Double Lives, Dark Humor, and a Killer Marriage

Written by Asia Mackay, A Serial Killer's Guide to Marriage follows retired killers Hazel and Fox as they navigate marriage, parenthood, and their shared dark past. Bound by a pact never to kill again—for the sake of their daughter—the couple struggles with urges that refuse to die. For Hazel, resisting the call of her former life is a daily battle, one that strains their marriage to its limits. And then, one day… the pact is broken.

This book had me laughing out loud! It was equal parts tense, hilarious, and oddly relatable. Beneath the serial-killer premise lies a sharp and witty exploration of marriage. Hazel and Fox go through the same struggles as any couple—miscommunication, distance, and the slow drift into routine. Mackay masterfully tackles these themes with humor and depth, making heavy topics feel light and engaging.

Hazel, in particular, was a standout. A fierce, resilient, and deeply layered character, she wrestles with the sacrifices of motherhood in a way that felt incredibly real. As a mom, I connected with her struggles—how easy it is to lose parts of yourself while trying to be everything for your child. Fox, on the other hand, is a devoted husband and father, though both he and Hazel still carry the darkness of their pasts. But their targets? Always the truly evil.

With a well-paced narrative, a gripping dual POV, and some killer quotes at the start of each section, this book kept me hooked. And the ending? Completely unexpected! If you love dark humor, thrillers, romance, and satire, A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage is a must-read!

This is a genuine review, and all opinions expressed are my own. A big thank you to Asia Mackay and NetGalley for the opportunity to explore these characters ahead of time!

Haze and Fox are serial killers who travel the world together killing bad men with money. They ultimately marry, but decide to hang up their knives and settle down in the suburbs once they have a daughter. The bulk of the novel explores how difficult it is for the two of them to make it in suburbia without the bloody hobby that kept their relationship exciting.

The novel is darkly funny, and the characters are well drawn. My only criticism has to do with pacing, which is particularly slow in the middle of the novel. Overall, however, I found the novel to be entertaining, and well worth the read.

Thanks to Bantam/Penguin Random House for providing me with a complimentary advance copy of this book.

I loved it! The story fascinated me, and I read it in one sitting. The way the couple's buried secrets and intricate plans unfolded was not just entertaining, but it also reminded me of the chemistry and suspense of *Mr. and Mrs. Smith*. It's a well written comedy and romance with a clever twist.

The story revolves around a husband and wife, both former serial killers, who are trying to escape the shadows of their respective pasts. Their efforts to create a new life and raise a family in a peaceful suburban setting creates a humorous and entertaining plotline.

A different take on a love story for sure! When two troubled people become serial killers and find each other then fall in love, what could go wrong? In this Dexterish love story they love to kill together, but don't worry, they only hunt bad guys. Everything is going swimmingly well until having a baby makes them rethink their killing ways. They have to stop so as not to put the baby at risk of losing a parent, but how will this affect their marriage? Can killers stop and be happy? Find out in this killer story.

This book fell flat for me the characters were dull and did not communicate with each other , I didn’t feel it was engaging but the premise was interesting.
Thank you Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this book and the storyline of two serial killers being married and trying to not be serial killers for the sake of their child. I really enjoyed their book and hearing from both the husband's and wife's perspective.

A serial killers guide to marriage is a mixture between mr and mrs smith and dexter. Fox and Haze are a couple who meet in a murderous setting, becoming a married couple and going cold turkey on their murders once haze finds out she’s pregnant.

i enjoyed this read, it just wasn’t my favorite. the dark humor from haze’s POV was witty and kept me engaged throughout the book. i feel like the book delivered in the last quarter of it. there was very little passion between haze and fox, although i feel like that’s what the author was going for, i was just losing interest. the scenes where haze and fox are killing together we’re exhilarating and you could feel their love for each other. overall, the book was a nice read, i just wish it went into fox and hazes true relationship more.


thank you to netgalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and asia mackay for this eARC 💓🌟📖

"We all had secrets, so who was I to judge? Especially as my secrets were fourteen dead men."

Hazel and Fox were a match made in heaven—or hell, considering they’re both serial killers. Or at least they <i>were</i>, before Hazel got pregnant and they decided to retire. The problem is that suburban life just doesn’t suit Hazel, and she’s itching to kill again. When Hazel finally snaps and kills again without telling Fox, it sets off a ripple of consequences that just might spell the end for their little family.

