The title made me want to read it immediately and it made Jeremy give me the side eye. The perfect one to have with you to read in public.
Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark for the gifted copy!
THE DEAD HUSBAND COOKBOOK – Danielle Valentine (Released August 5th, 2025)
Book Description:
She has the recipe for the perfect murder…
Maria Capello is a celebrity chef like no other. A household name, an inspiration, an icon. Her dozens of cookbooks and weekly television show, broadcast from her beautiful Italian-style kitchen, not to mention her line of bestselling supermarket sauces. And of course there’s her history. Once just the timid wife of famous chef Damien Capello, she stepped into the spotlight after Damien’s mysterious disappearance twenty years before. An event she’s never spoken about publicly until now, when it is announced that she is looking for a publisher for her memoirs.
Why is Maria willing to finally break her silence? Why does she turn down seven-figure offers from large publishing houses and sign up with a small press? And why does she do so on the condition that it is edited by Thea Woods? Thea is a lifelong fan but has never met Maria and can’t figure it out, plus she had been planning to hand in her notice that very day. But when she is invited to Maria’s remote farm to work on the manuscript, she can’t resist. After all, she may finally learn whether the rumours are that Maria killed Damien for his recipes and the legendary ‘secret ingredient’…
A deliciously rich thriller, perfect for readers of Bella Mackie’s How To Kill Your Family and Alexia Casale’s The Best Way to Bury Your Husband
My Thoughts: 4/5 stars
Thea is an editor at a small publishing company who majorly screwed up and is convinced she’s on the verge of being fired. Enter Maria Capello. An incredibly successful and famous celebrity chef – shows, product lines, cookbooks, and a decades old rumor about what happened to her husband. She had never spoken about the disappearance of her celebrity chef husband, Damien Capello. There are those out there who believe she got away with murder and capitalized on his fame, recipes, and got that secret ingredient of his.
It’s been 30 years and she’s ready to write her memoir. She refuses the massive offers from the major publishing houses and specifically asks for Thea. Life changing opportunity and Thea is convinced she’s about to uncover the mystery behind his death. She gets so much more than she anticipated.
This was fun. I really liked this book and there were some twists I didn’t see coming while other pieces I was able to unravel (but that never takes the fun out of it). I do love a book within a book – we get each chapter of Maria’s memoir as she tells it to Thea. Plenty of drama and gossip to go around with some dark parts balanced out nicely with some dark humor for levity, high tension, and a truly addictive little read.
Jessicamap Reviews 