This was my first book by Valentine and I enjoyed it. I loved the addition of the recipes throughout and I found myself reading those thoroughly just in case it said something interesting.

Dark, twisty and kept me confused. Some of the twists were a little predictable but when you’ve read as many thriller/mystery as I do, it’s hard to be shocked.

The book did drag a little bit and I found myself reading it for the sake of getting to the end. It was a bit repetitive but in the end I enjoyed it.

Thank you to the publisher and thank you to NetGalley for the chance to review this e-ARC. Full review will be available soon

First of all thank you for approving my request!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The authors writing style had me hooked throughout this book.

I didn't want it to end, a book I really couldn't put down.

Really enjoyed this book. Brilliant mysterious element to it, storyline was easy to follow and kept me guessing right until the end!

Danielle Valentine’s The Dead Husband Cookbook is a wickedly sharp, darkly comedic thriller that blends domestic suspense with culinary flair in the most unexpected ways. It’s the kind of novel that grabs you with its unique premise and keeps you hooked with its twisted secrets, disturbing reveals, and eerie sense of humor. Think Gone Girl meets Top Chef, with a dash of Hannibal.

The story centres around Thea Woods, a somewhat disgraced book editor trying to redeem herself, who’s unexpectedly selected to edit the memoir of celebrity chef Maria Capello — a woman long surrounded by whispers and scandal ever since her husband Damien vanished under mysterious circumstances three decades earlier. Though Damien’s disappearance was ruled a suicide, his body was never found, and some people still suspect Maria had a hand in it. When Thea travels to Maria’s isolated farm to work on the manuscript, she steps into a gothic culinary nightmare, complete with a locked phone, a creepy granddaughter, a slaughterhouse next door, and recipes that begin to raise serious questions.

The novel is steeped in slow-building tension, with alternating perspectives and an eerie atmosphere that keeps you on edge. Valentine masterfully plays with reader expectations — just when you think you’ve got a handle on the story, she throws in another wild twist, each one more jaw-dropping than the last. By the final chapters, you're left reeling, half-laughing in disbelief and half-horrified.

One of the book’s most distinctive elements is the inclusion of recipes sprinkled throughout the narrative. Some readers may love this (I was one of them) creative touch for how it deepens the immersion and enhances the book’s culinary horror aesthetic. Others might find it disrupts the pacing — especially when the content of the recipes starts to feel suspicious in the best (and worst) possible way.

Beyond the thriller elements, Valentine delves into themes of motherhood, legacy, and the generational transmission of trauma and rage — especially the kind born from navigating a world shaped by toxic men. But don’t expect any easy moral lines; the female characters here are just as terrifying as they are fascinating.

If you're looking for a thriller that’s completely off the beaten path — equal parts creepy, clever, and hilariously macabre — The Dead Husband Cookbook is a feast worth devouring. Just be warned: you may never look at a cookbook the same way again.

Thanks to NetGalley, Serpents Tail, Viper books and Profile books for the advanced copy.

Absolutely delicious!
This book truly kept me guessing the entire time and I can’t say that happens very often.
The tension was like a simmering pot, continuously ramping up until it boils over at the end and I loved how the recipes were sprinkled throughout.
I read in almost one sitting, definitely recommend!

Up on Goodreads now, live on the blog on 7 July:

I became an instant fan of Danielle Valentine’s books when reading my first one, which was Delicate Condition. I read her debut shortly after, and when I noticed halfway through reading The Dead Husband Cookbook that I had missed a book last year, I ordered myself a copy right away. Such is the bookish magic this author wields.

The Dead Husband Cookbook, for me, is reminiscent of authors like Delilah S. Dawson and Rachel Harrison: it has a feminist angle but not in the manner you’d expect. And that might be the best way to describe this entire story: it’s what you expect, but then it isn’t, but then it is, or is it? Confusing? Good! Go in blind, do not even leaf through the book, trust me.

The structure of The Dead Husband Cookbook is like an Italian cookbook. We start off with antipasti to whet our appetites, then we get to the meat of the story in the Meat section, and we end with Desserts, whether these are just or not, that’s up to the reader to decide. There are even a few recipes included, to try at your leisure. Or maybe not.

The Dead Husband Cookbook is mostly told from the POV of Thea. An error of judgement pretty much torpedoed her career as editor, and at this point, editing The Dead Husband Cookbook by celebrity chef Maria Capello is the only thing that may save her. However, this job turns out to be unlike any other editing job Thea has ever had. As she is drip-fed the entire book, chapter by chapter, so is the reader, and I can tell you, I was just as desperate as Thea was to find out more. Are the rumours true? Did Maria actually kill her husband all those years ago? Did he really end up in her meatballs?

