I loved this book, the history of axe murder is not something I thought about on a deeper level before. The history behind this early hand tool up to today was fascinating to read about. As someone both interested in history and true crime this book felt like it was mixing two of my favourite subjects however I do think people only picking up this book for the true crime aspect might be disappointed that it talk about it more. The information was communicated in a way that I feel is very accessible to any type of reader, even non academics or people who haven't read much nonfiction. I will definitely be recommending it to customers and will probably shelve it both in history and true crime.

Whack Job, A history of Axe Murder is a very in depth exploration into the use of an axe over the history of mankind and it's use as a weapon against fellow humans. This is a very well researched but over all pretty dry explanation of the history as well as some of the cases in which an axe was used. Overall I think it would be a great tool for soeone who is interested in writing a true crime thriller as they would have a lot of information about how to make it "real"

Honestly this book was n0t was not what I was expecting. Well, the first 2/3rds was not what I was expecting. It was really around the last 1/3rd that it became a true crime book in my opinion. But it was interesting.

A smart and bloody examination of the axe's foundational role. From the murder of a Neanderthal-like man to the infamous Lizzie Borden, this nonfiction book gives a sarcastic and quirky look at the history of a rather simple tool often found at the scene of a crime. The author examines the social, economic, political issues and human nature that caused individuals to befall their fate to an axe. As such, the book, while having a true crime element, is ultimately a history crash course on the axe’s evolution — from a survival tool in 430,000 BCE to a modern-day weapon of murder. While the author has fun in describing what makes the axe the perfect weapon in each instance, kept me thoroughly engaged. If you are a true crime fan or not, James’ book is a great primer of “axe murder.”

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book so much that I read it in one sitting! I loved the storyline and the characters in this book. I would definitely recommend this book.

Entertaining romp through history by way of axe murders. I definitely learned a lot about ways axes have been used (outside of murdering people) through history. I found this to be a fairly quick and breezy read.

This is certainly an interesting title for an interesting book. It looks at the history of the lowly, and sometimes not so lowly, axe, particularly in its use as a tool of death. Going way back into the mists of time it looked at its evolution from a basic utilitarian object to things with a more definite purpose. In earlier times it was the cutting- no pun intended- edge of technology in killing masses of your enemy. It stayed that way until more elegant weapons were produced. It was never anything but a rough, tough and brutal.

Even when it was used as a means of execution, as in the times of Henry VIII, depending on who you were and how much you ticked off Henry, it could be sharp and swift or as bloody as a cudgel. It returned to being a tool when the rope took over as a means of execution. But it was still pretty handy if you wanted to take it into battle and you were more interested in results but proved a sad second when the other guys had artillery.

Since it was often around the house, it did have its uses for both premeditated and spur of the moment murders. In fact, at one point in the 20th Century it became a rather popular method and deserved its own moniker of being an axe-murder. Needless to say, this is a gory history but not without some humour. Four purrs and two paws up.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this title.

The title of this is so perfectly "Apt Wordplay: The History of [Topic]" it's like a computer thought of the title. I wanted to like this - it's an interesting topic, and the author clearly has thoughts about What We Talk About When We Talk About Axe Murder, but the text for each chapter is a little too dry with attempts to make this a little lighter that generally didn't work for me as a reader.

Real Rating: 4.5* of five

End-noted to a fare-thee-well, this rollicking romp through axes as historical objects isn't academic and dry, or deeply in-depth; it's a mountaintop view into the foothills and valleys of human material culture. Using the axe as our viewpoint stand-in makes a lot of sense. In anthropology classes I took in the 1980s, stone tools came in varieties like flakes, blades, and scrapers, all discovered by the carloads; a hand axe was treasure indeed. The knack of flint knapping is easier to acquire for smaller objects. An axe was high tech indeed.

There's a reason an axe centers the fasces in Roman art; there's a reason the axe was buried as often as a sword in Viking graves. They're not just useful, they're mightily impressive and have always been difficult to fashion until fairly recently. A sharp axe is a supremely useful tool for the agricultural way of life. Splitting logs to burn for warmth, making fence posts to contain cattle and demarcate property, etc etc, are all made trivially easy with ownership of a good, sharp axe.

Splitting wood is, of course, not the only splitting an axe does with effectiveness and relative ease. Author Rachel starts us with split skulls in Neanderthal prehistory, when possession of an axe was a major symbol of power. As the reasons humans kill each other really haven't changed over the millennia (spoiler alert: we enjoy it), the means we choose to do it with haven't either. Whatever is handy, be it rock, knife, or axe. What we don't know in any detail is why the owner of a particular skeleton was deprived of the ghost driving it, though the remains are clearly damaged in specific, tell-tale ways. So Author Rachel talks about axes more in the first third of the book than murders. (Seriously, stop at 30%...chapter six...if details of what happens are not to your taste.)

