A SERIAL KILLER'S GUIDE TO MARRIAGE

It’s hard to keep the spark going in your marriage when you move to the London suburbs and have to let go of your glamorous, globe-trotting lives. (No more partying, traveling, or murdering!)

Hazel and Fox have been married for more than 10 years, and they both adore their little daughter, Bibi. Hazel, an artist, has hung up her paintbrush to become a stay-at-home mom, and Fox is out breadwinning at an investment company every day. So what if they might have sex a little less often than they used to—it all sounds pretty normal, right? Well, MacKay’s novel might cover the kind of bumpy transition that’s familiar to many couples—but there’s a catch: Hazel and Fox are former serial killers, now trying to reform for the sake of their child. But giving up killing has dulled a spark that has them each feeling trapped and resentful. As MacKay switches back and forth between their two perspectives, it becomes clear that Hazel—forged in a difficult childhood and still mourning her best friend from art school, who died by suicide—has always found killing a release from her anger. Now it’s all bottled up, and she can only direct it by snarking at the local moms in her baby-and-me music group and resenting her husband. When she meets Jenny, another mother, they begin an unlikely friendship that offers Hazel a distraction; Jenny’s former partner is a total sleazeball who owes her a lot of money, and Hazel is determined to see that he pays up. Fox, meanwhile, deals with his struggles by attending AA meetings, figuring that an addiction to murder is not so unlike an addiction to alcohol. This is a dark comedy indeed—any ethical concerns over murder are brushed under the rug because it’s something Hazel and Fox do together, and they only kill “bad men.” As a metaphor for modern family life, it’s entertainingly astute.

Fans of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, this one’s for you.