What a Way to Go

by Bella Mackie

'I was immensely grateful that despite the gruesome way my husband died, he'd done it with his clothes on.'

Anthony Wistern is wealthy beyond imagination. Fragrant wife, gaggle of photogenic children, French chateau, Cotswold manor, plethora of mistresses, penchant for cutting moral corners, tick tick tick tick tick tick.

Unfortunately for him, he's also dead. Suddenly poised to inherit his fortune, each member of the family falls under suspicion.

And that's when everything comes crashing down…

Genres: Audiobook, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Contemporary

376 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 12, 2024

About the author

Vogue columnist. Author of best-selling novel “How to Kill Your Family."

Reviews

[suzannah ♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

really gutted that i didn’t enjoy this as i absolutely loved how to kill your family. but i found the characters in this really irritating and annoying which just made me not care about them at all and subsequently not care about the story. i also didn’t really find the “funny” moments actually funny. it just ended up falling really flat for me.

[aleksandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

I’ve recently gotten into thrillers, so when I saw this one available on NetGalley, I run to request it. The idea for the story was brilliant, which is why I decided to read it, but unfortunately, after about twenty/thirty percent of the book, my interest completely faded. I’m not sure why, but I just couldn’t get into the story. Sadly, I ended up finishing it mainly because it was an arc.


*Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!*

[ruthie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This started strong but quickly I realised I didn’t care what happened to any of the characters

[Heather Coffee_Kindle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Release Date: 12th September 2024

A great premise, with characters you may love and definitely others you'll love to hate.

The story is told from 3 different perspectives Anthony and Olivia Wistern and the Sleuth.

Anthony Wistern, CEO of Wismere Holdings, an influential financial wizard is celebrating his 60th birthday which his wife Olivia has thrown an amazing party of who's who and the rich. However, things take a turn and Anthony end up dead. Anthony can't move on from limbo until he's remembered his death, so is keeping an eye on his family to try to gather clues.

Then we have Olivia the ice queen scorned wife, who has been left penniless by her careless husband with her ungrateful, greedy children.

And finally the Sleuth, who is a big true crime fan, who thinks Anthony has been murdered and becomes obsessed with trying to unmask his killer.

This is a slow paced, dark humour book, with plenty of intrigue and characters who all seem capable of heinous crimes, with a wonderful bluntness and family dynamic being played out, but are any of them capable of murder?

An enjoyable read, with plenty of wit and sometimes a little charm, great if you like rich, smug and arrogant characters and their downfall.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

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[Ceecee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it certainly is.

Allow me to introduce you to Anthony Wistern, CEO of Wismere Holdings, an influential financial wizard. Perhaps. It’s his 60th birthday and his wife Olivia has gone all out with lavish celebrations at their Cotswolds home, one of several. However, something goes terribly wrong and Anthony is dead.

What of Olivia? She’s ice cold, doesn’t believe in unnecessary emotions, so will she be a grieving widow??? Similarly, how will their four children- Freddy, Jemima, Lyra and Clara - react to their father’s unfortunate demise?

Finally, there’s The Sleuth who is a mere three miles away when the incident happened. Maybe this will be their big break?

It’s told from three perspectives, Anthony, Olivia and The Sleuth so sit back and let the shenanigans commence.

This is darkly funny, witty and creative slow burner character driven mystery/psychological thriller. What a family- toxic much? I’ll say, in spades. The dynamics are horribly fascinating, they really are all quite ghastly but it’s delicious in its awfulness! Selfish, avaricious and all the rest of it. What about the patriarch? I’ll leave this joy to future readers to discover his personality and morals. If he has any. The Sleuth is entertaining, the approach taken here is current and adds to the puzzling mystery.

Although this family are not great examples of humanity they do make for some excellent and vivid scenes - the scope is endless! Some scenes are surreal, some are of the entertaining Fred Karno circus variety and others are just dark and they certainly give us a feast of lies. There are numerous twists as it makes its way to a surprising ending. Well played.

If you like Succession then you’ll probably relish meeting the Wisterns.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to the publisher for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

"But after thirty years with Anthony I'd come to learn that he'd have shagged your grandmother if bored enough."

This book was honestly so funny. I loved the POV's and the quick chapters, it made this a super fast paced read. However, for whatever reason I would put this book down and not really care about picking it up again which is why it took me so long to read.

I went into this book with no clue what it would be about and no expectations, and I certainly wasn't expecting a book that was The Good Place x Succession, so that was a fun little treat!

