I listened to the audiobook version of this story and I really liked how it had 3 narrators.
I liked it how it was told from 3 different points of view, from very different characters. This made it more interesting.
I liked that you weren't really left with questions at the end, it tied it up quite nicely.
I thought the premise was interesting and it was an enjoyable read.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Anthony Wistern has it all. Enormous wealth, beautiful houses, social standing, business success, and a family that any self-made man would be proud of.

He’s also dead.

What A Way To Go opens at Anthony’s 60th birthday party, a wildly extravagant and artfully-lit demonstration of his wealth and success. By the end of the evening he is gruesomely dead, and there is no shortage of suspects who may have caused his demise.

The book rotates around three narrators - Olivia, Anthony’s wife; an internet ‘true-crime’ sleuth whose name we don’t discover until much further on into the book; and Anthony himself, speaking to us from a liminal afterlife. The audiobook I listened to had different narrators for each voice and while I’m not always a fan of multi-voice narration, it really worked for this one. Each of the accents, tone, and pacing was accurate and distinct, and I didn’t even employ my normal increase of playback speed, as there were so many small nuances that I didn’t want to miss.

As well as being a well-paced whodunnit, with drip-fed clues and red herrings, What A Way To Go is also an immensely clever social commentary. Without being heavy-handed, Mackie addresses social isolation, online clout-chasing, relationship challenges (many thereof), class issues, wealth gaps, privilege and power imbalance. She does so with a healthy dose of humour - sometimes dark, often subtle, but always there. I especially appreciated the character of the citizen investigator, and the delicate building of the background that brought her to this case.

The icing on this particular murder cake for me is how Mackie manages to deliver an entire cast of characters who were irremediably unlikeable, and yet entirely engage the reader with their stories and experiences. Each time the narrator shifted I was happy to come back to their thread, and this kept the book moving well.

By the time all the guilty parties and their comeuppances were revealed, it felt like a really annoying itch had been thoroughly scratched. If you’re looking for a new read, it’s hard to do better than this.

*
Ad - PR copy. Thank you Harper Collins for providing this book for review consideration. The review is unpaid and all opinions are my own.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to What A Way To Go by Bella Mackie. It was expertly narrated by Kimberley Capero, Gabrielle Glaister and Colin Mace.

Antony Wistern unfortunately dies at his 60th Birthday Party at his ‘house in the country’ in the Cotswolds.

The story moves along from the perspective of his wife Olivia, from Antony himself as he’s in a purgatory type of wait room and from someone known as ‘the sleuth’.

The Sleuth is working on a true-crime podcast and believes that Antony was murdered and is keen to prove it leaving no stone unturned. Her listeners grow as the book goes on. Antony can’t remember what happened to him and watches on as his family come to terms with his death. Olivia is trying to navigate her position in society after her husband’s death and the aftermath of that.

It’s a fun listen with some truly laugh out loud moments.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Harper Collins UK Audio, for making this book available to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.

After dying on his 60th birthday, Anthony is put in an afterlife waiting room with the task of trying to figure out how he died. The problem? There’s quite a number of people with a good motive.

Told from the point of view of three different narrators, Anthony, his wife, Olivia and amateur true crime detective ‘the sleuth’ - all of whom keep you guessing. Listening to the audiobook, the narrators did a fab job of bringing to life each character, too.

Bella Mackie does a fab job of creating not one likeable character in the whole book, yet you still can’t help but slight root for them.

A fun listen and an entertaining guessing game!


Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Audio for the ARC.

ACR audible from netgally review.

I love listening to this while doing my my daily tasks. It made me giggle and made me wanna listen more to want to know more about the family story about the demise of the main character. I loved how it is written in different points of view of the characters and how the publishers have used different voice actors for them. Instead of just one like some audiobooks I have listened to do. I like harpercollins did and amazing cast on this on. And bella mackie writing is perfectly perfectly performed. I have her books in physical form and can not wait to start them.

A pleasant enough listen, but I found the story, although quite original, was a bit slow and lacked some humph. The characters are highly unlikeable in a funny way and Bella Mackie does a great job of making them come alive for the reader. The narrators are also really good, but I do think that it had been reading this instead of listening to it I might not have been able to continue.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK Audio for letting me review this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Not the best! Not the worst! Good fun.

