Kill Your Husbands - Book Review

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Australian crime is having a heyday – and not just police procedural books. Crime novels in Australia are filled with cops, detectives, and amateur detectives, as well as an array of characters who range from the deceased to the witnesses, and to the killer or killers – particularly if it is a murder mystery. Jack Heath is a master in the crime and thriller genre for adults, young adults and older middle-grade readers, and his latest offering, Kill Your Husbands, does not fail to deliver.

Three couples, four of whom were at high school together in Warrigal, head to a holiday house together for an unplugged weekend. Isla, Oscar, Cole, Clementine, Dom and Felicity are hoping to get away from their jobs and obligations back home, recharge, and reconnect with themselves and each other, but the remote house in the mountains isn’t quite what they expected. Especially once the topic of couples switching comes up. It’s a joke – until; the lights come back on, and one man is dead.

Enter Kiara Lui, a local cop assigned to the case, whose determination to solve the case leads to her staying in the murder house. But with so many loose ends, a missing person, and uncertainty, can Kiara solve the case?

Everything Jack Heath has written and used in this novel is done so purposefully – nothing is left to chance, nor is it unused or ignored. The tight plotting ensures that every character is used effectively, that every clue dropped leads somewhere, and you can be sure that there will be something in this novel – and in any of Jack Heath’s novels, nothing is accidental – he knows how to craft a thrilling story that keeps readers on the edge of their seat and encourages them to keep reading to find out what happens next – to find out if the victims get justice. Jack Heath has lined up every character with motives that stem from their pasts together – and I think the novel is effective because it ensures that everywhere we turn as a reader, a seed of doubt is planted in our minds against everyone – to the point where I wasn’t sure who to believe or what to believe – and that is the genius of Jack Heath. He knows how to craft a story where as a reader, you are never sure who to believe or what to believe.

In doing so, the plot has an enhanced sense of unease and uncertainty, Jack goes between present – Kiara’s investigation, and the past – the doomed weekend that resulted in death. And as the two plots converge, it feels like everything is unravelling for everyone involved. The story is layered, and filled with peaks and troughs that send the reader on a rollercoaster ride, ensuring that there is never a moment of calm, never a moment where the reader or the characters can relax in anyway, which I think works well for a crime thriller. There’s something very dark about Jack Heath’s books that examine the very core of what makes people tick, and what drives them to make the decisions they make. In a way, he examines the human spirit and psyche, looking at what it means to be human, or to be part of a group of friends with so much history and how that history, and changes in your lives can alter how you relate to each other.

I think this is one of Jack Heath’s best books.

Published: 28th November 2023 by Allen and Unwin
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