When Anthony Wistern, financier and CEO, dies at his 60th birthday party, he ends up in purgatory. Forced to watch his family through CCTV until he remembers how he died, he is unable to move on to “the next stage” until he works it out. His adultery and misdeeds are all uncovered whilst his family argue over the money, his wife has her own secrets and they’re just a truly awful bunch of people to boot. They’re part of the 1% and none of them seem to have any idea that they’re horrible at all.

On the other side of the story is The Sleuth, a podcaster who starts to try and solve what she is sure is a murder and acts as a fab plot device to move the story on without spending too much time with the entitled Wisterns. She’s got her own issues, with a sick mum and a need to solve something after the mystery of her dad’s death is unsolved in her eyes.

It’s a slow burn mystery rather than a pacy thriller, with lots of satire and dark humour thrown in for good measure. You really want both Anthony and The Sleuth to work it out and yet enjoy his discomfort in not being able to. I also enjoyed how whiny they all are about how it’s all terrible while eating at the finest restaurants and living in their country house to escape the London one. It’s a reflection of how you expect anyone you’d ever meet with more money than sense to behave! The ending is just chefs kiss perfect and left me smiling too.

I flitted between the arc ebook and audiobook, and the audiobook in particular really brought the personalities to life. Definitely worth a listen to if you like an audiobook.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for a free arc and audiobook in return for an honest review. 4.5/5

A wealthy financier dies at his birthday party. Was he murdered or was it an unfortunate accident.
An online crime sleuth seeks the truth. Meanwhile the family finds out their finances are not all they thought and the financier was running a scam. Infighting ensues as each tries to grab a slice of the remaining money whilst Anthony looks on at the antics in Purgatory. He needs to know how he died to move on.
An entertaining unusual crime drama.
What really happened and who is the guilty party. There are enough candidates.

a fun and interesting look at a family who implodes and self destructs when their patriarch is found dead at a party. there follows a foray into true crime blogs, family secrets, and how money can warp everything. enjoyed the perspective from purgatory and even though i didnt love the ending, i had fun reading this one

I loved HOW TO KILL YOUR FAMILY so I had really high hopes for this one and I was not disappointed at all, Full of Bella's great way with humour, sarcasm and darkness.

I really loved how different this book was as a concept, I thought the whole ‘afterlife’ gave a really different lens to the story and just a whole different connection to the characters inner thoughts and reflections, it felt really different to anything I have read before and I really liked that as I think that can be quite hard to come by when you read a lot

I thought the writing was well paced and there was a lot of variety between the perspectives meaning it moved along pretty fast. I did at times find the Sleuth chapters a bit on the long side but I’m not sure if it’s maybe because I just love family dynamics and wanted to get back into that. I did find this book very different but I wouldn’t say it was twisty or as gripping as maybe as I’d like for this genre.

The characters in this one were flawed to say the very least but it definitely made for some very interesting moments. I think that Liv was actually my favourite character, I mean, I definitely wouldn’t want her as a mother but some of her one liners were *chef’s kiss* and really made me laugh.

I absolutely love a family saga so the aspects of the family drama was definitely my favourite part of this book in terms of the actual story. I thought the relationships between the sisters/parents was very interesting- drama that happens to be rich people drama is just my favourite reading experience- if anything I’d have maybe wanted more of this (but again that’s a personal love for that kind of thing)

There was quite a few funny one liners throughout that were so candidly relatable (and somewhat savage) and I do really enjoy that about the authors writing style.

I do think there was almost too much going on to really get to know the characters on a deeper level, I would have liked to have had less siblings maybe? Or spent more time with them in that dynamic as I think it almost got lost alongside the mystery at times.

Although I understood why the Sleuth chapters were there and the integral role those chapters played in the overall story and the unravelling of the actual murder, I didn’t find them particularly compelling and if anything I found the almost broke the pace a little for me. I found myself reading them wishing I was back with Anthony or Liv. This book was definitely easy to read and enjoyable however I wouldn’t say I was particularly compelled to turn the page or didn’t find myself thinking about it when I wasn’t reading it.

I would definitely recommend this book to someone who reads this genre, it almost feels like a fail safe book recommendation for me- one that you could recommend to most people without taking into consideration their specific preferences or the amount that they read.

One quote that definitely made me laugh was “Liv could carry a grudge against and inanimate object if she felt it has wronged her” such a mood

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Uk, HarperFiction for an ARC.
A brilliantly written book by Mackie who can write dark humour about a death.
A dysfunctional family with lots of money are the centre puece of the story. Ceo of the company Anthony dies, a women scorned, his wife Olivia, hates him for not getting his financial affairs in order and thus leaves his greedy children everything and ends up leaving her nothing and a self proclaimed sleuth who thinks Anthony's death may not be natural causes but murder. The plot thickens!
The narrative is from the pov of 3 characters Anthony, Olivia and the sleuth. There are other characters as well, some likeable and some not.
This makes for a really good read and at times quite funny as Anthony still has his pov when dead in the death departure room as he wonders how he died.
If you read How to kill your family and get away with it you are definitely going to love this!

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I didn’t get on with the writing style and even halfway through the story did not grab me.