This is an interesting premise and a fine enough plot. It just wasn’t for me. I have to admit I didn’t like either of the main characters much, which might have been partially influenced by my previous months’ reads, which featured unlikeable but nonetheless interesting characters. Hazel and Fox were neither likable nor interesting to me. They just seemed underdeveloped and bland to me, and even when they had their moments, it was immediately smothered by either paragraphs of whinging or pacing issues. Sorry, but being a serial killer does not replace an actual personality. There are a million of these vigilante, Dexter-esque serial killer characters these days, and they just seem to disappoint half the time. I’m tired of these morally gray Dexter knockoffs with cardboard personalities.

As a fair warning, most of the plot comes from miscommunication. And, well, here’s a confession: nine times out of ten, I hate the miscommunication trope. This was not an exception. The amount of miscommunication here, from a couple who were supposedly madly in love and understood each other perfectly, was infuriating. The overall plot, though, of serial killers trying to go straight, was the sole redeeming factor. The pacing was bad, which made this a slog, but the ending was fun. I just don’t know that it was worth the time I spent reading this.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.

3/5 stars

This book had a good pace and interesting premise, but I found pretty much every character to be extremely unlikeable. Everyone needs to go to therapy, and the ending was so unrealistic it made me mad.

thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

2.5⭐️, rounded down

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC of this book! It was 4.5 stars for me. I thought this was a funny, sharp (no pun intended!) not-quite-rom-com. Anyone who’s been in a relationship for a while can relate to Fox and Haze. Sort of.

Quick rundown of the story: Fox and Haze and their daughter, Bibi, live a normal suburban life. Like many new moms, Haze loves Bibi but misses their how things used to be with Fox before she came along. Their jet set lifestyle and unique…extracurriculars. Hilarity ensues as Haze tries to have it all.

I enjoyed the role reversal of Fox and Haze, where she is the one with cabin fever and unsatisfied with domestic life. The scenes in the book where Fox and Haze made plans to interact with their neighbors, and Haze’s attempts to get out of hanging out were funny. Without giving anything away, I love that the one friend she ends up with is the one friend she shouldn’t have.

On that same note, that friendship goes a bit too far and I don’t think the ending was believable. (Was any of the book believable?? No, but the ending was really not believable.) Two people can maybe keep a secret but three – no way.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was an entertaining book that drew me in right from the start and had me flipping the pages late into the night. The banter was witty, and the twists were good. Also, I don’t want to live near Fox and Haze.

Thank you @prhaudio for this #gifted audiobook, @randomhouse for the physical book and Ballantine for the eBook.

Serial killers Haze and Fox settle into married suburban life with their baby—vowing never to kill again. But with this agreement in place, their marriage begins to suffer. As they both keep secrets and drift apart they question whether their marriage will survive.

I love the book covers - (the UK version is pictured in my graphic) and the audiobook was fantastic. Both narrators portrayed the characters exactly how I imagined and their accents were on point. Georgia Tennant played Haze perfectly - great casting and not to be missed.*

Through dual POV, we learn how they met and where they both came from. At the same time, the couple starts to grow apart. This is about when the pace slowed right down. I was craving some kickass serial killing (like Haze), but husband Fox was having none of it.

This was definitely more domestic than dark, but still entertaining. We didn’t get as much Fox as we did Haze, and I was okay with that—she’s definitely one of my favorite characters. Her droll wit was such fun, and her brand of feminism was fantastic! I also really enjoyed BFF Jenny, who grew on me a lot. Thanks to Haze, she evolved which I love to see in a book.

I loved the reveals, twists, and the direction of the ending. But I wanted more—their finale was so thrilling that I wish we’d got more of that and less of Haze and Fox’s domestic issues - don’t mind me, I’ll be over here manifesting a sequel ✨🧘‍♀️

I really wanted to love this book. I did enjoy the humor and quirkiness of it, however, I just found myself having a hard time getting into it.

It dragged a little bit, and I am not a big fan of miscommunication tropes!

A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage by Asia Mackay follows Fox and Haze, a married couple living their normal life, or almost normal as they used to be serial killers.
It is an interesting, very well-written book, it had Mr & Mrs Smith vibes, I really enjoyed it. I will definitely be recommending this book to others.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing an e-arc of this book.