In historical times, as details become available, they are vouchsafed you.I do not find this particularly bothersome, but if you do, understand this is not going to be an easy book for you to read. We're still focusing on the axes, though, which is what enabled me not to feel queasy. The weapon of choice is contextualized to the extent possible based on the records surviving, be they legal, social, or religious in nature. And has Author Rachel done her archive diving! Literal hundreds of endnotes could probably result in a visit from the spooks if I followed them all up on Google. The thing I appreciate most in a history like this one, focused on a reasonably narrow bit of human behavior, is that sense the author's done a lot more than the minimum. That is definitely the case here.

I don't classify this as a microhistory to myself. It has a narrow focus. It doesn't, however, confine itself to just one bit of History like The Forger's Spell or Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, both estimable books. I suppose when your topic is something as universal or as ancient as an axe, one can't feasibly stay in the micro.

Speaking of micro, Author Rachel does not spare us Y-chromosome-havers in her analysis of why axes represent authority. There's a good bit about male insecurity as it relates to symbols of power and status. If I felt she was factually incorrect, or grinding an academic axe (!) too finely to make her point, I'd say so. Instead I shrank a little more every time the topic arose. Well done, madam, point well made. Dealing with how the labrys became a feminist/matriarchal symbol was fascinating.

The structural elements of the book are largely thematic. We're in chapters called things like "In Truth, An Enemy and a Man of Violence" (chapter four, the 500s BCE) and "Five Axes in the Cellar, One Axe on the roof" (chapter nine, Lizzie Borden). Author Rachel's style lends itself to hooks, positioned carefully at the ends of chapters. It makes the read hard to portion out; I usually read a chapter of a book, take a few notes, move to a different book; not here. I read through five chapters in a long afternoon. That's not common for me. I simply didn't want to stop, and the hook-y chapter ends (can't quote them, the Spoiler Stasi will trade their hoses and chains for axes) were designed to keep the reader engaged.

So what happened to the fifth star? It's half there, and deserves to be. I can't offer the full five only because the way Author Rachel mixes it up felt at times as though there were topics she could not go into that she wanted to. That left me wishing for an extra hundred pages and more ridden hobbyhorses.

No matter about cavils so minor as that. If you're interested in anthropology and history through a narrow but deep time-lens, have a good tolerance for murderous acts, and enjoy sly witticisms, this is a solid read for you

2.5, rounded up. This would have worked well as two separate books: one about the history of the axe as a tool (weapon or not) and another about murders committed by axe as well as the cultural evolution of the phrase "axe murderer." Alas, it is one book split into two parts; since I was expecting to read about murders, I found the second half of the book far more interesting than the first.

You’ll need to adjust your expectations before reading WHACK JOB: A HISTORY OF AXE MURDER. The subtitle really should be: A HISTORY OF THE AXE.

The first half of the book is about the evolution of the axe and how people used them from prehistoric times through to recent history. I love ancient history, so I found some of this interesting. Still, there’s only so much I want to know about axes. Their relationship to murder is mostly tangential or speculative.

The second half takes us through some axe murder cases, beginning with Lizzie Borden.

The writing is fine. I wasn’t wowed, but the content is interesting if you’re curious about axes.

*Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for the free copy!*

"Whack Job" starts out 480,000 years ago in Egypt and China. This includes how the axes were made, and their significance. This may appeal to students of archaeology and early history, but I found it too mundane. It goes into specific events such as those of the Viking era, English executions, and various eighteenth and nineteenth incidents in America. The use of the axe in some of these events was just incidental.

It wasn’t until the latter half of the book that I found it interesting. That included inconsistencies in the Lizzie Borden murder trial and killings throughout the twentieth century. However, by that time I was so exhausted from reading the excessive details of the first half.

Maybe this piece of non-fiction would have worked as two separate books. But as it stands, I can’t recommend "Whack Job".

"Whack Job" is a series of historical vignettes, where the use of the axe features prominently in legendarily violent ways. It opens with history's oldest suspected axe murder with Cranium 17, and moves swiftly through Middle Kingdom Egypt, the Shang Dynasty, ancient Greece, and of course Vikings. From there, the author takes a rather sizable leap into the 16th century and into the modern era. Until now, I had not heard of the bloodthirsty massacre perpetuated by Freydis Eriksdottir or of the rightfully heroic, but equally brutal actions of William Tillman. It's delightfully niche history and the author maintains the theme well!

