Thank you to Sourcebook Landmark for an advance copy of The dead husband cookbook. The unique thing about this book is getting real recipes with mostly all chapters. Thea Woods was lucky to be chosen to publish a biography of a famous chef Maria Capello. With everyone wanting to know what really happened to Damien Capello. While reading each chapter of Maria's book at her farm Thea is slowly uncovering more of the family secrets. Lies, secrets,cheating, murder will all come to light and the real truth of what happened to Damien Capello.

3.5 stars rounded up because I had fun and I’m feeling nice

This book has a lot of elements I enjoy: a book within a book, recipes at the end of certain chapters, a mysterious disappearance, and cannibalism. However despite all the positives, I did come away feeling like this was a more convoluted Gone Girl type of story. I also love to scream “Good for her” when women murdererrr and I really wanted to in this case but I wasn’t quite feeling it and I can’t put my finger on why that is.

I also feel like we’re told Thea is very smart, and sure, she figured it out in the end, but we the audience never truly see her fitting the pieces together. And while I liked the character perspective switch in part 3, I don’t think it would have been necessary if Thea was shown to be as smart as we were told she was.

But oh well I had fun wildly speculating and I always wanted to come back to this book when I wasn’t reading it so credit where it’s due.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author a for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC
2.5⭐️

I was excited to get my hands on this one. Unfortunately, it was underwhelming. I was interested in the idea of a famous chef dabbling with "special" recipes. I wanted darkness. What I got for 75% of the book was a basic mystery novel with a huge focus on running a restaurant. Oh, and don't forget about the frequent and detailed recipes. I just wasn't invested in the story until it was almost over. By then, the cool stuff just didn't do much for me.

This was a fun take on murder and dysfunctional family drama.
I was surprised with the twist and enjoyed the cast of characters.

I found this to drag a little bit towards the last 1/3 of the book, but it did pick up just in time to finish strong.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the eARC.

This was so good!? I loved the recipes and the pacing. Once I started, I didn't want to put it down. This is one I recommend going into blind and just letting it take you where it goes. So good.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this ARC!

I ate this book up!! (Pun intended, fully)

This book is so addicting and I was unable to put it down. This is a perfect thriller for anyone who loves cooking/cooking shows and drama! So many twists and turns that my jaw was on the floor.

I can’t recommend this book enough!

Maria Capello is a widowed celebrity chef whose husband Damien, also a great chef, killed himself by drowning. Publishing companies, editors and writers have been after Maria for years to write about her and Damien’s rise as chefs and his tragic death. Thea Woods is an editor with a career that has been tarnished. On the verge of being fired, Thea is a vulnerable character. Not only is her career at stake, she is vulnerable from her lonely childhood and now as an adult, dealing with her marriage, motherhood and with a mother that cannot let her past go. Maria, however has learned to be determined and hands on in every aspect of her career and life. For reasons known only to her, Maria is determined to have only Thea edit her life story.
There is manipulation, subterfuge and a long ago deep secret that moves this book to a surprising conclusion. This was a good suspenseful book with enough twists to change my perception of the characters almost continually and kept me reading in one sitting. Interesting also, were the delicious sounding recipes that followed the chapters. Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the eARC. This review is my personal opinion.

My husband: “What book are you reading?”
Me: “uhhhhh….”

Thank you, NetGalley & Sourcebooks Landmark, for the eARC of The Dead Husband Cookbook! 👩‍🍳🥩🩸🔪
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ . 5 / 5 (rounded up)

I saw the name and cover and said, “sign me up!” and to my surprise, I actually got accepted to read an eARC of this book! I was ecstatic and I absolutely ATE this up (no pun intended).

I loved the incorporation of the clever-titled recipes and honestly? They actually sound delicious so I bookmarked each page that had recipes to save for later… 🤭 I actually felt hungry reading this! I also actually learned new things that I never thought I’d search on Google before. Like how they slaughter pigs. Curiosity got the best of me. 😮‍💨 I truly didn’t know who to trust throughout this read!

Thea’s internal monologue sometimes felt a little bit repetitive and the ending felt a little rushed. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the twists and turns but I can only be twisted and turned so much till I start getting dizzy and confused! 😵‍💫 It almost got to that point here but then it wrapped up quicker than I expected. Although, I did love the last chapter.

Overall, I loved this novel! It was extremely clever, decently written, and utterly delectable. 🤤🤭🧆

Thea is a book editor on the better off getting fired when the opportunity of a lifetime comes knocking to work with celebrity chef Maria on her new memoir. The hope is that Maria will finally spill the beans about her husband's disappearance 30 years ago.
Maria has oddly specific requests of Thea in order to allow her to read the book in advance which leads Thea on a journey to find out the truth. We follow Thea at Maria's farm interspersed with Maria's book chapters as the story from 30 years ago is slowly revealed. But even when you think you know - You don't know.
This was a super fast read for me. I loved the mixture of the chapters. The characters felt a little underdeveloped so I never really cared which way the story went. It took me on some twists and turns and then stitched back on me. But in the end, although there was a clean understanding of all that occurred I felt a little disappointed.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I found the premise interesting, and Maria Capello's character very enigmatic.

