A first read for me from Asia Mackay and I was more than a little pleasantly surprised.

The Mr. & Mrs. Smith similarity is quite obvious, so I won’t lean in to that too much it was definitely reminiscent of something else that I can’t quite put my finger on. I think there are a lot of similar concepts, but this title stood its ground.

I do love a morally grey character, so a morally grey couple was just double the fun. I must say I related far more to Haze than Fox for the majority of the book, I loved her dripping sarcasm, and I actually wanted her to kill the people she killed. Don’t look at me like that, I know we’ve all mind murdered someone 🤣

The mundanity of suburban mummyhood is a far cry from the high fashion, jet setting (if a little bit stabby) life that Haze lived with Fox for so long. So it’s little wonder that it’s all gone off the boil a bit for them. The little flashes back to the past while present day Bibi has just shat herself had me cackling. I loved the development of the friendship with mum chum Jenny. As I said Fox took me a little while to warm to, but toward the end I loved him aswell.

Loved the ending, and the acknowledgments are well worth a read for the laughs.

Clearly pitched as a bit of a domestic thriller, there is obviously some dark content, but I think if you lean into the humour, the little snippets of backbiting between the couple and the actual love story behind it, the hope of staying together, and the aim to save the marriage you’ll love it and it’ll be a sure fire 2025 winner. Get it on the list!

I don’t like the cover here on goodreads, the one on NetGalley, which I hope is the final edit is much better.

A bit of a triumph to have Georgia Tennant and Kyle Soller narrating the audiobook, both absolutely nailed it.

Huge thanks to Headline Audio via NetGalley for this ALC 🎧

I really cannot fins fault with this one!!

Hazel (referred to as Haze) and Fox have moved to the suburbs after travelling the world they settle in Berkshire raise their daughter Bibi. Hazel is trying to fit into this new life, and so she does what other mums do and takes her daughter to classes. Haze goes to toddler music class where she meets Jenny, who she accepts as being "fine," as she stated to her husband, although she definitely wasn't used to the suburban life of mums & toddlers. The old life her and Fox lived isn't far from her mind.

Haze met her husband Fox as Haze had noted a man who had been violating another woman previously in the restaurant in Paris. This said man then approached Haze in the alleyway as she left, big mistake on his part. So doing as she did back then she killed him this is where Fox had appeared initially to help what he thought was a woman being targeted by another man only to see she didn't need saving not from other men anyway but maybe from herself! They were what many would initially look at in aesthetics as a power couple, attractive, successful, well maintained, well paired, and they were married 6 months later!

Fox wants this new life to work out for them as a family so they can protect their daughter from all harm and from social services. Their days of being hunters / vigilante of searching out the bad guys like "batman" had to be buried. Fox was raised in NYC, where he was really pushed by his parents to fit in so many different tasks and do better, score higher, etc. Different to Haze, who at 8 years old was put through social services system after her paternal grandmother, who only had her in custody for 3 months before she passed away. Haze loved her art this was a way for her to express herself, get all her emotions out, and escape herself and her life since she was young.

Both had different paths that definitely had some crossovers and interlinked into how they became the people they were.. the killers they had fully evolved into and living before their daughter was born! Eliminating evil was what Fox was born for to make the world a safer place this was how he seen it when he litrally vetted those kills, for him the world was a better place without these types of people in it such as pedophiles, rapists, wife beaters etc. They had a formula, protocols everything planned to military precsion by Fox from their countries to disguises even keeping records to keep them safe but no matter how careful Fox was this life can't continue when you become parents!

Intuition is key and knowing and trusting your senses is what Haze came to rely on when she sees a man in her neighbourhood she knows is just wrong but how do you handle that, call and report it? What would be done and what actually are you reporting other than a knowing! Haze knows what she has to do, for every man who has ever hurt her she will find out the truth if he is as she suspects he is but what will this lead to what will be the consequences....

"Snare rapture torture"
Only ever seeking out the bad guys never killing women in dark alleys...
Fox's well detailed formula that matched up with the types of people Haze also deemed herself judge, jury & convictioner of making them the team that they were in those days of "hunting" they would capture at times Fox would torture and Haze would complete the task of killing. For Haze there was very much a sense of her need to fight back for the life she didn't or wasn't able to fight for as a child a teenager even an adult where males dominated her world.

With her seeking out the men she does and now with Fox alongside her they both feel justice in the kills that they execute together, for Haze she makes it clear how men underestimate the female she isnt merely an artist or a female to be used and abused. For Fox, his mask or disguise is a white businessman who very carefully meticulously calculates all they did to keep them both safe in doing what they did!

Haze built up a form of friendship with Jenny genuinely trying to help her although she couldn't physically take it in to her own hands she could try to help Jenny by advising her how to look after herself in self defence classes, fighting back with legalities in her work life and personal! Jenny was beginning to ask questions about Fox, making Haze a little more aware that Jenny maybe wasn't as "flakey" as she first assumed she was!

Oh, this is soooo good....!!! Twists are just really beginning to pick up pace now. I had a good sense before this began, but whoa, not even halfway through!
"The Backpacking Butcher"
There is a reason I do not believe in just coincidences 🙈😂
(This is from me taking notes 🙈😂)

I could write so much about this, but ultimately, I'd be giving you a deep synopsis, and that isn't the way I tend to review, so i had to force myself to stop. I just wanted to share it all because this book just was difficult not to get into so much of it when doing the review, so much detail and truly immersive so what I will say is if you like this genre I definitely recommend you find out for yourself...This is really like a version of Mr & Mrs Smith in a very entertaining book!

The way the author has written this is really well done, almost like a journal from both Mr & Mrs, one chapter from Haze the next from Fox, and so it continues. The narration is fantastic and really brings to life this story I genuinely felt like I could envisage this as if it was a movie or at very least a crime drama but wow just brilliantly put together and the narrators Georgia Tennant and Kyle Soller were both oh so perfect for this audiobook.

This is a must-read for next year due to be published on 14th January 2025. This is a first I've read/listened to from this author, Asia Mackay, but it definitely won't be the last she has 2 other books I've added to my ever growing TBR list!

The acknowledgements at the end just made it for me 😂

With much appreciation & gratitude to Netgalley, Headline Audio / Wildfire for the fantastic opportunity to listen to this in advance in return for an open, honest review.

Apologies for such a long review this one simply merited it... ALL THE STARS 🌟