The Best Way To Bury Your Husband is the fourth novel, and the first adult fiction, by British-American editor and author, Alexia Casale. A few months into the first COVID Lockdown, and Sally is googling “How… to… dispose… of… a… dead… deer”. Not because she has a dead deer. No, it’s her husband Jim, whacked in self-defence with her grandma’s skillet, that she has to get rid of.

After she left him on the kitchen floor overnight while she lunched on cake, dined on ice cream, luxuriated in a bubble bath with wine and crisps, and had her best night’s sleep in years, it really is too late to call the police with a credible story. And anyway, going to prison for killing this toxic man would leave her children, adults, yes, but still needing her, on their own.

So, a trip to the DIY store where she notes a teen in a hijab also has in her trolley cat litter, a tarpaulin, rope and gaffer tape. Back home, she makes a neat husband-parcel, then puzzles over how to dispose of it and, eventually realises she will also need a plausible cover story for his disappearance. Her first list, her Get Rid of Jim list, is woefully lacking in steps and ideas; her Be Happy list (now that she is finally free) is quite a lot longer.

Her outings monitored by Edwina, the neighbour opposite who is the COVID regulations inspector, Sally sneaks out the back gate at night in Jim’s coat to walk in search of inspiration, and on one of these walks, she stumbles on Ruth, sobbing in her backyard. Sally instantly recognises Ruth as another victim, so when she later finds her there, trying to light a fire, out of which pokes an arm, she offers sympathy, support, understanding and practical help. Two women with the same problem: will two heads be better than one?

How Sally and Ruth are joined by Samira and her seventeen-year-old daughter, Leila and, later, by Sally’s one-time best friend, Janey, only stretches the disbelief a little. After all, it’s Lockdown, when things get bizarrely extreme. Together, as the Lockdown Ladies’ Burial Club, they tackle the practicalities of getting rid of four bodies, overcoming obstacles and reminding one another not to google certain things.

Casale deftly portrays the insidious way in which women end up trapped in a marriage with a toxic partner, and shows how, in certain situations, women who have suffered years of serious abuse can sometimes see no other way out.

As a specialist human rights non-fiction editor for more than twelve years, her comprehensive knowledge in the area of domestic violence gives the story authenticity, while the black humour relieves the tension, making it so very readable. This is not a book to read in the quiet carriage on public transport, or while eating or drinking, or if you have continence issues, as sudden laughing out loud is a guaranteed reaction to much of the dialogue and situation.

It’s true that the premise of the story wouldn’t work were the country not in Lockdown, but that does draw on the reality, the statistic that domestic violence increased exponentially during Lockdown while the femicide rate doubled, and it presents the unique set of circumstances that allow the plot to succeed so well. A topical, blackly funny, moving and thought-provoking read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Penguin General UK.