So why the 2 1/2 stars? Admittedly, this is a bit misleading. This is not a terrible book - at all! It is engaging, accurate, and funny without being disrespectful. For me, the issue is that it feels half-finished, like the author was pressured to send "something" to the publisher. There were numerous points that could've been expanded upon, like the influence of the axe-murder in horror film and literature, folklore or mythology.

I enjoyed the variety of the subjects, but the crimes that took place prior to the modern era or outside the Western hemisphere - Egypt, Iceland, China - felt rushed. I was also surprised the likes of Anne Bonny or Jean Hachette didn't make the cut, despite their fearsome reputation of fighting/killing their enemies with a hatchet or axe. Even the infamous Axe Man of New Orleans did not make an appearance, yet Lizzie Borden received a whole chapter. In this way it was inconsistent and I imagine the author's project is still ongoing. If they ever release an updated edition, I would definitely check it out.

Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5 on Instagram

You’d think that a book that claims to be a history of axe murder would have more axe murder.

Apparently not.

I didn’t know I was settling in for chapter after chapter of dry and inconsistent storytelling about the history of the axe and how it was used in killing throughout the centuries. It’s not the subject matter of those chapters I object to, it’s the manner in which they were conveyed. At times McCarthy James is witty and even sounds like she’s geeking out a little, but then she’ll swing abruptly into a dense academic narrative that makes you feel like you need to pump the brakes and change gears yourself before you can continue reading. It’s not smooth and made for a less enjoyable read than this book could have been.

Overall, I think I would’ve liked this book to just be more consistent overall: it couldn’t decide what it was or how it wanted to be told.


I was pre-approved for a copy of this title as part of the SMP Early Readers Program via NetGalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. All reviews rated three stars or under will not appear in my social media. Thank you.

This is likely the most comprehensive overview of the history and functions of axes and hatchets. However, it's not a comprehensive history of ax murders. Some expected crimes are mentioned, like Lizzie Borden, but the authors opinions sometimes water them down. There's plenty of material on how Lizzie could have accomplished the crime in the time frame she had, for example, but there's little mention of these proposed scenarios. As a reference on this weapon, this book excels. As a true crime book, not as well.

Whack Job by Rachel McCarthy James is truly a fascinating nonfiction read.
A read about the history of axe murderers.
Hands down one of the most interesting nonfiction books I've ever read.
The research and plotting was well done.

Obviously throughly researched- spans decades even centuries of history related to axes.
For fans of true crime- an engaging read.

I don’t need trigger warnings for reading- but chapter 11 made my eyes bulge- child sexually abused- was a MISDEMEANOR in the late 40’s ?!?

2.5⭐️

Not exactly what I was expecting. I thought this would be more about the axe murders and murderers throughout history. Instead, it's more a history of the axe with some murders thrown in. I enjoyed the first half of the book, looking at before the 1700s. James had me engaged during the first half of the book. It involves prehistoric time and up til the 1700s (cavemen, Egyptians, and Henry VIII), while the latter focused on George Washington, Lizzy Borden, and some murders I never heard about. At times, James had me intrigued by what I was reading, but at others, I felt bored. She seemed to get long-winded on some things.

Published May 13, 2025

Thanks to Netgalley, Saint Martins Press, and Rachel McCarthy James for the E-ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#Netgalley #Stmartinspress #RachelMcCarthyJames #WhackJob #ARC #History

A very thoroughly researched book on the history of axes - and some axe murders - throughout history. Detailed descriptions of axes, and some gruesome murders, as promised. This isn't the book I thought it would be but I have to applaud Ms. James for her very intense research into a subject that I don't believe has been written about in this kind of specificity. Most books about murder don't single out a type of weapon like this. There are a lot of colloquialisms scattered throughout, which keeps this book from being a dry scholarly text, it gives it a slight folksy feel. I can't say it's the most pleasurable read, it does have some long passages of axe descriptions, but I did learn quite a bit about types and the history of axes, and historical, infamous murders and murderers.

This ARC was provided by NetGalley and the publisher, the opinions expressed herein are strictly my own.

Totally not what I was expecting, but still fascinating! I'm not quite sure where I thought this book would go, but I don't think it really occurred to me that this is an actual historical account of the evolution of the axe. I was intrigued by its origins and how its uses changed over time, and where the term "axe murderer" actually came from. There were chapters that lagged a bit, even though the information was important and needed to be included, and I kept waiting for something more salacious to be talked about -- but that's on me and my dark mind, not an err on the part of the author. Anyone who loves history and the macabre should find this an interesting read.