A readable and funny book, but I don't think it'll be making anyone's top 10 list anytime soon.

[K.J. Charles]

I'm honestly not sure what this is going for. Satire, detective novel, both? Very unlikeable characters which is fine, but if you're not going to give me anyone to root for, then I need lots of awful things to happen to the ghastly people, and so far (about half way) very little has happened post murder. I also did not get on with the somewhat twee conceit of the murdered man watching from the afterlife so DNF, it's just not working for me.

Have to note this features the most appalling comma splices I have seen in a published book. I don't even care about comma splices as a rule, I use them with gay abandon on social media (see what I did there), but they became infuriatingly obvious here. tut.

[Alex.andthebooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zabawa jak zwykle przednia

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really disappointed in this. Unlikeable characters and a really boring plot that just didn’t go anywhere. Massive shame as I really enjoyed her first book

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a strange book! It is almost like Dante’s Inferno with POV from persons who are dead, normally a feature I strongly dislike, but here I somehow got over it and continued reading.

It is wellwritten, but I think the idea behind the book could have been stronger, in a way I don’t find it ambitious enough.

[Sandy Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't really get this book. All the characters were so unlikeable, and usually, there is something to hook me into reading unlikeable characters, but somehow, the book just fell flat for me. The plot, however, had a lot of promise, and the dysfunctional family element was written well, but I just wasn't engaged with how the story was told. It was funny in parts but not as funny as I'd expected. Somehow, it tried too hard. Overall, it was a disappointing read for me. Sorry, it just wasn't for me.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC for review. To be published October 7, 2025.

3 stars

Anthony Wistern is incredibly rich, relatively well known and dies in dramatic fashion at his 60th birthday party, held at his country home. But death is nothing like he thought it would be and he needs to figure out how he died before he’ll be able to move on in the afterlife. That’s not easy because not only could Anthony have died accidentally there are a lot of people who might have wanted to kill him, including his business partner and all five members of his own family.

The story is told from three points of view, Anthony’s, his wife, Olivia’s (she’s not sorry he’s gone) and from that of a podcaster, known only as “The Sleuth,” who loves true crime , lives nearby and believes Anthony, whom she knew, was murdered.

The book is of the “eat the rich” variety and from that standpoint it’s just fine. Anthony and Olivia have four children, each more horrible than the last, and everyone involved behaves badly and is likely beyond redemption. It was enjoyable enough (it’s always fun to read about people’s vision of the afterlife) but it won’t change your world and I found it to be just a bit long. But, overall, fairly decent.

[EmmaReadsCrime · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

Thank you Harper Collins, Harper Fiction and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this ebook!

The author of the sensational How to Ki”” Your Family is back with a new standalone book.

Anthony Wistern is wealthy beyond imagination but has been known to cut corners in business. He has everything from a beautiful family, a French chateau and Cotswold manor and a long line of mistresses. Unfortunately for him, he is dead and before he can pass over to the next life, he has to work out how he died. Watching his family from above, every member if the family has reason to want him dead

I was worried after the popularity of her previous book that this might not cut it, but I actually thought that this book was even better!

I’m not a big supernatural lover but I thought the ghost element worked really well. All the characters are unlikable but that is the whole point of the story. I laughed a lot while reading this and it’s such a good light reading option!

[Johanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars!

I really wanted to love this more than I did.

One status-obsessed woman – who is the perfect accessory.

Their four inheritance-obsessed children – each with a killer instinct.

And a murder-obsessed outsider looking to expose them all…"

My Thoughts:

- I love Bella's writing and how she creates characters, in this instance very dislikeable.
- I was gripped by at least the first half - the annoyingly rich and priviledged characters, one of who is dead & the mystery around their death
- The sleuth's pov/chapters where my fave as enjoyed the whole commentary around internet sleuths and our obsessions with true crime
- But by the second half/third of the book my interest waned and I started to care less about the whodunnit which I was gutted about
- Fun concept, dislikeable characters that were fun to read until I got disinterested, so i think the execution for me just didn't live up to what I expected.

[Millie Edgar · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking forward to this, as whilst I didn't think Mackie's last book was mind-blowing, it was still very enjoyable. It was ok. I find it hard to listen to someone criticise the wealthy when it seems the author has come from a similar background. It was hard to keep up with all the different characters, and even though it got easier, I would still get very confused. The twists weren't as impactful because of this, as I just couldn't remember where that character had appeared before. I also did not think the true crime buff narrative was necessary, as it didn't really add anything to the plot. I did like the Matt Haig-esque afterlife narrative, as it felt different to Mackie's last book. However, the majority of this book felt a bit too similar to her last book. There's having a style, but this felt a bit to copy and paste for me.

