The Dead Friend Project was pitched to me as Motherland with murder and that feels pretty spot on upon reflection. It has that biting familiarity we’ve all seen in drawing on types of people that get under our skin a little, but also a hidden warmth amidst the mystery and potential murder.

Joanna Wallace has my full attention. I thoroughly enjoyed the deadly and darkly comic You’d Look Better as a Ghost and how surpassingly poignant it was in its exploration of grief, as well as its complex female protagonist. These prove to be celebrated hallmarks of Wallace’s work as similar themes emerge in The Dead Friend Project. The humour was fantastic – it is often bleakly comic, but also observationally. In particular Wallace takes aim at the different mum archetypes you may see at the school gates or in a PTA committee. I loved how it looks at this as both vacuous posturing in an unspoken competition and a genuine attempt at creating community and friendship. It allows for nuance.

Beth is a fractured and deeply flawed protagonist. She’s a bit snarky, a bit grumpy and fairly bitter at the world, but she’s also deeply kind, loyal and determined to try and do her best where she can. You get a sense of just how deeply Charlotte’s loss has hit here and also the loss of her marriage – it sets her off on a downward spiral aided by addiction, shown through alcoholism. There’s that thin line that Wallace explores so well. It adds a dramatic layer in terms of missed memories and blackouts that feed into the wider picture, but also an emotional layer of how deeply it has transformed her and her personality. It was executed so well in my opinion.

The central mystery is always fixated around the question of if there even is a mystery here to solve. There’s odd clues and prickling of suspicion at things that seem a little too coincidental, but then you remember you’re in the headspace of a deeply unreliable character. Wallace plays with this tension perfectly, keeping you guessing throughout. Some of the revelations that come in the final third of this book were jaw-dropping and utterly brilliant.

The Dead Friend Project cements Wallace as a must read author for me. This is an incredibly and emotionally fraught mystery that invests so much heart and humanity into its protagonist. It’ll make you laugh and make you cry.

Standards are surely slipping in suburbia when murder is allowed to interrupt wine o’clock. It’s a particularly thorny issue for the now terminally misanthropic Beth, who has been relying on the support of her old friend vino since the death of her actual friend, Charlotte, around a year ago. Charlotte died after being hit by a car while out for a nighttime run, an incident that was quickly deemed a tragic accident by both the authorities and Charlotte’s friends and family.

While Charlotte’s untimely death has been a tragedy for the whole community—she was a marathon-running, charity-fundraising, well-respected A&E doctor who also ran the PTA and found time to dress up as the school’s Easter bunny, after all—Beth has been left especially bereft. And her emotional state has not been helped by her husband choosing the day after Charlotte’s death as the day to announce his affair and his intention to leave Beth and shack up with her (former) friend, Jade. It’s enough to turn anyone to drink.

It’s little wonder that time has passed in a bit of a blur for Beth since then. However, the start of a new school year brings a rare moment of clarity and a startling revelation for Beth. Indeed, a playground encounter with her frenemies reveals that Charlotte’s youngest son was left alone in the house on the night she supposedly went for the fateful run. Beth knows that there is no way Charlotte—a true supermum—would have left her son home alone. Not to go for a run. Not for anything.

But if Charlotte didn’t leave the house voluntarily on the night in question, is it really safe to assume that her death was an accident? How likely is it really that she would have run into the road in the dark without first checking for traffic? Beth begins to suspect that she’s been too blinded by grief and rage and a whole host of other emotions to recognise that there was something very wrong about Charlotte’s death. Determined to correct her mistake, Beth decides to dedicate her limited child-free time to detective work.

The Dead Friend Project is another superb blend of dark humour and intriguing mystery from Joanna Wallace. Subverting and exposing the thoroughly middle-class setting of a dormitory town somewhere outside of Oxford—where everyone is entirely respectable and everything is meticulously ordered and organised—by portraying it through the eyes of a jaded, miserable and often drunk resident is a masterstroke. Even without the possibility of murder, its clear that people would much rather problems simply disappear.

