#7. At Least Four Different POV – How Not to Murder Your Ex by Katie Marsh (Kindle)

This book was an option on Amazon Prime’s Nov 2023 First Reads list. I've not read the author before and I thought it looked like a light-hearted cosy murder mystery. I had already traded the book that I was originally going to use for “At Least Four Different POV” to a different category, so this seemed like the ideal opportunity to read a book that had been sat on my Kindle for several months.     

“It is 5:30 am on Clio's forty-fifth birthday and her hated ex is lying dead on her doorstep. Even worse, this is no accident. Someone’s killed him...

 

When single mum Clio’s ex Gary turns up dead on the doorstep of her caravan – the one she’s been forced to live in ever since he stole every penny she had – there’s only one suspect. Her.

 

What’s more, she doesn’t remember much about the night he was killed – not just because of the forgetfulness that’s been plaguing her along with the hot flushes – but because she definitely had one too many cocktails with her two best friends Amber and Jeanie.

 

Clio does remember them talking about how much they all hated him though. And, in the frame for murder, she has to ask herself – if she didn’t kill Gary, who did? One of his many enemies? Or someone a little closer to home? And can she and her friends find the real killer before it’s too late?.”

Clio, Jeanie and Amber are celebrating Clio’s 45^th birthday in the caravan she now calls home (which belongs to her first ex-husband Bez, and is due to her second ex-husband Gary, stealing her home and business from her and leaving her as a single parent to look after her and Bez's teenage daughter Nina.)

As forty somethings, all three women are experiencing difficulties in life, and this night is a chance for them to really let their hair down and let things get messy.

“Maybe Amber's lethal margaritas had tipped her over the edge - cocktails mixed by someone doing the Macarena were always going to be a risk.”

After drinking and dancing the night away, Amber manages to lock herself in the toilet, Jeanie has passed out on the floor, and Clio has gone for a walk among the sand dunes. When she returns to the caravan, she finds her ex-husband Gary slumped on the doorstep with his head bashed in. Naturally, instead of ‘phoning the police, Clio immediately panics that she might have done the dirty deed. She is in the throes of the menopause and has become rather forgetful recently, plus it doesn’t help she’s drunk far too many cocktails during the evening. Roll on much hilarity as the three friends try to unravel the truth to clear Clio’s name!

There is a gentle humour which runs throughout the book; I shall be stealing the term “self-medicating with Nutella” and keeping it for when I’m having a truly awful day. That aside, I found the dialogue forced and unnatural, and the plot and characters unoriginal and contrived. Clio is struggling living in the claustrophobic space of the caravan and is menopausal, and consequently, tired, emotional and forgetful. Jeanie had a successful career but desired children. After finally becoming a mum of beautiful twins, who are dominating her life, she has lost all her confidence. Amber was sacked from the police force and now has a chip on her shoulder and will do anything to prove to her ex-boss Marcus that she shouldn’t have been fired.

I enjoyed reading a story as seen through the eyes of the main characters, and I thought the duel timeline a good technique to allow the reader to accompany the murder victim in the last hours of his life. This was an interesting viewpoint and cemented my hatred of the character. But by the time I was a quarter of the way through this book, I realised that I’d figured out the murderer and that I didn't really care for any of the characters. I had a strange ambivalence towards them all. The crime fighting triumvirate of Clio, Jeanie and Amber were exasperating for many different reasons, Gary was obnoxious, Bez and Nina were harmless but boring, and Marcus was a nincompoop.

Fortunately, I didn’t hate the book so I continued reading; I was right about the murderer, and glad that the box for “At Least Four Different POV” could be ticked off the list!

“It must be nice having an inheritance. All Gary's dad had left him were freckles and an allergy to freshly cut grass.”

I hated Gary; he had no moral compass at all. Not one redeeming feature. Clio had all the reasons in the world to kill him, but then so did everyone else he came into contact with. He even sank so low as to steal funds from Nina’s bank account, savings she was putting towards university so she could follow her life’s dream of becoming a doctor. He was a narcissist through and through, an egotistical, self-loving ladies’ man. The type of person who wouldn’t be missed if bludgeoned to death on the steps of a caravan!

The ineptitude of the police investigation (obviously due to Amber no longer being in the force) means it is down to the three women to blunder along trying to workout who did it, turning the novel into more of a comedy/farce than a detective story. To be fair, there is nothing wrong in that, the story is rather witty in places and did have me chuckling out loud, plus the blurb about the book did make it sound like a fun read. “How Not to Murder Your Ex” is not a bad book, it just lacks originality for me and doesn’t seem to know what genre it is aiming for. Is it comedy, chick-lit or cosy crime? It is an easy read, a good choice for sitting on the beach, cocktail in hand, but I don’t think the characters will remain with you once your pina colada is finished!

The cosy crime genre is heavily populated especially with the likes of big names such as Richard Osman and Anthony Horowitz who are well established in this field. This book was billed as something new for fans of “The Thursday Murder Club” or “How to Kill Your Family,” books that I have really enjoyed reading, however, I found the plot was too predictable and I had worked out the murderer early on. I didn’t feel any element of suspense or surprise, and it seemed more geared towards female loyalty and the lengths that women will go to, to help each other out.

When I researched the author, I found she already has a successful career writing romantic fiction and that this is her first foray into crime. This does not surprise me at all. I didn't hate “How Not to Murder Your Ex” but unfortunately I won't be bothering with the second book in the “Bad Girl’s Detective Agency” series. 

Genre: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Crime, Murder Mystery, Thriller, Chick Lit

Release Date: 1^st December 2023 – Kindle

Publisher: Boldwood Books

Pages: 354

This book is currently unavailable to purchase from Bookshop.org  

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