The story is a bit slow at first, but it gets entertaining. I had no problem continuing to read. However, towards the end, there are events and twists that I simply couldn't believe. There's also a part of the story where the character lies to you for no reason; there's no reason for her to do so, other than to use it as a twist, and then another twist after another that doesn't quite fit together. I thought the ending was bad; you can tell when it's done just to shock, but the execution wasn't perfect.

Did she kill him?

That's the question that is the crux of this story, and there is enough twists and bends that leave you guessing until the end.

Thea, a disgraced editor, lands the job of a lifetime - being the editor for famous chef Maria Capello's memoir. The job comes with some strict rules, and things get unnerving shortly after Thea steps foot into Maria's home.

I thoroughly enjoyed the recipes throughout the story, adding a dash of humor with the recipe names throughout. The book leaves you guessing and unsure until the very last page, and is absolutely worth a read!

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC.

This was such a unique premise. I really enjoyed the book. It was a really good thriller. Keep me turning the pages to see what was next. Thank you for the opportunity to read this arc.

Clever premise a surprise. Different narrators-different twists. Just like a recipe-add different “ingredients “ give different results/conclusions. Solid read.

Maria Capello is a lauded celebrity chef with a husband who disappeared decades ago, under somewhat mysterious circumstances. Thea Woods is a book editor whose career is on the outs.

For no clear reason, Maria wants no one but Thea to edit her new celebrity, tell-all memoir. While Thea cannot believe (or understand) her good luck, things start to take a somewhat more sinister turn when she arrives at Maria’s secluded country home.

Will Thea find out that the grisly rumors about the ingredients in Maria meatballs are true? That you’ll have to read to find out.

The book did fall a bit flat for me in the final third and I was able to guess some of the twists but it was nonetheless a very fun ride and as a bonus the book actually contains several real recipes from “Maria’s” collection. Now if I could only find someone to cook them for me *sigh*.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC!

I was unable to finish this and thus will not be posting a full review. It felt off from the start -- a good premise but clunkily told. I appreciate the opportunity.

This book was deliciously suspenseful! (See what I did there?😝) but no seriously, this book was super suspenseful from beginning to literally the very end. I was hooked from the very first chapter. This story dabbles into a little bit of everything..like betrayal, family drama, and a little bit of unreliable narrator 🤫 which I like because you don’t know who or what to believe which makes the thriller all the more suspenseful, mysterious and everyone is suspicious! I really liked the story..makes you wonder how far you’d go for the ones you love! Also, the recipes that were thrown in between the book? Best believe I tabbed some because I want to try to make them😆

Thank you sourcebooks and NetGalley for the arc!

I started reading this book with the thought in my head that it was going to go in one direction and the more I read it would turn and go in another direction. Before too long the author would lead me down another path. I really enjoy mystery books that is not easy to figure out who did what and why. And to toss in recipes that sound good.
Thank you NetGalley, Danielle Valentine and Sourcebooks Landmark for the copy of The Dead Husband Cookbook. This is my personal review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book.

This was fantastic. I sort of went into it blind other than guessing from the cover it had something to do with chopping people up and eating them? It was so much more than that. Thea is a new mom and she's trying to juggle a work-life balance. She isn't exactly in the good graces of her boss due to a recent mistake she has made in letting a story out that should not have been shared. When the opportunity comes up to be the editor of a memoir of the infamous Maria Capello, she has no idea why she of all people would have been chosen. Maria has specifically asked for her but Thea's excitement when she arrives to Maria's farmhouse to start working on the story quickly starts to dissolve when she realizes there are some strange things happening around the house. The atmosphere is creepy, and parts of this book really did have me on the edge of my seat, but I couldn't stop reading wanting to know what happened next.

The chapters are told in perspective of whichever character is speaking, there are Italian recipes mixed in too which was a fun addition. The reader gets to read the chapters of Maria's memoir about what happened to her husband all those years ago as well as the present day unraveling of family secrets. How far will this family go to protect each other's secrets? Thea starts asking questions and realizes there is much more to this story than what Maria is telling for the memoir and that everyone who is claiming to know nothing, is lying.

Mysterious, suspenseful and some parts endearing. You will either love Maria or hate her, maybe a mix of both?