I enjoyed this as an easy listen. The voice choices were perfect and set the scene for the book perfectly. The book was light and very funny in places. The story was ok, nothing exciting but enjoyable all the same.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK Audio for the ARC

This was an interesting plotted thriller. I enjoyed the aspect of following a deceased character as they're trying to solve their own murder. It was fascinating and fun. We also follow the deceased's family and a amateur sleuth trying to get to the bottom of the mystery. While all the characters were unlikable they're were entertaining to follow. The mystery was great, I couldn't predict the culprit.

Oh no, I was so disappointed by this.
I quite enjoyed Bella Mackie’s previous work, but sadly this one did not live up to same standard as its predecessor.

I did enjoy how utterly awful every character was, every opportunity was used to get some sort of snipe or betrayal in, giving it the feel of a long episode of Succession.

In the beginning I was intrigued, but my interest waned quickly as the story went on and on and I found myself reading quickly just to get to the end.

Unfortunately, not even that paid off because the ending was so unsatisfying.

Not awful but just a bit meh, sadly.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley.
3/5 ⭐️

This is a dark and humourous story and a good book for audio. The plot is different and gets your attention i didn't love it but didn't hate it either same with the authors first book. I gave this 3.75 overall rounded to 4. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this audio arc.

A darkly humorous thriller that is highly entertaining. What a Way to Go keeps you guessing as to why the rich patriarch Anthony Wistern has been murdered at his own lavish 60th birthday bash. We are given the perspective of Anthony himself, his Widow Olivia and a keen sleuth. The Wisterns are extremely wealthy and highly disagreeable. Their questionable characters are exposed and mocked throughout. The tone is scathing, frivolous and suspenseful, and is perfectly captured in audiobook format by the narrators Kimberley Capero, Gabrielle Glaister and Colin Mace. You should read/ listen to this if you love books like Death of a Bookseller, How to Kill Men and Get Away with it and How to Kill Your Family. #whatawaytogo #bellamackie #darkhumour #audiobook #netgalley

Wealthy financier Anthony Wistern is found dead in the lake at his exclusive property during the lavish birthday party is wife Olivia is hosting. The manner of his death is suspicious. As the police and a local amateur detective investigate the list of suspects keeps increasing.

What A Way To Go by Bella Mackie is deliciously devious. If you enjoyed the author's debut novel, How To Kill Your Family, then you have an idea of the satirical style to expect but this time around it is raised a notch as fun is poked at the wealthy.

Based around the possible murder of Anthony Wsitern, the story is told from three different points of view, Olivia, his widow, Jade, a YouTube detective, and Anthony himself. The three different narrators, Kimberley Capero, Gabrielle Glaister and Colin Mace each voice their respective characters perfectly. Using three very distinct voices means that it is easy for the listener to follow the storyline as it jumps between the different characters.

Olivia Wistern is the ultimate snob. She's not upset at all by her husband's death. We quickly learn that as far as she's concerned image is everything. Thanks to the brilliant narration of Gabrielle Glaister Olivia comes across as cold and calculating, with little affection for her four adult children. The children are spoilt as a result of their upbringing and seem to expect their parents to maintain the lifestyle in which they were raised.

The amateur detective, Jade Evans, has a bit of a grudge against Anthony Wistern and this amplifies her delusion. She feels that because she is investigating a possible murder she can say what she wants, challenge anyone and access anywhere.

The final part of the trio is Anthony Wistern. The author has placed his "soul" in limbo, you can only move on to the "next place" once you figure out how you died. Being in limbo means that Anthony can see how his family behaves following his death, but he can't interact with them in any way. Pompous beyond belief and refusing to accept any responsibility for the way he lived means that Anthony is stuck in limbo for far longer than anyone else ever has been.

As the story jumps between the three main characters we get a real sense of how self-centered, spoilt and greedy everyone is as the author pokes fun at the lifestyle of the wealthy. There are lots of twists along the way to keep you listening, I was quite upset when this irreverent tale ended.

𝟑 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 .𐦍༘⋆
Such an intriguing idea and plot, it literally caught my eye on netgalley so quickly, that and it being a Bella Mackie book.
The book was a bit too slow for me personally. The story itself was really good and intriguing but the writing pace definitely fell off a bit for me. Luckily I had the audiobook to help me along with the pacing, But if I had the book alone I definitely know it would have taken me even longer to pull through it. That being said Kimberley Capero; Gabrielle Glaister & Colin Mace did an amazing job at narrating this book! I loved how into the characters they were and how they brought them all to life.

In true Bella Mackie fashion, all the characters are a perfect mix between being super interesting and weirdly quirky at the same time. I genuinely enjoy diving into her characters with each of her books that I read.

