This week, I’m in search of engaging entertainment, so I’ve picked out two quirky books that deliver murder, mayhem and a little bit of mirth.

One is an English book about a woman determined to get revenge on the members of her estranged family by murdering them all. One is an American book about two misfit teen girls who try to solve a local murder by using what they’ve learned from reading Agatha Christie’s mysteries.

I hope both of them will turn out to be relaxing reads that I’m eager to return to when I have to set them aside to deal with real life.

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‘How To Kill Your Family’ by Bella Mackie (2021)

I loved the title and the cover of ‘How To Kill Your Family‘ but it was launched on a wave of hype that only a debut novelist who was very well connected in media circles could have conjured, so, I delayed buying the book until I saw whether the word-of-mouth matched the praise given by Richard Osman and Jojo Moyes.

Two years later and the ratings seem to be sitting at 3.5 stars with the usual smattering of ‘It’s the best book ever’ and ‘It’s the worst book ever’ as outliers.

So, why did I buy the book?

I read the prologue and was strongly reminded of the dry, patrician acerbic humour of the old Ealing Studios comedy ‘Kind Hearts and Coronets’ in which Dennis Price murders his way to the top of his family tree by killing off eight family members, all played by Alec Guinness.

I decided that if Bella Mackie could produce a modern equivalent, I’d have a good time with it.

If you haven’t seen ‘Kind Hearts And Coronets’, take a look at the trailer below.

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‘The Agathas’ by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson (2022)

I itched to buy ‘The Agathas’ when I first saw it. The cover is amusing and the title was intriguing. My finger hovered over the ‘Add to basket’ button. I didn’t buy it because it had two red flags. Firstly, it’s written by two authors. I know that can work, Ilona Andrews and James S A Corey prove that, but it often doesn’t. The second red flag was the Young Adult label. I’m just too old for most young adult books, especially ones set in American High Schools which are as remote from my personal experience as attending Hogwarts and even harder to believe in.

So I waited on the reviews and everyone I saw from people I trusted said that this was a fun book. The second book is out now, so the writing partnership seems to be working. Then I read the first few pages and got a strong ‘Daria‘ vibe (Remember when MTV was a thing?) and decided to give it a go.