I really enjoyed the idea of this! Anthony dies in suspicious circumstances at his 60th birthday party and arrives in a processing centre! He cannot move on to the afterlife until he can remember who killed him. He is allowed to watch his family after his death to try to jog his memory. It is very funny seeing him watching what people think of him yet still not being able to remember how he died! He becomes the most annoying person at the centre! A great read.

If ‘What A Way To Go’ was a debut it would have been a good start. However after reading Mackie’s first book I was disappointed with the follow up.

A great premise, with characters you may love and definitely others you'll love to hate.

The story is told from 3 different perspectives Anthony and Olivia Wistern and the Sleuth.

Anthony Wistern, CEO of Wismere Holdings, an influential financial wizard is celebrating his 60th birthday which his wife Olivia has thrown an amazing party of who's who and the rich. However, things take a turn and Anthony end up dead. Anthony can't move on from limbo until he's remembered his death, so is keeping an eye on his family to try to gather clues.

Then we have Olivia the ice queen scorned wife, who has been left penniless by her careless husband with her ungrateful, greedy children.

And finally the Sleuth, who is a big true crime fan, who thinks Anthony has been murdered and becomes obsessed with trying to unmask his killer.

This is a slow paced, dark humour book, with plenty of intrigue and characters who all seem capable of heinous crimes, with a wonderful bluntness and family dynamic being played out, but are any of them capable of murder?

An enjoyable read, with plenty of wit and sometimes a little charm, great if you like rich, smug and arrogant characters and their downfall.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

I will publish on Amazon & Instagram on Publication day

Dark humour and a surprising POV makes this story a great follow up for Bella Mackie, author of How to Kill Your Family.

The story begins with the death of a high profile business man and we follow the fallout from three different POV.

A really enjoyable read.

What A Way To Go centres on the wealthy Wistern family after the unusual death of Anthony Wistern and what happens after with his wife and 4 children. An edge of sci-fi with an afterlife view from Anthony mixed with the perspectives of his wife and 'The Sleuth', a local true crime vlogger. I really enjoyed Bella's first novel, How to Kill Your Family, but I found the chapters very long. This book is the opposite! Short and snappy chapters that I could not stop reading! I absolutely love the style the book is written in and Bella does an excellent job at making you love to hate most of the characters. It's a very clever book, dark and amusing. One of my favourite books of this year and I cannot wait to read whatever Bella Mackie writes next.

The wealthy Wistern family are celebrating the 60th birthday of patriarch Anthony. His wife Olivia has spent months organising a lavish celebration at their Cotswold home and with their four grown-up children in attendance, they are ready to put on a united front, when an 'accident' leaves Anthony dead. But that is just the start of his problems!

Stuck in afterlife purgatory, Anthony needs to find out what happened to him before he can move on and he finds that watching his family in the aftermath of his death nothing like he was expecting and particularly eye-opening!

I have seen this described as what would happen in Succession if Logan Roy died unexpectedly with his children under suspicion of having something to do with it, and that is a great description!

Thank you net gallery and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for the arc What A Way To Go was so excited to read it as I already have it pre ordered I fully enjoyed it the story is about the wisterns and about their death of their father Anthony I enjoyed the plot and twists in it and like the characters 4 star read

4.5/5 stars. Another fantastic book from Bella Mackie. I think I enjoyed this even more than How to Kill Your Family. Really enjoyed the dual perspectives, and the concept of the afterlife.
This book had many funny moments and kept me guessing right to the end. The Wistern family are so inherently unlikeable but you just can't get enough of them so it's a real page turner.
Thank you to Bella Mackie and the Publisher for giving me this advanced readers copy. Highly recommend this book to all for a fun, mystery thriller read!

What a way to go
A different take on a murder mystery.
With a dysfunctional family and heavenly setting A great page turner

I was already a fan of Bella Mackie, so I eagerly seized the chance to read her latest work. She has a remarkable talent for crafting intricate and unique plots, and this book was no exception. The premise of observing life unravel from the beyond was both intriguing and original. I felt deeply connected to the characters, as if I truly got to know each one through the narrative. It was the perfect length for a single sitting and, true to form, Bella Mackie’s humor shone through, even amidst the darker themes of murder and betrayal. This blend of wit and suspense made for a captivating read from start to finish.

This was elevated from an "ordinary" whodunnit by some horrible characters and clever ideas, particularly surrounding one's fate in the Afterlife and the monitoring of family affairs. It was also very amusing, often in a sly way which I always enjoy and was generally a fun read.
I definitely enjoyed it more than how to kill your family, and I'm looking forward to Ms Mackie's next book already.
Thank you to netgalley and Harper Collins for an advance copy of this book.

I love how Bella Mackie perfectly captures everything that annoys me about people who believe wealth gives them an excuse to behave badly. The perspective of having someone watching how life plays out after they have died is brilliant, as is the idea that we're all going to our own personalised 'heaven or hell.' I don't know how she manages to make these books so darkly comedic, but they are laugh out loud funny!

What a funny and twisty read! I loved the aspect of a waiting room in the afterlife, and enjoyed discovering who had done it. This book had the authors usual underlying humorous tone, and there were plenty of moments I had found myself giggling. Highly recommend.