculous but is asking his readers to just come along for the ride.

Thankfully for Heath, he is a masterful writer, where every red-herring, cliffhanger, misdirection, and reveal was metered out carefully to maximise mystery and suspense.  I very quickly stopped caring about how stupid the premise was as I genuinely wanted to know who did it and why.  Some may find the book lacking in emotional depth as the characters exist for nothing other than to further the plot, but in this case, I didn’t mind as I was here for the mystery, not for the characters. 

With mystery novels, there’s a subjective preference for the tone of the novel – from the novels I’ve personally read, the spectrum runs from the lighthearted humour of the MC Beaton “Agatha Raisin” books to the more serious detective novels  by Keigo Higashino.  

KILL YOUR HUSBANDS is somewhere in between, it’s sarcastic and edgy but not overly serious or gritty – not actually my personal preference for detective novels but this one was good enough to keep me engaged.

KILL YOUR HUSBANDS is a great little rollercoaster in book form. It’s not too serious, it doesn’t try to be anything more than a mystery.  It simply asks you to leave rational thought behind and go along with it, and I am very glad I did. 

ISBN – 781761188152, 1761188151

Publisher – Allen and Unwin