If Anthony Wistern could have chosen a way to die, it probably wouldn't have been during his 60th birthday party but that's what's happened to him. His grisly demise is discovered by a guest at the lavish celebration and everyone in attendance is questioned. Anthony was a wealthy businessman, so his death gets a fair bit of media attention. It's in the papers and news sites and is being discussed on true crime forums. That's where an amateur sleuth with a YouTube channel comes across the news. She lives nearby and has a personal connection to Wistern. She's also convinced that he was murdered and decides that solving the case will push her into the spotlight. So, she starts investigating his family. This includes his widow, Olivia, and their children. Are they hiding something about the night Anthony died? And is anyone else in any danger?

The book is told from 3 different points of view: Anthony, Olivia and the Sleuth. We first hear from Anthony who finds himself stuck in limbo. It turns out that, when you die, you can't move on until you remember how it happened. Unfortunately, you also forget everything that happened in the 30 minutes preceding your death, so Anthony spends his days watching his family and trying to figure out who killed him. Something he has in common with the Sleuth. She lives near the Wisterns and manages to create quite the following for her investigation. She becomes more and more obsessed with the case and puts herself at risk to get the big scoop. She suspects everyone but her main focus is the widow. As we see from Olivia's chapters, the marriage was far from happy and she isn't exactly in mourning. Instead, she's trying to figure out what to do with her life as a free woman. Especially as her children are mainly concerned with the question of money.

I'm not always a fan of books that follow multiple perspectives because it doesn't give room for great character analysis. I did enjoy this one and think it added to the story. The Anthony chapters were a fun bit of relief from the main narrative. Who wouldn't want to see Anthony trying to cope in limbo when he no longer had the money or power to get what he wanted? It's always fun seeing an awful person get their comeuppance and realise that they aren't anywhere near as important as they think they are. It's also wonderful for him to see what his nearest and dearest really think of him. His chapters are a bit like The Lovely Bones if Susie Salmon had been an amoral millionaire instead of an innocent girl. Bella Mackie seems to be having a lot of fun with the class commentary here and it's full of memorable and funny lines. Does it feel reminiscent of Succession? Probably more than it needs to but that's not the worst thing ever. This is a very fun book.

A very fun book that's full of unlikeable characters. Normally, you'd expect to find one decent person among them but not here. Bella Mackie delights in introducing her readers to the worst people possible and it's fantastic. There's nothing quite like seeing people getting what they deserve and this has a lot of triumphant moments. However, this does mean that Anthony sort of becomes the best of them despite being so awful. He, at least, tried to live life to the full and saw through the phoniness of the high society types he was mixing. Of course, you still spend most of the book thinking he's an absolute pig. It's a weird set up but I think it mostly works. Bella Mackie has proved again that she knows how to write about book that doesn't care about making you feel better about the world. She just wants to make fun of everyone and I'm here for it.

Like her previous book, What A Way To Go also drags a little in the middle and some of the twists are a bit too cliched to be shocking. However, there are a few things that do work and did surprise. I think the payoff of Anthony's death reveal is perfect and really funny. The scope of the book is also quite limited. You don't really experience much beyond the little bubble in which Anthony and Olivia find themselves. However, that would have meant adding even more to the book and it really didn't need it. I think Bella Mackie is a fantastic writer and I love a slow-burn murder mystery. I just wish the fire had been a bit quicker to get going with this one.