Really great ideas but not executed in the best way, found this novel to be very slow paced. Enjoyed the deep-dive into the characters but found the ending to be lacking closure. Enjoyed the narration.

What A Way to Go by Bella Mackie is an entertaining, satirical whodunnit that I enjoyed through its audiobook version. The story is told from multiple perspectives, including a true crime podcast and even from beyond the grave, which added a unique and humorous twist to the narrative. The narrators did an excellent job of capturing the personalities of the characters, making the dysfunctional family dynamics even more engaging.
The characters were all pretty unlikeable, but that actually worked in favor of the story. I found myself enjoying their flaws and rooting for the chaos they created. While some of the plot twists were predictable, others were surprising, keeping me hooked throughout.
Though I didn’t love the ending, the overall experience was fun and fast-paced. It reminded me of Succession with its wealthy, egocentric family drama. A solid, entertaining listen that fans of thrillers with a comedic twist will appreciate.

Very grateful to the publisher for my copy, opinions are my own

I wanted to love this as much as I loved How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie (a 5 star read for me) but it didn't hit the same. I think What a Way to Go is missing a lot of the humour I wanted to see again, and I actively disliked all of the characters. It felt as though Mackie was trying to present all of the worst stereotypes related to wealthy people across the Wistern family and was definitely succeeding, but unfortunately in a way that made them all annoying and obnoxious and made them difficult to read. I have to say I started with the ebook and found it really tough to get into but picking up the audiobook instead got me through this much quicker and did make it less dry.

There were parts of the book I enjoyed. I found the mystery surrounding Anthony's death interesting and I was a little curious to see how it would play out with his family in the end (especially if one of them was the murderer). With the hunt for the (possible) murderer it did intrigue me a little to see what was going to happen next and to find out a motive, and there were also some plot twists in there. The sort of fantasy element brought into the story with Anthony narrating from a post-death kind of halfway house didn't quite gel with the story, but I did enjoy seeing his reactions to things at times despite this. I had higher hopes for this book and I think if the true crime obsessed character wasn't so uncomfortable to read, and had been portrayed a little differently, then I might have warmed more to the story and accepted how despicable the Wisterns were but it wasn't to be!

Having enjoyed the author's debut, I was eagerly anticipating this latest release, and it didn’t disappoint. Told from multiple perspectives, including a cleverly incorporated true crime podcast on social media, the narrative is rich and varied. One aspect I really liked was the beyond-the-grave perspective, which added a humorous twist and was incredibly well done.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on the audiobook version, which really brought the story to life. With such a range of characters and points of view, the narrators captured the satirical elements perfectly, making the family drama even more compelling - and there truly was no shortage of drama!

None of the characters were particularly likeable, yet this worked brilliantly. In fact, I found myself almost rooting for them to mess things up, which added a unique dynamic to the story. While some twists were predictable, others took me by surprise, but this didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment.

In short, this is a classic whodunnit with a humorous twist. It’s well-paced, with an intriguing premise that keeps you engaged. I’d definitely recommend it and look forward to seeing what the author does next.

Very much the dysfunctional family! Very much reminds me of succession.

A comedy who dunnit in a nutshell!

I wanted this to be as good as her other book but it didn't quite get there unfortunately, it was an easy holiday read.

The ending was a little disappointing in my opinion but I enjoyed the book

3.75 stars

A well to do family are showing the world just how filthy rich they are at the patriarch’s birthday bash but things don’t go according to the well oiled plan and he ends up dead in their lake. But it transpires a dead body isn’t all they have to deal with as the skeletons start tumbling out of that cupboard.
This book is a glorious tale of schadenfreude with a cast of materialistic, egocentric characters all vying for daddy or should that be mummy’s money? Told from multiple perspectives including via social media in the form of a true crime detective’s podcast and even more deliciously from beyond the grave. I listened to audio version which brought the perspectives to life brilliantly. Sometimes in life you just want to see the characters you love to hate get their comeuppance and this book ticks that box repeatedly. Yes I guessed where the money had gone early on, but that just adds to the satisfaction of knowing something these reprobates don’t!
A solid 5 stars - even better than her first novel - I cannot wait to get my hands on the next Bella Mackie novel.

This was a really fun classic whodunnit and I did enjoy it. I don’t think I have ever read a book where not one character was likeable but it still worked in this case.
I was a bit confused at first about the very fantastical element in here because that was not really indicated and it took me out of the story at first. Once I got used to it though it was a fun addition to the story. I was not the biggest fan of the ending but overall had a good time with this.