HOW TO MURDER A MARRIAGE by Gabrielle St. George

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How to Make Me Read a Book? Give me a delicious cover like this one! 

Gina Malone is a bestselling author, known for giving expert relationship advice. In addition to her books, she also has an advice column on the side. 

The book starts with her about to take a European vacation to visit her children. Right before takeoff, she posts a reply on her advice column, advising a woman to leave her controlling husband and to seek help. Unfortunately, her husband sees the post and doesn’t take too kindly to it. 

Back to her new home somewhere in Canada (I already forget where), she not only has to deal with a nosy family and a nosy town, but she also feels an attraction towards the carpenter who’s fixing up her beach cottage. 

If that’s not enough, her ex-husband, a dick named Dick, is stalking her. And now, she seems to have a SECOND stalker, the husband of the wife who asked for Gina’s advice. The wife is now missing…

This is an amusing and decent debut to a new series (it looks like there will be at least two more books in The Ex-Whisperer Files). The strongest thing it has going for it is the characters. Gina is awesome! I loved everything about her, and she came off as real. Her cousin, Florrie, and the carpenter, Hugh, were great as well. 

However, I didn’t quite love this like I’d hoped. It’s very dialogue-heavy, which isn’t always an issue, but there’s a lot of time spent repeating speculations and suspicions. Some of the situations that occur are both eye-rolling and not very compelling. Luckily, there’s some charm (and dogs) in the mix. I was also expecting to laugh, but this only elicited a few smiles from me. 

Oddly enough, I can see this working really well on TV…and the author is also a screenwriter… 🤔

I think I’ve come to hope that all of these books with fun covers in the comedic mystery genre will be like the Finlay Donovan series, but they are not. I liked this one enough, and I may read the next one, but the only series I’m definitely sticking with is Ms. Finlay’s. 

Thank you to Level Best Books and NetGalley UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Expected Publication Date: 11/9/21.