A review by eggcatsreads
The Dead Husband Cookbook by Danielle Valentine

4.25

‘Maybe it sounds like an overreaction to kill a man because of a few recipes. But you have to understand, they were very, very good recipes.’

This was a fun and twisty thriller, where you think you know how it ends until you actually get to the end. Filled with twists I absolutely didn’t see coming, I had a blast reading this book - meatballs (but from where?) and all.

We follow a disgraced editor as she is given the opportunity of a lifetime - editing the personal memoir of famous celebrity chef Maria Capello. With a television show, cookbooks, and personal sauces, she’s a name everyone knows - just like Martha Sterwart. The only issue? Her husband mysteriously died one night before she became famous and everyone thinks she killed and ate him. Now, she’s planning on addressing the rumors once and for all - and she’ll only speak to Thea Woods. Alone. At her remote farm. Without any access to her cell phone or the internet. 

Filled with tension, mystery - and a deadbeat husband at the heart of it all - we get into the mind of Maria Capello to discover what really happened that night her husband died. Did she kill him, or did he really commit suicide like his note implies? And just what, exactly, is in her locked freezer in her house and what is her ‘secret ingredient’ she uses for everything? I went into this book expecting to know the answer to a lot of these questions, but it wasn’t until the end that the mystery was well and truly solved. Maria Capello is a woman of many faces - one to her audience on her television show, one towards her business life, and one that is truly herself. But until the  end, we’ll never know just which one is speaking to us, or what will happen next. Truly an exciting ride and one I’d recommend taking. 

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing this e-ARC.