Throughout the entire book, there’s an insidious sort of creepiness. Is Thea imagining things or is there something off about Maria, her book, her family? I never quite knew what was true and what wasn’t, until the very ending. Was my own imagination running away with me, or did I have these characters pegged?

I had an absolute ball with The Dead Husband Cookbook! Without ever being overly explicit or particularly gruesome, it is a deliciously dark, horroresque thriller that I would happily recommend.

The Dead Husband Cookbook is out in hardcover, digital formats and audio on 7 August.

Massive thanks to Viper Books and NetGalley for the DRC. All opinions are my own.

This was deliciously dark, delightfully unhinged and honestly? I ate it up. The story follows Maria Capello a celebrity chef, sauce empire queen and the widow of the very famous (and very mysteriously missing) Damien Capello. She’s been quiet about what happened to him for years… until now. Enter Thea, a book editor who gets invited to Maria’s remote farmhouse to help write her juicy tell all memoir… but the longer Thea stays the more she starts to wonder if Maria’s memoir is just a story or a full blown confession… and the more weird stuff starts happening, the harder it gets to tell what’s real and what’s part of the “perfect recipe” for murder. This book had me flipping pages like I was frantically searching for a missing ingredient. It’s sharp, clever and just the right amount of creepy. The tension between Thea and Maria was SO fun to read full of passive aggressive politeness, hidden agendas and “omg get the F OUT of that house” moments. Why 4 stars? A couple of twists felt a bit extra even for this spicy murder stew and I wanted a tiny bit more from Thea emotionally BUT it was still such a ride and I genuinely had no clue what was coming next.

This was my first Valentine book but I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I really liked the additions of the recipes throughout, they really added that special element to the book that made it that much more interactive with the audience. I also liked the breaks I also enjoyed the changes in POV and differing chapters for each character.

Did I see the twists coming? Yeah but I feel like if you are an avid thriller/mystery reader, there were probably enough clues for you to piece it together in the first place. Despite that, I still very much enjoyed this book and would love to read more of Valentines books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Viper for this ARC.

Maria Capello and husband Damien have run their restaurant Polpette Della Nonna in Woodstock, New York together until Damien disappeared one night in 1996 after a party. He left a suicide note but rumours remained - did Maria kill him after all? In the intervening 30 years Maria has become a celebrity chef in her own right with countless successful cookery shows and cookbooks to her name.

Thea Woods, editor at Hanes House, has once made a mistake that cost her dearly so when her boss calls her into the office, she doesn't expect good news. But Maria Capello has written a memoir and she wants none other than Thea to be her editor. This is so unexpected that Thea doesn't dare say no when Maria invites her to her house to read the book there, to prevent any leaks. She does get spooked though when there is no internet and she has to surrender her phone. Plus this farm has a creepy slaughterhouse right next door, and a pale little girl called Ava who is Maria's granddaughter.

The story is weird and gets going very slowly. There is obviously a reason why Thea has been asked to edit Maria's book, and when we finally get there, the twists are so outrageous that I had to laugh out loud in disbelief. Maria turns out to be such a horror show, you have to ask yourself who hurt the author. And the secret ingredient - eugh. Plus I really didn't need the actual recipes disrupting the flow of the book - if you must have them, put them at the end please.

There is a lot about female rage and revenge against bad men but it makes the women very bad too - some things women shouldn't learn from their mothers! There's a lot about mothers and fathers and how they shape us, plus what we would do for family. If you like really twisty dark thrillers with a horror element, you might eat this up, but it helps to have a strong stomach!

3.5 stars

This book was literally made for me. So that will affect the way I review it but we’re all biased in our own way. The title and cover are very eye-catching and promise a good time (if you like twisted media like I do). Happy to report it didn't disappoint. Actually, the more I think about the book, the more I like it. That's the biggest sign that tells me a book deserves 5 stars. I also want to talk about it with everyone but have to wait until it’s available for them to read it.
Weird piece of advice, though. It's important to have snacks around while reading because this book made me so hungry. All that talk about the beautiful Italian food…my mouth was watering. And it has actual recipes! The author didn’t lie when naming the book “cookbook”. It was a fun surprise.