And Beth has certainly become a problem.

In addition to the drinking, she’s too loud, she swears too much, she asks awkward questions and she just can’t bear to pretend that everything is fine and the minutia of child-centric daily life are all-important. Wallace skewers many of the stereotypes of the competitive school mum clique, both through Beth’s acerbic and/or confused contributions to conversations and through her gloriously irritated internal monologue. It’s becoming clear that she’s an embarrassment to the other mums but also that they might be hiding something far more sinister than snobbery.

But is that what her former friends really think or is it Beth’s self-doubt and self-loathing speaking? While Emily and her Pritt Stick-loving posse are overly precious and somewhat consumed with preserving their social standing, meaning that Beth’s witty observations are often accurate, she’s still the epitome of an unreliable narrator. She’s so addled by unhappiness that she can’t always see people’s true character. Plus, her drinking causes memory lapses, which means she can’t be sure of what happened in the past or is happening in the present.

Memory issues are far from helpful for a sleuth, whether amateur or professional, but Beth is aware of her issues and perseveres despite them. She’s quite admirably determined in fact, and she’s far from the first literary detective to be their own worst enemy. As sober Beth can only remember fragments of what drunk Beth discovers, and given that those memories are questionable at best, there’s a constantly shifting set of clues and suspects, which renders the mystery twisted and largely unguessable.

While the majority of The Dead Friend Project is set in the present day as Beth attempts to unravel the puzzle behind Charlotte’s death and stop her own life from imploding, there are scenes from the past—from around the time of the incident—interspersed throughout. These scenes provide glimpses into Beth’s life before her best friend died and her husband left her, indicating that she might have been troubled even before tragedy struck, and they also flesh out events and characters that she has difficulty remembering or describing accurately.

Through highlighting the sinister side of the most mundane things and allowing Beth to clearheadedly observe the eccentricities and oddness of those around her, Wallace manages to make even playdates and schools fetes seem macabre. The disorientation associated with Beth’s memory lapses exacerbates the confusion related to grief and the flailing need to find someone to blame. Together, these aspects result in an atmosphere of tension and danger that permeates The Dead Friend Project even as the gallows humour flows thick and fast.

Dark, laugh-out-loud funny, messy, vibrant, and addictive, this was an absolute riot. I loved Joanna Wallace’s debut and couldn’t wait to pick this one up. And when I did I devoured it in under a day, unable to put it down once I’d started.

It follows Beth, a woman who is teetering on the edge. Nothing has gone right for her since her husband left her for her friend. She’s struggling with single parenthood, the other mum’s judge her for swearing too much, and her drinking is becoming a problem. She’s a hot mess. And to make things even worse, the only person she can turn to, her best friend Charlotte, was killed the same night her husband left. But when Beth discovers that Charlotte left her young son home alone that night she immediately becomes suspicious. The Charlotte she knew would never be so irresponsible, and she begins to question if her friend’s death really was an accident. With a new found sense of purpose, Beth sets out to uncover the truth about that night….

Joanna Wallace is proving herself to be a must-read author for anyone who loves a darkly comic thriller. Deftly plotted, acutely observed and charged with adrenaline, she manages to walk that fine line of being both absolutely hilarious and deeply moving. A story of friendship, loss, grief and obsession, there are some difficult topics woven into the narrative. Dark secrets, fractured people, and complex relationships inhabit the pages, creating a melting pot of disaster ripe for boiling over. And when it does, no one will come out unscathed. Everyone is a suspect and, like Beth, I didn’t trust anyone. I loved that Wallace used certain details to make the reader suspect characters, adding to the suspicion, mistrust and unease. I was on the edge of my seat, my heart thumping, as the tension sizzled on the pages.