[Jen Marscheider · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did I read a different book to everyone else? I really didn’t enjoy this, and had such high hopes after How To Kill Your Family. Nothing of the whodunnit about it, nothing that made it a page turner (hence why it took me so long)

Don’t think I’ve ever given a 2 before. But here we are.

[Alannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, and sped through it. It follows the Wisterns, an insanely wealthy family, after the death of their father. Was he murderered? And, more importantly, what about all of his money?

Bella Mackie’s writing style is smooth, funny and easily digestible, and she has a fantastic way of bringing characters to life that you love to hate. The POV from beyond the grave could have been corny, but actually worked well for this story, and the multiple POVs come together in a satisfying ending. Fans of her first book will certainly enjoy this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC!

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everyone has such different rating systems that it can sometimes be frustrating to discern whether or not someone enjoyed a book and would recommend it.

Just to be clear, when I rate a book three stars, it means I generally enjoyed it - after all, it is the “average” rating - not “poor” “below average”, nor “above average”, “brilliant.” Yet I’m sure everyone who is actively engaged in the Goodreads community would agree that if the overall average rating of a book were a 3.0, or really anything less than a 3.7 (3.5-3.6 for some) - they wouldn’t touch it. Hm, something to think about for a poll. I’m genuinely intrigued to know this.

Okay, now that my penchant for prattling has been satiated, the real review begins. If you enjoyed Bella Mackie’s dark sense of humor in How to Kill Your Family, you’ll enjoy What a Way to Go. Only perhaps not quite as much.

Many critiques I find of Mackie’s work come from a place of bias. People seem to acknowledge this and simply don’t care: yes, let’s all hate on someone for their privileged upbringing, when their books are written about… privileged, wealthy, yet horrible people!. Shocker that someone would write what they know, right?!

Readers should know that her characters are majorly flawed and meant to be extremely unlikeable. If you can’t handle a story with unlikeable characters or root for anyone who you couldn’t see as being your “bestie” in real life, then probably skip these books. Personally, I have no problem with unlikeable characters. I only hate it when characters are extremely unlikeable and flawed yet trying to be forced onto us as heroic and misunderstood.

I love that Mackie has genuinely strong female characters who, yes, may seemingly play the role of dutiful wife - yet unbeknownst to their wildly egotistical husbands, they’re five steps ahead of them at all times. But even when those women get outmaneuvered in the end, it’s generally by another woman, not a man.

I don’t always feel the need to describe the storyline to people, given that it’s written in the Goodreads description as well as on the book or e-book, Amazon, whatever you’re reading from. But some of the quotes from here do crack me up (oh, that’s another critique I’ve seen a lot: she’s “trying too hard”… agree to disagree).

Upon the dead man viewing his family (mostly his four children) debating what to put out to the public as a statement about his untimely demise:

”My PR had been on the phone and persuaded my eldest that a gushing tribute would be heartily appreciated by the papers.

My wife, Olivia, who had chosen not to say anything at all throughout the conversation, suddenly announced she was going to bed. ‘Let the PR people do it, darling, that’s what they’re paid for. Whatever you come up with will make us sound idiotic.’ After she left, the discussion quickly descended into farce.

‘Strong’, suggested Jemima.

‘Meaning he would drive a truck over your grandmother,” shot back Lyra.

‘Would drive a truck over your grandmother and her bank manager.’ That, from Freddy, made them laugh. We were always surprised when he spoke, and to hear him be funny for perhaps the first time had them almost wheezing in delight. But it only got worse from there. ‘A visionary in his field’, ‘Saw you as a mark a mile away.’ ‘A devoted husband’ was translated as ‘Bought his wife diamonds every time he shagged someone half her age.’

I left after Lyra suggested ‘A family man’ and Clara, with ferocity, replied, ‘We don’t know how many other kids he had.’ That one went too far. I’d always been very careful about that. God knows you don’t want to be pushing sixty and suddenly find out you’ve got a toddler running around somewhere with a mother whose engaged a Rottweiler of a lawyer who knows a big payday when he sees one.”.

Some lines will undoubtedly offend, so again, if you aren’t the type to laugh at nearly everything, you’ll probably walk away annoyed. I am tremendously empathetic and compassionate, but I can also laugh at some of the sickest shit. Even when it’s affected me personally. No, scratch that: especially when it’s affected me personally.

