Book Review: A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage by Asia Mackay


2024 was very much the year of the dragon book. From Iron Flame to When the Moon Hatched to A Fire in the Sky, bookshops were overflowing with stories about fire-breathing mythical beasts and their human counterparts. Now, with the start of a new year, there’s a fresh trend set to take over fiction – one that’s less fantastical but just as threatening: serial killer protagonists. Having recently binged and loved the adaptation of CJ Skuse’s Sweetpea, which centres on a wallflower receptionist whose helplessness morphs into vengeance, I was ready for my next dose of murder mixed with the mundane. I found it with Asia Mackay’s stylish thriller A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage, and what a darkly mirthful and messed-up story it is.
The story follows Haze and Fox, an outwardly ordinary married couple with a baby living a perfect suburban life. They have it all: the money, the affluent lifestyle, the five-star travel, and the envy of all those around them. They also have one hell of a secret: they’re ex-serial killers. Like many couples, they bonded over a shared interest, theirs being the killing of bad men, and they were very good at getting away with murder. But everything changed with the arrival of their daughter, Bibi. They made a pact to leave their murderous lives behind them and for a short while they were content to pack away their knives. Now, with nothing but tedious toddler groups and small-talk with other mums to keep her occupied, Haze has started to feel that itch again.
As the pressures of motherhood and the banality of marriage push Haze closer to the edge, she finally snaps and kills someone behind Fox’s back, breaking their pact and risking everything they’ve worked so hard to achieve. With their crimes catching up to them and the secrets between the couple building, Fox becomes increasingly distant, whilst Haze becomes increasingly suspicious. But just how far will they both go to protect their family, and will they both still be standing at the end of it? After all, the couple that slays together stays together, but only if they don’t kill each other first.
I always knew our life together would involve bloodshed. I just never thought it would be ours.”
It’s always a conflicted feeling to enjoy a book centred so tightly around serial killers. But what Mackay’s novel shows is that you can root for a killer and still not agree with what they’re doing. The characters in A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage are gloriously dysfunctional and downright frightening at times – you certainly wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of them. They might only kill ‘bad men’ but they’re not opposed to utterly ruining a life if someone poses a threat to their perfect family of three. Like Rhiannon in Sweetpea or Dexter Morgan, you obsessively follow these characters’ increasingly dark journeys and you don’t want them to get caught. In some strange, unappealing to your conscience way, you actually hope the characters will triumph and that’s solely down to great writing. Mackay gives these characters something worth protecting – their marriage and the life they’ve built together, but chiefly their beloved daughter.
What stops this story of two ruthless killers playing at domesticity from getting too dark is the fun and witty internal monologues. This is a novel that revels in the dual first-person narrative, letting readers into the twisted and unashamedly unapologetic minds of the characters – both in the present and in the ‘good old days’ when they fell in love and both realised they were equally screwed up by their wildly different upbringings and equally brilliant at murder. Mackay allows the resentment to steadily build between the couple as the story progresses. Whether it’s Haze’s fury at how tame and conventional her life has become, or Fox’s frustration at his wife’s lack of appreciation for how hard he works to keep them in the manner to which they’ve become accustomed, this is a brilliant study of modern-day marriage and privilege, as well as an exploration of how trauma can affect a person’s psyche.
Fearlessly written and cleverly plotted, A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage is a darker, bloodier and more satirical Mr & Mrs Smith with a central duo you won’t always like or identify with but will find endlessly entertaining.
★★★★★
A Serial Killer’s Guide To Marriage is published by Wildfire on 14 January 2025