Beth was a great protagonist. It’s not just her life that‘s a disaster, she is too, and it’s like she’s determined to self-destruct. I liked that she wasn’t a picture-perfect mum and had a lot of empathy for all she was going through, but I also really wanted to give her a shake. She becomes increasingly obsessed with discovering what happened to Charlotte but she is an unreliable narrator, so it was hard to know if we could trust her recollections, discoveries and suspicions. Were the pieces she’s putting together real or the overactive imaginings of a grieving woman? As the story went on she became increasingly unstable, something that seemed inevitable with her alcohol consumption and being surrounded by people she suspects of murder. The other mums and playground politics are perfectly written and I think all parents have met mothers like the ones on these pages. It certainly took me back to the days I used to do the school run and all the clique-filled drama that was part of it.

Propulsive, tense and twisting, The Dead Friend Project is a riveting ink-black comedy not to be missed.

The characters in this book will be instantly recognisable to anyone who has ever run the gauntlet of the school run. It's hard to believe that the majority of schools across the land has the same mix and dynamic of playground politics and cliques of people involved. There's the PTA clan, those mums who are perfectly turned out every trip in all the right gear with their faultless hair and make up, and the sweary mum who feels like she will never make the grade or be accepted into any of the established groups.

Jo Wallace has captured the scenario perfectly and underscored within it a thread of humour which will have you laughing out loud throughout. Beth is desperately trying to hold her shattered life together without the two people she thought she would have beside her forever: her husband Rowan and her best friend Charlotte. With 3 kids and a loveable dog to contend with every day, she's rarely the priority. Then one day she overhears something which gets her mind working overtime and gives her a project to focus on. Who Killed Charlotte and Why?

There are a workable number of characters in this book so I never felt overwhelmed by who was who, but there are enough suspects for Beth to weave into the mix and form motives for. By the end I think most people have been put under the microscope but will Beth be satisfied that she has solved the mystery?

This book drew me in and kept me amused. I don't recommend reading it in public though unless you want to attract attention to yourself because I promise you won't be able to hold those giggles in.

3-3.5/5 - this was funny and actually had me laughing out loud at parts but I also felt there was a bit too much going on and some of the banter felt forced.

Beth's life is a bit of a mess. Her husband ran off with one of her friends, her best mate Charlotte died after being hit by a car, she has three active children, a dog and a drinking problem that causes memory loss. She's struggling to cope and is starting to wonder whether Charlotte's death was really an accident. Can she piece together her fragmented memories to come up with a coherent answer?

An engaging read, with some laugh-out-loud moments.

Certainly a very different kind of read for me.

Beth has an awful lot to deal with: her best friend, Charlotte, has died, she is struggling to lose the baby weight after the birth of her daughter, her husband has left her for another 'friend' and, to crown it all, her son falls from the climbing wall at school when he's under her supervision and the first day of school ends up in A&E. Life is, at best, a struggle and niggling at the back of her mind is the thought that Charlotte's death wasn't the accident it's been labelled as. And, despite everything else going on, that thought just won't go away ...

I liked the character of Beth, although I did struggle with her choices at times. Her determination to get to the bottom of Charlotte's death is what keeps her going through the darkest of days. What niggled at me is that an awful lot of her 'discoveries' were supposition on her part and there wasn't really anyone playing devil's advocate. Quite enjoyable though and, for me, 4*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is = as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

Rating: 4.3/5

I loved Joanna Wallace's debut novel, "You'd Look Better as a Ghost" and she has followed it up with another wonderfully engaging read. The central character this time around is Beth, a now single mother of young children - having lost her husband to a former close friend. She is also still grieving the death of her best friend, who was killed a year earlier in what was deemed to be a tragic accident - though Beth remains unconvinced of this. Beth's relationships with her fellow school mums, who make up her social circle, has become increasingly fraught, which is not being helped by Beth's issues with alcohol, about which she is in denial.

