Publisher Gift via NetGalley | Whack Job

I received a free digital ARC from the pubisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating | ⭐⭐...barely. EDIT: ⭐ only

This is not a history of axe murder. How can you write a book about axe murder and not write about any axe murders as we traditionally think of them - with the exception of Lizzie Borden? Where was the Axeman of New Orleans? Or Villisca? And to top it off, Lizzie doesn't even show up until chapter nine. NINE! Out of something like twelve chapters, hers and the chapter on the murders at Taliesin are the only ones that are actually axe murders.

Instead we also get stories of a possible 'first axe murder' half a million years ago, we look at the axe as it was used in war, and then take a look at Henry VIII and his love of chopping off heads of people who looked at him sideways.

Had I realized the author is the same one who wrote so flippantly with her father about axe murder victims in the book The Man from the Train, I would not have bothered with this one. Her casual approach to some of the deaths was honestly offensive. She's at times dismissive and bordering on straight disrespectful. I assume her aim was cheeky or funny, but she is neither. I hope she stops writing about this topic.

I honestly got more annoyed by this book as I wrote up the review and am knocking it down to one star.

To sum it up, this is a history of the the axe as a tool to build and how it was also used as a tool of death. But it is definitely NOT about axe murders.

Not recommended.