Margaret has been diagnosed with cancer, so she arranges a Murder Mystery party for all family and friends to attend, before she’s expected to start treatment.

Stella and George have separated, but haven’t told anyone in the family yet. Due to her mother’s health, Stella persuades George to attend with her and pretend nothing is wrong.

Helen, Nathan, Isobel and Charlie also go, but Helen, the dependable, organised and cheerful daughter, is late…..

This is a tale of family, of secrets and how the public face we project sometimes isn’t who we really are, hiding emotions and fears. It is a wonderfully written insight into life in all its messy glory. Caroline Hulse’s writing is so beautifully observant and totally spot on, full of humour, family bickering and farce at times, but with some sad moments too . This is a thoughtful, funny and compelling read. I loved every minute.

Thank you to The author, the publishers and NetGalley for an eARC of the book. This is my honest and unbiased review.

Jack and Stella have had blazing rows, mostly over little things, and now they plan to divorce. However, Stella’s mum plans a huge anniversary party and so the divided couple agree to attend together, pretending all is well in their marriage. If they can make it through for one more day their secret will be safe. They don’t realise that having secrets runs in the family and the party becomes open house for them. This book is both brilliant and clever, a compelling page turner.

I loved Caroline Hulse's debut novel, The Adults, so I was very much looking forward to reading Like a House on Fire. This book is absolutely brilliant. The author's observations of people and their relationships is astute and on point. She develops her characters so masterfully that my sympathy was engaged with every one, even when they behaved in a way which should ordinarily be considered unpleasant, irritating or just plain wrong. The majority of the book is set at a family party, and the story unfolds from the perspectives of Stella and her ex-husband, George, Stella's sister, Helen and her young daughter, Isobel and Stella's mother and father, Margaret (who is hosting the party) and Tommy. This set up is extremely difficult to pull off, but Caroline Hulse does it masterfully. This is an engaging, funny, touching, clever read which is hard to put down. I will be highly recommending this wonderful, heartwarming, beautifully observed book to everyone. Thank you so much to Caroline Hulse, Orion and NetGalley for the ARC.

I couldn’t wait to start ‘Like a House On Fire’ after reading and thoroughly enjoying Caroline Hulse’s last book ‘The Adults’ and I wasn’t disappointed. She has a wonderful knack of creating believable, relatable characters who could quite easily be your own friends or family and her comic dialogue is second to none.

A very entertaining, readable and memorable novel.

Many thanks to Orion Publishing, to Ms Hulse for her skill and humour and to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this terrific book.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I love a murder mystery, and I'm fascinated by relationships - so this book really appealed to me. This book is different from any I've read before, because I don't necessarily LIKE any of the characters (and I don't think we're meant to, either) but yet I still wanted to know what happened and I finished it within a day.

The cast of characters are varied and vivid, and I could picture them all perfectly which I think is a sign of a great job well done by Caroline Hulse. Stella and George are separated, and at each other's throats. They're about to tell Stella's family, but they've been invited to a Anniversary/Murder Mystery party at her parents' house, and Stella is hesitant to deliver the bad news, especially in conjunction with her mother's recent cancer diagnosis and her father's reluctant retirement from his family-grown business. However, it turns out they're not the only ones keeping secrets...

The story is light but heavy all at once, and provided the perfect distraction in these uncertain times.

Would definitely recommend to anybody who likes their escapism firmly in the realist realm.

Absolutely adored this book, Stella ,George, Margaret and Tommy are excellent characters. Isobel is also a great little character too. The little Fireplayer. This is the first time I’ve read Caroline Hulse, despite already owing her previous book; the Adults.


I think the only place it fell flat was the every so often shoeing in of the book’s title. Randomly the author’s name cropped up a few times, which is I suppose to be expected because it’s an uncorrected digital proof copy.

Aside from that I enjoyed this, can’t wait to see how it pans out.

Like a House on Fire what a dramatic farce with laugh out loud moments. Her characters are so harmless and sitcom like.
Margaret is the life and soul of the party - good job as she is holding a party to celebrate her wedding anniversary. A who done it murder mystery affair.
This is an excellent domestic drama with a solid story line and some lighthearted reading that will have you chuckling aloud.
With dialogue that you can actually visualise you get sucked into the scenes as if this is a TV drama that you feel you can see. Great writing and character building.

Well done Caroline Hulse what a cracker.

Ah this was fab! The characters were deliciously awful and their dialogue was so believable. Such a great bitter/funny family drama.

This is a terrific family farce with a bittersweet tone that reminded me a bit of Abigail's Party. Stella and Jack keep getting on each other's nerves, to the extent that they are getting divorced. As a favour to Stella, Jack agrees to go to her dying mother's Murder Mystery party. The party is so wince inducingly awful you'd be better off dead. The characters are all so deliciously awful that they deserve each other, and it makes for a great read.

Excellent domestic drama that I very much enjoyed. Strong characters and a fascinating storyline make for an exciting read. Highly recommended.

I tried to read The Adults by this author and liked a lot of things about it, but could not get into all the detail in the former book about one of the characters’ imaginary friends- a little girl with a large imaginary rabbit friend. This is purely subjective and I know a lot of readers of The Adults enjoyed the rabbit, but it wasn’t for me and I felt it slowed down the action. Like a House on Fire covers a lot of similar territory but I was relieved not to deal with another rabbit. The premise was also more convincing than the first book - this is set at a doomed family murder mystery party, whereas the first book felt it was about some people who should just never have gone on holiday together (Christmas with your ex)? so it was easier to sympathise with this set of new characters, even though they’re not exactly loveable!

I adored this author’s debut novel ‘The Adults’ – a family drama/farce - which is my favourite genre, so I was delighted to discover that she has written an equally inspired and hugely entertaining follow up. Her characters are endearingly daffy, especially the central one, Margaret, the life and soul of the party – literally so, in this plot concerning a wedding anniversary celebration with a murder mystery theme.
As with ‘The Adults’, the dialogue is so good that it is easy to visualise the scenes as performed by actors in a sitcom.
It's dauntingly difficult to pull off a farce without an acting performance when timing is so crucial, so to achieve this twice in novel form is a serious accomplishment which thoroughly deserves the five stars I am awarding.

A funny and moving tale of relationships, family dynamics and fancy crisps. A great cast of characters - Margaret, in particular, is absolutely brilliant. A delight.