Although this has a very different storyline to her first book, there are some markedly similar hallmarks stylistically. Once again, the story begins with a novel opening that sets the scene in vivid and intriguingly original fashion. The characterisation throughout is admirable with the author creating a whole cast of relatable characters, alongside the central protagonist, Beth. The dialogue is consistently of an impeccable standard and written in an entirely natural and convincing fashion. Although the mystery relating to the death of Charlotte (Beth's best friend) is always bubbling away beneath the surface, the narrative is primarily driven by the relationships Beth has with the other school mums and it is impossible not to be reminded to an extent of tv's "Motherland" series. The book is packed full of humorous content, even at times when it might seem somewhat inappropriate - but this merely adds to the impact and comedic effect. As in her debut, the author makes some very astute social observations, that should bring a smile of acknowledgement to the faces of most readers.

If I were to make any slight criticism (and it would only be a very slight one), then it would be that readers who haven't experienced parenthood may feel a little alienated by the subject matter at times. However, that small point aside, I would heartily recommend "The Dead Friend Project" and I am keen to see what Joanna Wallace offers up next.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

If there’s one thing you’ve got to admire about Beth, it’s her dogged persistence.

The other thing is quite possibly her devotion to her friend Charlotte who was hit by a car last year. Her death was ruled accidental as she was dressed like she was out for a run but that makes for a very short story, so when Beth discovers that Charlotte son was upstairs when she was hit, she’s convinced there’s something else afoot. Something that would make her friend, a devoted mother, leave her child alone at home.

This becomes Beth’s single, all-consuming focus, taking her away from her children (one of whom is very rude), the husband she’s still in love with who cheated on her and is now living with her friend, and her semblance of politeness and feigning interest in the “school gate mum” friendship circle she’s been left in.

One thing from which this investigation does not take Beth away however is her alcoholism. This book very clearly shows our heroine’s flaws right alongside a feature so many of us admire - her loyalty - and reveals more and more of her character to the reader as you go on. The plot however is not of such equal importance and there’s a relatively slow start to the book. An interesting if somewhat exasperating last 40 pages of the book however takes us to 3.5 stars, rounded down for pacing.

Thoroughly Entertaining..
When best friend Charlotte is killed, nothing seems to have gone right for Beth. When certain facts begin to come to light, Beth realises that Charlotte’s death may not have been an accident at all. It’s time to investigate. Immersive and wholly enjoyable mystery laced with a dark and delicious humour whilst being keenly observed, a well crafted cast of characters and an engaging narrative. Thoroughly entertaining.

Joanna Wallace manages to perfectly blend dark themes with buckets of humour, and set them against the ordinary ever-day situations we can all relate to. This skill makes reading her books a lot of fun.
I love a dual timeline and I adore an unreliable narrator and I got both of these in this book. Beth drinks...a lot...and this leads to a brilliantly skewed perception of what is happening and what she does. You can't trust anything you are being told and need to work out the truth from other clues and characters. Her interactions with the teenagers that hang around the end of her road were cringingly hilarious and definitely relatable in that way that I have been informed by friends of my behaviour or what I said after I had a glass or two too many!
The school gates is a rich environment for showcasing the worst traits of parents and Joanna captured this fantastically - not being a parent it always seems so exhausting engaging with school mums and Beth definitely felt this, with laugh out loud consequences at times. The writing of the child characters was spot-on too, always saying unexpected things at inopportune times that leave parents scrabbling.
Humour aside, there is a great mystery to be unravelled in the book and the timing of reveals is perfect to keep you turning pages. Beth is driven to the very edge trying to find out what happened to her friend in the time before her death and I really felt for her. The book shows the burden that mothers carry in society, the numerous plates they have to juggle all while being judged by pretty much everyone...even the school caretaker!

This was a laugh a minute, despite the main character's best friend's death. And the main character obviously had a drinking problem, which makes me somewhat uncomfortable for finding the book so very funny. But I wasn't laughing at her problems, but rather at her hilarious inner thoughts about her friends' ridiculous behaviour. The hi-vis vest scenario when traffic was being directed to the "orchard" was classic.

I'm in two minds about the ending. It's not how I would have chosen to end things, but I fully embraced it and it certainly left me thinking about the story long after I had read the last page.

