What a way to go is an engaging and witty book. Money definitely can’t buy you love. I love the twists and turns. Excited to read more by Bella Mackie

Darkly comic slow burn which I thoroughly enjoyed,

The three perspectives keep it moving nicely and I love a book about people and their relationships and this one is great. The dynamics are brilliant with characters you love to hate.

I really liked how to kill your family but this one just fell flat for me. I quickly lost interest, even on audio, and the humor didn't hit as much as it did with this author's first novel. 2 stars

Anthony Wistern dies at his own birthday party in quite a spectacular way. But was it an accident or was it murder and if he was murdered who out of the many, many possible suspects committed the crime? This darkly funny book follows events from several character's viewpoints, including Anthony Wistern who must remember how he died to move on. There are lots of clever twists and turns along the way as the true awfulness of Anthony's family members is allowed to shine and an amateur sleuth causes havoc in her bid for social media fame.

What a Way to Go is my second read from Bella Mackie and what a read! I loved How to Kill Your Family and the same dry wit and dark humour that was in those pages is here in What a Way to Go too. As you may have gathered from the cover art and title, this book is about an unusual death – that of Anthony Wistern.

We have Anthony, our – recently dead – first narrator. There are two other main narrators, Anthony’s wife, Olivia and ‘The Sleuth’.

Set in Chipping Marston, Oxfordshire, Anthony, is a working-class lad done good, working his way up to CEO of his own finance company, Wismere Holdings. Married to Olivia (our second narrator), who does come from family money, they have four adult children – Jemima, Freddy, Lyra and Clara – and were quite the formidable couple on the premium party circuit.

It was at one of their legendary parties – Anthony’s 60th birthday – that he dies and his whole family are thrown into turmoil. You see, Anthony’s death could be seen as suspicious – it’s definitely a bit wild – and it’s very quickly that all his family’s grudges and grievances come tumbling out of the wardrobe.

I loved how What a Way to Go has its other-worldly spin with chapters from Anthony in death’s waiting room, watching his family as they deal with his death. Weirdly, I was watching Kaos in the same time frame I was reading this book and that also has a death/underworld waiting room situation.

The Sleuth is our third narrator – a true crime fan, she lives in the village where the death occurs, so basically feel it’s her crime to solve. A crime, by the way, that the police rule accidental death, but she’s convinced Anthony was murdered, and is going to do anything to prove it…

As her chapters go on, we see her subscribers grow and grow. I thought this was interesting commentary on the rise of true crime podcasters and how they can hound people with little to no evidence – just a hunch and a phone, but are spurred on by the growing amount of people that validate what they are doing. Her chapters really add a great dynamic to the read.

What a Way to Go is an excellent, entertaining read – a crime mystery meets family drama, with a unique premise, highly recommend!

This book is Cluedo with twist, told through the eyes of the deceased, his wife and an online crime sleuth.

When wealthy financial entrepreneur Anthony Wistern dies at his 60th birthday party  in unfortunate circumstances, it is unclear how it has happened. Anthony is stuck in afterlife limbo and can't move on until he has pieced it all together. Meanwhile, an online wannabe detective is convinced that one of Anthony's family members is a culprit and sets out to prove it to their followers by stalking the family

I really enjoyed this book, dark but funny at the same time! I'm definitely going to go back and read her previous novel and look forward to the next!

Loved this book. I thought it was really funny with a different storyline to my usual reads. I loved the characters (even though his children were annoying, but annoyingly good!)
Very well written and kept me engaged all the way through . 5⭐️

What A Way To Come Back! I read Bella Mackie's fiction debut, How To Kill Your Family in NetGalley and was so happy to recommend it back then! It was so satisfactory to see how well it ended up doing. I've enjoyed her second novel as much as I did the first one, and can't wait to read anything she publishes!

No one writes rich, despicable characters quite like Bella! The speculative element surprised me but I was completely drawn in and raced through this to discover whodunnit. Smart and compelling and a perfect follow up to HOW TO KILL YOUR FAMILY.

Bella Mackie's disdain for the rich shines through this one, too.

It's rather a slow-paced novel in which deceased Anthony Wistern is trying to solve the mistery of his own death in a sort of purgatorial setting. Same goes for the living, as Anthony's death made quite a few people look suspicious. Then there's an amateur sleuth who runs an investigation of her own.

The problem is, "What a Way to Go" is not that interesting. Despite three significantly different POV's. Despite the twists and turns. Despite the angle of a morality tale, showcasing wealthy people as either beyond moral or simply clueless. This was rather unsatisfying read with kind of predictable ending.

I didn’t think I would like this as much as I really did. I’d put it off until I could do it no more and once I was in I was hooked. It’s not my usually type of book but it was fascinating and a really good
Read. Thank you NetGalley for this arc in exchange of an honest review.

'What A Way To Go' is the next release for Bella Mackie, following the massive success of her book How to Kill Your Family which, when I read it, I LOVED!

This book has the exact same charm and dry black humour that I loved from HTKYF which was the real main pulling power of this book. It is told from 3 POVs: Anthony who has recently died under suspicious circumstances and is looking in on his family from past life limbo (note: I wasn't expecting a beetlejuice-esque recently deceased set up, but I liked it!) next there is Liv, Anthony's wife, who is going through her life after losing her husband and is now under the scrutiny of the upper class and feral media alike and lastly 'The Sleuth' a would be online persona who has a passion for solving murders and has set her eyes on Anthony's departure from this world as her big break.

