The Best Way to Bury Your Husband by Alexia Casale

Thank you to Viking Books UK and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Set at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, this darkly comedic mystery-thriller was a total thrill and joy to read. Sally is unhappily married to Jim, suffering at the hands of his violence which has spiralled since their children left home and they’re stuck indoors together during a nationwide lockdown. Sally’s neighbour Edwina is busy keeping her beady eye open for any breaking of The Rules, making it tricky for Sally when she kills her husband with a cast iron breakfast skillet. Then, there’s Samira, whose similarly abusive husband Yafir is determined to arrange a marriage for their eldest daughter against her will. Next, there’s Ruth and Lionel, who are at war about her much-needed nursing skills. Finally, there’s an exhausted mother who is struggling with her lack of sleep. Can they find the best way to bury their husbands and get away with it?

It’s worth prefacing the bulk of this review with the author’s ‘why?’ behind the novel. Alexia Casale is a volunteer at charities that support victims of domestic abuse. There’s a really brilliant preface and afterword in the book, which shares that violence against women and girls skyrocketed during the multiple lockdowns.

I absolutely loved this book. The characters are brilliantly depicted and it feels incredibly real, despite the small matter that all four protagonists have murdered their husbands. The Best Way to Bury Your Husband is told primarily from Sally’s view, in a wonderfully likeable and funny monologue format, leaning fully into dark British humour in the very best ways. Her backstory perfectly mirrored Casale’s reasons for writing the book, explaining and exploring why abused women and victims of domestic violence don’t ‘just leave him’. Casale tells the story of four women suffering in domestic abuse situations, while threading together a hopeful tale of found family and friendships. It’s incredible, too, how Casale manages to make murder so funny – I love the matter-of-fact approach Sally takes to the hurdles in her way, and how she makes light of the more bizarre parts of the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK. We really did it in our own special British way, huh?

A page-turner from start to finish, with a really great ending to boot.

The Best Way to Bury Your Husband publishes internationally today. Pick up your copy via Bookshop.org to support your local independent bookshop.