I loved this novel, it was completely gripping and I had to know what happened to Charlotte. I loved the fact that you didn't know who to trust and the ending was inspired. Totally recommend

Beth is dealing with a lot right now. Still mourning her friend Charlotte who was killed in a car accident almost a year ago, shortly followed by her husband leaving her for another close friend, leaving her with 3 young children, it's been a tough year.

Back on the school run and the playground mums haven't changed much, making missing Charlotte even harder. But she still has the niggling feeling that something didn't make sense from the night if the accident, so taking advantage of some child-free time while they are with their dad, she starts investigating!

This was an entertaining read with Beth being a great character and easy to get behind while she tried to solve the mystery. The school mums were scarily accurate and if you have at any point done a school run, you will definitely be able to recognise most of them!

The story:
Beth is having a hard time. Her husband has left her for her former friend, her son has fallen off the climbing wall on the first day of school, and she can’t compete with the seemingly perfect other mothers at the school pick-up. And, oh yes — she thinks her best friend may have been murdered…

My thoughts:
I was excited to be given the chance to read “The Dead Friend Project” on NetGalley, having enjoyed the darkly humorous “You’d Look Better as a Ghost”; author Joanna Wallace’s debut novel, which was a five-star read for me last year.

In this novel we meet Beth — a woman teetering on the brink as she attempts to look after her three young children, plus dog, having been left by her husband for one of her own friends, on the day she finds out her best friend Charlotte has been killed in a tragic road accident.

Charlotte was said to be out on the road that night because she had gone out for a run — she was training for the marathon. But 18 months on, Beth learns that Charlotte had been alone in the house with her young son. Why would Charlotte — by all accounts a super-mum, who ran the PTA, dressed up as the Easter Bunny and still found time to buy personalised gifts for the teachers at the end of term — leave her child alone in the house to go running? Something doesn’t add up, and as Beth tries to uncover exactly what happened that night (fuelled by a large amount of wine), she starts to suspect that the death may not have been an accident at all.

As with the author’s first book, this story is both dark and laugh-out-loud hilarious. Beth’s attempts to question her friends about the night of Charlotte’s death are punctuated by passive aggressive comments about their children’s reading levels, and whether Beth can be trusted to provide gluten-free snacks at a play date.

Beth herself is a remarkably likeable character, considering she doesn’t seem to like herself very much, is far too reliant on wine, and is actually more hung up on competitive parenting than some of those she accuses of it. Beth’s suspicions fall on pretty much everyone at some point in the story, but she carries the reader along with her in the belief that something just isn’t right.

This was another superb read for me, and Joanna Wallace is fast becoming a go-to author for quirky and hilarious, but also intriguing and well-written mysteries. Highly recommended!

OMG, Joanna Wallace has hit it out of the park again. Beth’s life is in free fall - her best friend Charlotte was killed a year ago and on the same night her husband left her for her other best friend Jade. With three small children and the ‘perfect’ playground mums to cope with Beth is struggling until she suddenly realises that Charlotte‘s death wasn’t an accident and Beths life suddenly has focus as she attempts to find out what happened. I just love this novel and couldn’t put it down. The characterisation is spot-on and I laughed so much at the authors dark humour. The playground politics are surely played out in many schools around the country and I certainly met mothers just like these. No more spoilers but just run out and buy this novel. I’ve also been fortunate enough to listen to the audio of the novel and the narrator. Imogen Church is just brilliant and her narration and characterisation brings the novel to life. I can’t wait for more from this author and recommend her previous novel. You’d look better as a Ghost. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advanced, copy and audio of this novel in return for an honest review.

The Dead Friend Project is the second novel by British author, Joana Wallace. Beth was hit hard when her best friend Charlotte died in a road accident almost a year ago. And when, soon after that, she discovered that her husband was having an affair with her friend, Jade, she withdrew.

Now, she’s back at the school gate for the start of the new school year, discovering it’s same old, same old with the competitive, judgemental school mums. She does meet a new mum whose attitude is more like her own. Ana, her husband and two daughters have moved into the house where Charlotte lived. But then a comment about how Charlotte died seems completely out of character for the friend she still misses so much.

