A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage

Artist Hazel Matthews and wealthy heir Nathaniel Foxton “Fox” Cabot, the married protagonists of Mackay’s wildly entertaining latest (after The Nursery), have spent the last few years traveling across Europe, murdering men who prey on women. Their exploits have earned them the Interpol nickname “the Backpacking Butcher.” When Hazel becomes pregnant, Fox decides it’s time to settle down, and the couple decamps to the London suburbs to raise their daughter. Fox takes a job in an office; Hazel sees her artistic inspiration buried beneath a mountain of diapers and playdates. Restless, she kills a man on her own—one who she believes deserved to die. Soon, however, Hazel learns that one of the mothers from her toddler’s playgroup is a cop who’s been investigating the case of the Backpacking Butcher, and that this latest kill has put her on Hazel’s trail. Mackay brilliantly exaggerates the stifling aspects of parenthood through the eyes of her charismatic killers, wringing both laughs and pathos from her deliciously outlandish premise. This is sensational. Agent: Alice Luytens, Curtis Brown U.K. (Jan.)

Correction: A previous version of this review incorrectly identified the cop who is investigating the case of the Backpacking Butcher.