On his wife’s jewelry line:

”I closed it down the moment it became clear the factory she was using to manufacture her designs used child labor. I appreciated their reasoning, the kids had small fingers, perfectly designed for working with fiddly gemstones, but while you can get away with most things if you claim ignorance and pay the inevitable fine, for some reason child labor is still a big no-no for most people.”

On his youngest daughter and child, Clara:

”She wasn’t buying it, that much was obvious. Clara was the most suspicious of all beings, a teenage girl. If it wasn’t for all the hormones, they could run the most successful interrogation team the world has ever seen.”

Olivia, his wife:

”I must be in a hospital. Perhaps the waiting room? But we always went to the Princess Helena and they’d never have dared install spotlights. My good friend Diana Latham donated a lot of money to their chemo wing and part of that cash went towards making it a calming and stylish place to stay. Her interiors team did a fabulous job, I remember one doctor saying it was the place to get cancer, which nobody apart from me laughed at. He wasn’t wrong though. House & Garden even ran a feature on how to get the Latham Wing look. Diana had made the sick bed aspirational.”

So why the three stars? Well, it did go on quite a bit longer than necessary. Another reason I wasn’t overly impressed with it was the ending could have been a lot better. I feel like this book and perhaps her debut, as well, both get off to strong starts and middles, but by the time the ending comes, even if there is a twist, it’s not all that shocking.

Would I recommend it? I’d recommend her debut novel, How to Kill Your Family, first. If you enjoy that one, you’ll likely enjoy this one too. If you don’t enjoy it, I can almost guarantee you won’t enjoy this one, either.

[Jayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a sinfully wealthy financial scion allegedly dies in a freak "accident" at his lavish 60th birthday party celebration, the suspect list is sky-high.

This satirical tale about a dysfunctional family with four inheritance-obsessed children did not disappoint.

The book unfolds from three POVs:
* The deceased financial scion, commenting from his temporary "resting spot" in his afterlife
* The financial scion's widow
* A social-media-obsessed "Sleuth".

I am a Bella Mackie fan and I especially enjoyed the author's dark humor and wit in addition to the book's scathing social commentary.

WHY NOT 5 STARS?
Although the book was entertaining and engaging, the book was waaay too long and frequently dragged.

This 12-hour audiobook easily could have been an 8-hour book. (Where was Bella's editor????)

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Kimberley Capero, Gabrielle Glaister, and Colin Mace.

Full-cast narrations are always a treat and all narrators did a superb job with the narration.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars, rounded up.

[Gia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I support women’s rights but most importantly i support women’s wrongs

[Lydia Lasky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whole book feels rushed and sloppy. Some topics clearly not researched well. I noticed the use of the word ‘dull’ 3 times in 2 pages and then couldn’t stop spotting it throughout the book - bad editing. All of the characters are unbelievable and written in the same voice making it hard to figure out whose chapter you’re reading at times. Struggled through and was very underwhelmed by the ending as well.

[Evie White · Rating 2 out of 5]

UGH.
This book was just about well written enough to stick it out rather than abandoning. The problem for me was the humour just never landed, and there was SO much unnecessary babbling with so little actual action or plot? The characters were all so similar and there wasn't anyone likeable in it for me. Dissapointing

[Melania Con un libro y un café · Rating 5 out of 5]

"No todos los muertos descansan en paz, y no todos los vivos saben vivir." Así empieza la fiesta más exclusiva de los Cotswolds… y también la más letal.

Después de leer “Cómo matar a tu familia”, que aunque tenía su gracia no terminó de convencerme, quise darle otra oportunidad a Bella Mackie con “Cómo cazar a tu asesino”. Y oye, reconozco que me ha entretenido muchísimo.

La premisa ya es puro show, un magnate aparece empalado en su propio lago durante su fiesta de cumpleaños. A partir de ahí, empieza un desfile de personajes tan repulsivos como adinerados, con secretos, traiciones, peleas por herencias y un ambiente de sátira social que recuerda a Succession en clave de comedia negra.

Lo que más me ha gustado es el personaje de la Sabuesa, una chica solitaria y obsesionada con el true crime que empieza a investigar el caso desde fuera. Es torpe, intensa, un poco friki… y termina siendo lo mejor de la novela. No es que sea una detective brillante, pero tiene esa mezcla de curiosidad e intuición que engancha.