4.5/5 Stars - This five course fever dream is equal parts culinary memoir, cookbook and psychological thriller. Danielle Valentine whisks readers into the telenovelic world of Italian American Chef, television personality and widow, Maria Copelli - a woman whose past is as rich and dark as her ragu. The story begins with Thea Woods, disgraced editor and long time Maria Copelli fan who jumps at the chance to work with Mrs. Copelli and her "tell-all" memoir. Pulled in like a cartoon character being wafted with the scent of a good meal, Maria's book taunts details of her early life with her late husband, her rise to fame and the mysterious surroundings of said Celebrity Chef husband's "suicide" - a topic Maria has put hard lines in the sand to NEVER speak of. In true thriller fashion, Thea is requested to stay at Maria's sprawling mansion-like family farm in rural upstate New York in order to keep the memoir out of the hands of potential prying eyes, or out of the mouths of loose lips. This of course turns out to be as slow to simmer as it is unsettling. What begins as a dream job (albeit slightly mysterious) quickly curdles into a nightmare. Maria's charm is equal parts intoxicating and manipulative. The small amount of staff she employs are as tight lipped as ghosts, and the industrial sized freezer under lock and key in the basement is large enough to fit more than just leftover lasagna and a few slabs of meat (if you know what I mean). As Thea begins her work, she quickly realizes there's more to the fast paced love that was Maria and Damien - so much in fact it soon becomes abundantly clear why conspiracy theorists have taken to the internet to relay theories of crimes of passions and cannibalism. But surely that's just internet nonsense, right? The story itself is deliciously atmospheric, blending the gothic with gastronomic.
But let's take a second to talk about the cons, because no book is without it's burnt edges: first, the pacing. Suffering from what feels like burnout in an attempt to juggle both her immediate home life, her disgrace at work, and past history with an estranged father, Thea's narration tends to wander a bit. After partaking in unknown digestifs and sleep remedies (offered by Maria herself), along with the back and forth narrative of Thea's own narrative paired with Maria's book chapters, time itself has a habit of stretching and warping so often that you're never quite sure whether she's been on the Copelli estate for 3 days or three lifetimes. The prose is lush, yes, but at times I felt myself wanting to shake Thea and say, "you're not in a trance, you're on a deadline!!"
Second, the stakes at home feel suspiciously undercooked. Thea attends the extended weekend stay in an attempt to both save her ass at work as well as provide for her husband and small daughter back home - who unbeknownst to said husband - are barely scraping by and affording childcare thanks to Thea's need to protect and save her mother from the estranged gold-digging father of her own childhood. But throughout the story Thea mentions more about her own boss and the deadline than she does about the potential consequences of her husband finding out their bank account has been cleared out. To be honest, you'd expect a bit more guilt in my opinion. Instead, she's almost oddly detached in the focus of her own strained relationship with her mother than she is with ensuring she is able to pay for her own daughters childcare, rent and groceries next month. It's a weirdly convenient emotional blind spot.
Still, The Dead Husband Cookbook is an unsettling tale that blends a bit of true-crime vibes with culinary decadence. (Seriously, the included recipes are the the top of my to-do list!) It's the kind of book you'll want to devour in one sitting - preferably with a snack that doesn't come from anyone's freezer. And while you may see the ending coming, or feel the reveal was a tad less than "wow" worthy, it is still a fun and quick read to add to your "Read" pile - I mean, who doesn't like a hint at some cannibalism?
Final Thought: If your hostess has a walk in freezer she won't let you near, and gets a little cagey when you ask her for her meatball recipe, maybe find a quick way to skip out until dessert.

A slow-roasting, jaw-clenching thriller that serves up family secrets, murder rumors, and one seriously sinister chef with a side of rosemary and regret. Think: The Menu meets Knives Out—if the knives were sharper, the secrets darker, and the vibes more “coastal grandmother but make it carnivorous.”

Thea Woods thinks she’s landed her dream gig ghostwriting the memoir of legendary chef Maria Capello, a woman whose name is as spicy as her rumored past. But when Thea arrives at the Capello family estate—a remote, picturesque farm that smells suspiciously of lavender, lemon zest, and long-buried lies—things start to go from “quirky rich family” to “girl, run.”

Maria is magnetic, manipulative, and hiding something meaty. Thea’s unease ratchets up with every unsettling family dinner and every mention of the mysteriously missing husband. And when the knives come out—figuratively and literally—you’ll be clinging to every page, heart pounding, stomach churning, appetite ruined in the best way.

This is horror with a five-star palate: eerie, elegant, and absolutely unhinged. You’ll never look at a tasting menu—or a coastal grandmother aesthetic—the same way again. And trust me, by the time you reach the final chapter, you’ll be screaming: check, please. 🍷🔪🔥

Five stars. Rare, bloody, and hauntingly unforgettable.