Read
Blame it on the cost of living crisis if you like, but we can’t get enough of stories about the obscenely rich behaving in obscene ways. Bella Mackie’s whodunnit spoof is the latest to skewer the 1 per cent: the novel begins with Anthony, a ghastly womaniser and self-made financier, impaled by a water decoration in the lake at his lavish 60th birthday party. There is a long list of suspects. Anthony is survived by disgruntled mistresses, a vengeful wife, four brattish, entitled offspring (“my children may be many things, but they are not communists”), not to mention several furious victims of his dodgy business dealings. But the main fun lies in Mackie’s gag-happy takedown of the absurd lives and moral vacancy of the supremely wealthy. A sample line, clearly aimed at the Chipping Norton set: “One great thing about [having a house in the] Cotswolds is that you can have neighbours from London.”