La historia se va contando desde varias voces (incluido el propio muerto, que narra desde el más allá), y aunque hay momentos un pelín lentos o algún personaje exageradamente odioso, con el que no he logrado empatizar, el conjunto funciona. Bella Mackie sabe mantener el ritmo, salpicar de humor ácido y meter algún que otro giro interesante. El final, sin ser impactante, cierra bien y con coherencia.

En resumen, es una novela muy entretenida, ideal para leer cuando te apetece algo que enganche, que te saque una sonrisa irónica y te haga disfrutar sin complicarte. No va a cambiar tu vida, pero te lo vas a pasar genial leyéndola.

[DoGoryKsiazkami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uwielbiam ten ironiczny i sarkastyczny sznyt Belli Mackie.

Poznacie tu zamożną rodzinę popaprańców i zawziętą sąsiadkę, która rozpoczyna własne śledztwo, by dowiedzieć się, co naprawdę stało się z głową tej rodziny, bo znalezienie mężczyzny nabitego na pal, i to na wlasnej imprezie urodzinowej sprzyja snuciu teorii spiskowych.

Niezwykle trafny komentarz społeczny owinięty w czarny humor wybrzmiał jeszcze mocniej🔥

*Czytana we współpracy z Wydawnictwem Dolnośląskim

[Genna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

While there’s nothing special with the writing, the storyline kept me guessing how the mmc died.

I found the 3 different narrators for the 3 different povs rather entertaining 🥳

[Hannah McCullough · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slower paced thriller with bags of dark humour, loved Bella’s writing style and didn’t want it to end!

[Clara Gardó · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lo mejor, el sentido del humor. Muy mordaz.

[Prasanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one book that tested my patience a lot and I would have given it up if it wasn't an ARC. I was really excited to read the book initially because the author's previous work How to Kill Your Family was popular on bookstagram and I had missed reading it.

Anthony Wistern gets killed by being impaled on a spike on his grand 60th birthday party, organized by his wife, Olivia. It turns out that Anthony was highly successful and owned an investment company but there were quite a few people who hated him enough to want him dead, including his own children and wife. Few chapters are narrated by Anthony himself, where he is in a limbo-like state waiting for the memory of his last few hours on earth to return to him and find out how he was killed. Without this knowledge he cannot move on to the next phase of death.

The book was quite enjoyable in the beginning, but I really hated all the characters including the one called Slueth, who desperately wants to believe that Anthony was murdered and wants to investigate this crime. I didn't really get why this character's name wasn't revealed until the very end, especially when there was no angle to it. In brief, I did not enjoy reading this book and it put me into a book slump for the entire month of August.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the advanced copy of the book.

[p. · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is a section of the novel where the POV character talks about how old money, new money, all rich people are actually rather dull and I do not know whether the novel was trying to be meta because the predominant two POV's were those of rich people and they were dull as hell. Not just that, the whole cast of characters were just deeply uninteresting people so it is difficult to care about the "mystery" or about these people's money matters. The narration entirely sucks out any salaciousness, thrill or drama to be had which may be an achievement on its own. The novel tries to be satire but it does not quite manage to push this element far enough to warrant such description; it is rather probably a pretty realistic representation which just rings vapid in the current societal climate.

I struggle to understand Mackie as an author. She always swings and seems to be on the precipice of saying something, making some kind of social commentary - her novels are absolutely primed for this, given the way British society is set up and still functions - but she never takes any of those ideas to completion or too deeply or does anything interesting with them. Much like "How to Kill Your Family", this novel presents a very surface level, simplified view of complex matters which makes it sound just naive, if not a little stupid.

And Mackie's technical writing is serviceable but, unfortunately, not good - or funny - enough to mask that.

[Tilly Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating 4.5.

Finally read my first Bella Mackie after being one of the last people on the planet who hasn’t read How To Kill Your Family! And obviously now I desperately want to because this was so much FUN!

First of all, the audio is fantastic - I’m sure the great comedic timing of the narrators made it even better, and is why I started and finished it same day. But it’s just a fab story full of sickeningly wealthy characters you’ll love to hate, which rather takes the edge off their deaths 😂 The “ghost” hanging around trying to work out their own cause of death reminded me of one of my favs, Over My Dead Body, so if you enjoy this then check that one out too!

I’m truly loving these comedy crime novels lately, and this is a perfect example of why - it’s clever, laugh out loud funny, shocking, and a great satire about wealth and privilege. Not to mention the mystery that truly had me guessing right until the final reveal 👀 Would absolutely recommend this one, and now I need to read my copy of HTKYF asap!