She starts asking some questions of those who were around at the time, and each tidbit she learns increases her doubt about the accidental nature of Charlotte’s death: ”She was training for a marathon. In the dark? After she’d run ten miles earlier that same day? And she was drinking wine. Her toddler was in the house. Why would she suddenly leave him and go out for a run? It doesn’t make sense.”

One evening when her children are with their father and her ex-good-friend, she sets out what she knows, aided by quite a lot of wine, and comes up with theories about what might have happened. The school mums, though, aren’t persuaded. Meanwhile, Beth is leaning more and more heavily on alcohol, to the concern of her friends and her ex.

Then another mum dies, and Beth becomes convinced it’s linked to Charlotte’s death, and that both are revenge killings. Soon, her wild theories about possible witnesses and potential murderers, and her frank assessments of the school mums are alienating those who care most for her. But is she right?

The story is told over a dual timeline, with Beth occasionally recalling incidents in the lead-up to, and immediate aftermath of, Charlotte’s death. Beth’s inner monologue is often laugh-out-loud funny, although she can also be quite snarky. She claims to feel judged by other mums but, until it is pointed out, fails to recognise her many eyerolls as judgement of others. Her reliability as a narrator comes into question when the volume of her alcohol consumption is revealed.

Wallace’s depiction of the school-gate interactions radiates authenticity, and Beth’s and Ana’s questioning of their priorities is entirely valid: “everyone loves to judge the parent of a screaming child. You’ll be judged. Mostly by other parents. They love to judge, almost as much as they love to compete and everything becomes a competition once you have children.”

This is a tale with characters who will feel familiar to anyone with young children. There’s lots of dark humour, a plot with plenty of red herrings and a few twists, a major meltdown and an utterly wicked final chapter. Entertaining British crime fiction.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Profile Books.

Things for mother Beth are not going well. Not only has her husband left her and her friends are judging her but her best friend, Charlotte was recently killed after an accident. Soon Beth finds herself questioning if this was really an accident. Will she manage to find out?

This was a very entertaining read and I found I enjoyed this a lot more than this author’s previous novel. Straight away I was drawn into Beth’s crazy life and her group of ‘perfect’ friends, feeling able to relate, proving how well they were written. I loved that this didn’t take itself too seriously and there was lots of humour running throughout. I also enjoyed how it all came together and wasn’t what I was expecting. This definitely pleasantly surprised me, surpassing my expectations and I would recommend to those looking for a fun, cosy mystery full dark humour. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in return for an honest review.

This is the second book I've read by Joanna Wallace and I find her voice and characters so addictive. There's so much plot and so many twists to keep the reader guessing that there's never a good place to put it down! Inevitably, just like with her debut, I ended up devouring this in one sitting! Such a talented author and I will continue to keep my eyes peeled for her books forever more. If you like bold, problematic characters and twisty plots, I highly recommend!

Once again Joanna Wallace has given us an incredible read. Quite how she manages to blend dark sinister elements and side splitting humour is just a talent. The mystery of Beth’s best friend Charlotte’s death is at the centre of this story. Everyone believes it was an accident except Beth. She can’t accept that Charlotte would have behaved the way everyone claims she did the night of her death. So Beth sets out to prove that there’s been some mistake and it wasn’t accidental. But Beth’s life isn’t easy either since her husband’s ran off with her other best friend Jade. Then there are the other mums, so perfect in Beth’s eyes, and the new family who moved into Charlotte’s house. Still, in spite of all this, Beth is determined to find out the truth and so begins her new project. The school mums are just brilliant: anyone who’s spent time in the school playground will recognise them. The school politics are just hilarious. The mystery of what happened kept me guessing throughout, and just when I’d think I’d worked it out, in would come another twist. Such a clever book! I can’t wait for more from Joanna.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Serpent’s Tail, Viper Books for an arc in exchange for a review.