Kill Your Husbands is a novel by Australian author Jack Heath that follows on from his previous novel, Kill Your Brother, featuring several of the same characters and set in the same rural NSW town of Warrigal. Real estate agent Oscar is happy enough to go along on a weekend in an isolated mountain cottage with two other couples, his wife Isla’s school friends, mostly because he has certain expectations about another of the guests.

There are some close friendships within the couples, a financial planner, a stand-up comedian, a gym owner and a fitness model and, while things aren’t exactly as expected on arrival, they rub along fairly well despite different temperaments, even (eventually) agreeing to partake in a risqué plan. Does that go well? As one of their number is found dead in the hot tub afterwards, clearly not.

When an obviously traumatised wife manages to make her way down the mountain on foot, raving about a murderer on the loose, Detective Sergeant Kiara Lui has charge of her first case. She is able to temper the response of the enthusiastic armed response team enough to recover a very frightened couple from the house, discovering two dead husbands, and learning that one of the wives is missing. And each survivor is telling a different story.

Frustrated by the lack of insight produced by witness interviews, and the delay in results of the DNA collected by Warrigal’s inept crime scene technician, Kiara decides to take her girlfriend, Elise, who desperately needs a break, for a weekend up to the (thoroughly-cleaned) murder house, where she might get a better feel of just what happened. But are they safe in this isolated spot with no mobile phone coverage and one of the party still missing?

Heath uses multiple narrators to tell a tale that is cleverly plotted, with twists that might require pre-booking a chiropractic appointment, well-disguised clues and red herrings to keep the even the most astute reader guessing right up to the exciting climax. The reader will wonder about the reliability of some of that narrative, but even as the story ventures into very dark territory, there is some (quite black) humour to relieve the tension.

Heath’s characters are believable for all their flaws and failings, and he captures the feel of the NSW country town with consummate ease. There are some spoilers for the earlier book, so reading Kill Your Brother first is advised. Readers of his Timothy Blake series know they will be in for a wild ride, and the best advice is to just go with the flow for an action-packed and very entertaining dose of Aussie intrigue.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided NetGalley and Allen & Unwin