I very enjoy Mackie's writing style, she made me REALLY hate these characters (and I mean REALLY) but then still want to know what was going on and caring enough to keep reading. It was a fast paced, fun read and one that I honestly would recommend picking up! I appreciate maybe her writing isn't for everyone, How to Kill Your Family seemed to be a very marmite book but I was firmly in the enjoyed side and I am also with this one!

Thanks so much to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC! (took me a little why to get to it...oops)

This book was enjoyable but I didn’t find the characters as compelling as I expected to. I did find it to be an intriguing read and I wanted to keep reading to find out more.

Ooh I loved this!! I'd heard such good things about Bella Mackie, so I was excited to read this, and it didn't disappoint. Razor sharp writing and characterisation, along with a gripping plot, make this a fine addition to the growing selection of great psychological thrillers written by women, I would highly recommend it!

Definitely not the triumph her first book was that’s for sure. It was so slow and the characters were super irritating. I didn’t even care about the mystery. I’m so sorry but it was a bit of a slog.

Where to start? This is just brilliant. The concept, the story, the writing. The characters are just despicable self centred individuals. No so much as Anthony Wistern, the patriarch of this rather rich well to do family. That’s in life but in death he’s struggling to come to terms with being in a form of purgatory from which he can’t move on without finding out how he died. Problem is he can’t remember and the only way he can find out is to sit and watch his nearest and dearest living their lives without him. Which is an eye opener for him.

I really enjoyed the journey my characters went on both in life and beyond. Anthony’s situation (for me) was reminiscent of a 21st century take on the Maitlands’s circumstances in the fabulous Beetlejuice. The disbelief of being dead and the afterlife support which admittedly was a different state of affairs to the one Tim Burton created.

Mackie’s dry sense of humour leaps off the page as she makes the characters do their merry dance. The sheer audacity the Wisterns act in the aftermath of Anthony’s death is just laughable and oh my when I found out how the patriarchal figure went I burst out laughing – definitely a way to go!!

What A Way To Go is just superb. If you love the new wave of dark comic crime fiction from authors like Katy Brent, CJ Skuse and Eve Kellmen, you need to read Mackie’s books. I’m just hoping it’s not two years before the next one!!!!

a tricky one to rate - this one is both cleverly written and mildly disappointing. the three perspectives - one of them being the murder victim himself - are distinctly different and do all bring something else to the story. the characterisation throughout is good and everyone has a strong personality.

unfortunately it just never really clicked into place for me, the plot itself felt lacking. they were also all unlikeable, which isn't always an issue but i didn't find the plot compelling enough to carry such irritating protagonists.

4.5 stars
This book tells the story of a murder from the point of view of three people: the murdered man from a kind of limbo, the murdered man's wife and a young woman who comments on real crimes on the internet in her spare time and uses the murder of her neighbour to try to be somebody. Bella Mackie has once again created horrible, self-centred and rich characters. They hate each other and create ridiculous and exaggerated situations. Nevertheless, the book has a social critique, a very acidic humour that is very reminiscent of her first book. It is not a quick or easy read, but it is entertaining, and although the characters are made to be hated, you can almost be on their side.
The truth is that this author's ability to create obnoxious and insufferable characters is impressive, and at the same time keeps you totally glued to the story.

Anthony is a rich financier, newly turned 60 and now newly dead. Unfortunately he can't pass on until he can recall the exact manner of his death and ,whilst he watches his nearest and dearest (from the South Gloucestershire Processing Centre), he contemplates his demise. The problem is that Anthony was actually a swindler on a grand scale and now his family have to deal with the fallout, a fallout that also includes a zealous true crime blogger, whom Anthony assaulted a couple of years ago.
I was surprised by how much a loved this book. It's original enough to pique interest at the start but then develops into a 'knowing' black comedy that keeps giving. There are lots of sideswipes and the idle rich kept wives and children who live off trust funds and have no idea of reall work. I also loves the scarcely vieled pastiches of true crime podcasters!

Bella Mackie’s first book How to Kill Your Family was one of THE books of 2021. And boy did it live up to the hype.

So her second book, What a Way to Go has been hotly anticipated. Could it meet the success of it’s predecessor?

What a Way to Go is a novel in the same vein as Mackie’s first with similar class commentary, satire and dark humour. However, it’s also wholly different – instead of a thriller where we follow a serial killer this time we get a classic murder mystery.

Antony Wistern, super rich financier and patriarch is celebrating his 60th Birthday when he is found impaled on a decorative spike in his lake. The police rule it an accident – but with all of Anthony’s wealth, could someone have been after his fotune? Perhaps his wife, his business partner or one of his four children?

What ensues is drama and squabbling amongst the most dysfunctional and love-to-hate cast of characters as the family deal with issues of inhertance. Meanwhile, a local crime obsessed tiktokker thinks Anthony was murdered and believes solving the case will be her big break.

The genius twist in Mackie’s narration is that we actually get chapters from Anthony’s perspective. Following his death, he ends up in a sort of limbo, where he can’t move on til he works out how he died. Anthony is detestable but his narration of events following his death is hilarious. The other chapters are narrated by our social media armchair detective and Anthony’s wife Oliva giving us a full 360 degrees on the situation.

Mackie writes about class and society, not to mention our obsession with it, incredibly well. Her narrative is witty, full of dark humour and satire – not only for the obscenely rich but for the hypocrisy of the liberal elite (one of Anthony’s daughter’s judges her father’s wealth as she benefits from it) and the true crime obsession of wider society. No-one gets away unscathed.

As well as the clever plot devices and social commentary, Mackie builds a story that is simply a brilliant murder mystery. She keeps the reader completely hooked – if you enjoy crime with a liberal splash of dark humour, you will devour this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book for an honest review.