This book was more amazing than I thought it could be! The premise is hilarious, but with some meaningful and educational moments for the reader. The fast-paced and witty writing style had me finishing the book in 24 hours because I could not put it down. I absolutely loved the MC, Hazel, for her spunky but lovable attitude. Her inner thoughts were so funny and I loved her determination to get her family back on track, even with some questionable and dangerous antics. Hazel and Fox, her husband, are champions of women’s rights which makes their serial killer status all the more noble (even though still against the law). Thanks so much to Net Galley and Bantam Books Publishing for the ARC of this book for my honest and independent review!

I loved the idea of this book, however it was a bit drawn out in the beginning and I guessed part of the twist pretty quickly. In the end I enjoyed how the story wrapped up.

Loved this book! It was fun and light hearted with a great story line.

I love Hazel and Fox's story with opposite upbringings but having similar interest....even if the interest is a little illegal :)

It was great book about pulling apart from each other and then coming back together as a team as a lot of marriages can be like that and I loved that the author brought that all together for us. I am a sucker for different POVs within books so this was right up my alley.

A Serial Killer's Guide to Marriage
By Asia Mackay

As you may guess from the title, this is a quirky novel with many twists and turns, "perfect crimes" and near misses. It is the story of Haze, the product of poverty and an abusive upbringing, and Fox, who has led a life of privilege – but raised by two sociopathic parents.

Haze and Fox meet at the scene of a crime. Haze has just killed a scumbag who attacked her. Fox, who also has a proclivity for killing bad men who deserve to die, decides he has found his soulmate.The two marry and spend several romantic years traveling around Europe on the proceeds of his trust fund, having plenty of sex, loving each other completely – and planning and executing the murders of their victims. This lifestyle comes to a halt when Haze accidentally becomes pregnant.

With the birth of their daughter, their goals for their marriage begin to diverge. They find themselves at odds, unable to communicate. The misunderstandings grow and both parties contemplate the end of their marriage. As things continue to deteriorate, the story becomes more complicated.

As the killers struggle to figure things out, the reader will be amazed to find that two serial killers face the same quandaries when love seems to be on its way out the door as the rest of us "normal" people!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

3.5 stars. This is a fun book reminiscent of Butcher and Blackbird or Joe and Love from You, but without the toxic sexual tension build up that makes those stories so… hot. This story is much more family friendly… or as much as murder can be “family friendly”.

Retired serial killers Hazel and Fox have settled down. They have the house, the lifestyle, and the baby. Fox holds a normal job he hates while Hazel raises their child and pretends not to hate the mundane of being a stay at home mom and trying to make “friends”. As they say, old habits die hard, and soon Hazel is keeping secrets from Fox… who is keeping secrets from her. And in a Mr and Mrs Smith face off, the only way out is if one of them takes out the other! …or not. But antics abound.

Overall I thought this was a cute read, but I wish we’d gotten more chemistry between Hazel and Fox. The build up to Hazel’s frustrations with their boring lives with the counterweight of their affection for each other wouldve brought a strong dynamic to the story. I also felt the ending was very abrupt and like I either missed a major section of the book, or it was an attempt at a shocking twist that didn’t really fit. Overall an enjoyable quick-read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was awesome. It reminded me of Mr and Mrs Smith or A Lovely Marriage. The passion for killing was relentless and fun. It didn’t take itself too seriously.

Suburban Life, But Make It Murdery

Okay, this book is wild. Imagine you and your partner used to be serial killers, taking out the worst of the worst while living a glamorous life. Then you have a baby, trade in the thrill of the kill for baby wipes and playdates, and suddenly… life is boring as hell. That’s exactly Hazel’s problem—she’s itching for one more kill, and when she finally gives in? She does it without telling her husband. Now the cops are at their door, and everything starts spiraling.

Hazel is an absolute chaotic queen—funny, reckless, and just unhinged enough to make you root for her (even when you probably shouldn’t). Fox, on the other hand, is the cool-headed planner who’s way too good at covering tracks. Their chemistry? Chef’s kiss. The mix of dark humor, marital drama, and murder makes this such a fun, fast-paced read.

If anything, some parts go a little too over-the-top, and the pacing wobbles in places. But honestly? It’s such a fresh, hilarious, and twisted take on suburban life that I didn’t mind. If you like antiheroes, dark humor, and thrillers that don’t take themselves too seriously, you’ll love this one.