Seeing the structure of the book made me laugh because ever since a very popular book used it, it seems no other book can. According to some book reviewers, anyway. As if it hasn’t been done for a long time. But it’s such a good structure/formula, I totally understand why authors go back to it. And the way it was done in this case led us to this feeling of not knowing how much we could trust the narrators. That adds to the mystery but can be a little annoying, of course. I don’t feel like it was done in a “let’s just confuse every reader” way but with the intention of making the story a bit more complex. The mystery itself is pretty simple: did Maria kill her husband or not? The actual plot isn’t as simple. And that’s why I feared the ending could be a little convoluted and not satisfying. I’ve been burnt before. It’s so hard to have an original twist, authors can overcomplicate the endings just to shock the readers. I also kept reading and wondering what answers we were going to get or if we would end up not getting all the real information. But the moment I read the last word, I laughed and thought it was brilliantly done.
Of course, as it happens with every mystery, not everyone will be satisfied with the resolution. I can only speak about my personal experience and it was positive. I was trying to read the book slowly, since I hadn’t been feeling so great due to a virus I caught, but I had to read the second half of the book all in one day because I needed answers! The moment part 3 started and I noticed what was going on, I accepted I wasn’t going to sleep until I finished the book. And when it was almost 2 am, I finally had my answers and could sleep like a baby.

I never explain the premise in my reviews because I post them where those premises can be found so what’s the point? It’s repetitive. But I will say there’s a lot more to the book than what the premise explains. There’s the mystery and then there’s a lot of social commentary. A huge aspect is the talk about motherhood and as someone who doesn’t plan on ever becoming a mother, this could have been a negative but it wasn’t. At all. The way different types of mothers are being analysed and compared is extremely interesting. How we were raised will obviously affect the way we raise children as well, in both a positive and negative way. Thea as a character is a textbook example of having the best intentions but maybe not always doing the right thing. Her relationship with her mother affects every aspect of her life and the way that links with Maria’s story was unexpected but brilliantly done. I highlighted every mention of society's expectations for mothers and fathers. All the differences.
But also, I have to say that the book doesn’t tell us what to think about topics. Some of the characters might have more extreme views on different topics, but it doesn’t come across as preachy. It just shows people have different opinions. And that it isn’t all just black or white. I appreciated that.

Can I say I stan Maria? I think anyone picking up a book with this title will allow me to do that. The author must also know this is a reaction that readers will have after reading it. I would not say whether she killed her husband or not because that’d be a huge spoiler but I kept reading and thinking “could we blame her if she did?”. And the thing is that Damien is a secondary character we see only through the POV of other people. Still, the author manages to add nuance to his character but I finished the book thinking he was the problem. Men like him are the problem. And female rage is very trendy at the moment because the world is fully realising they’re the problem and saying “good for her” very often. Through the character of Thea, we also get to explore this idea of men and how they approach being a partner and a parent. As I said, very interesting and nuanced despite how extreme the content is in this book. But Thea herself is learning throughout the story so being in her first person POV makes us feel a big part of her character growth. I felt so proud of her at a specific point in her journey.

Speaking of extreme content, I love being unsettled by a horror or mystery book. Isn’t that the feeling these books should make us feel? And we crave that experience too, hence why we pick them up rather than going for a fluffy romance. This book plays a lot with some ideas that we don’t really know if they’re true or not but we know they’re a little disturbing. I wouldn’t add this book to a list of very disturbing books personally but I’m desensitised. I still don’t think this book’s content is the most extreme, even if some might find certain scenes too much. But the way certain parts are described can be upsetting for some readers. It’s not the main thing, though. And the story is worth it so even if someone reads about the pigs in the slaughterhouse, for example, and feels overwhelmed, it’s worth going through that feeling to enjoy the rest of the story. But even if it makes some uncomfortable, those scenes were really well written. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been as upsetting.

The side characters are mostly in the story to either add context to specific moments or to be red herrings. I like that. I saw another book by this author is described as “Scream meets Happy Death Day” and I love those fun slasher movies so using a similar formula here works well for me.
They also work to build this idea of how important family is, which plays a big part in the story. And, in general, it creates this comparison between Thea and Maria which is key to understanding the story, the characters and the decisions they might make. I stan Thea too.

I’ll be honest and say I hadn’t heard about this author but I had heard about one of her books before, not knowing who had written it. But when I was maybe 25% done with this book, I already knew I wanted to read the rest of her books. Not knowing yet whether I would like this book or not but the premises sounded so good. As I said multiple times, they sound like the perfect books for me. So I cannot wait to get to those soon.
And as for “The Dead Husband Cookbook”, it gets an emphatic thumbs up from me.

Okay, so The Dead Husband Cookbook was such a wild read! The story follows celebrity chef Maria Capello, who’s finally ready to publish her memoir. And of course, it’s gonna be a bestseller because everyone needs to know what happened to her husband Damien, who was also a famous cook but was presumed dead under weird circumstances. Like?? This sounds like the perfect book! I felt transported right there with the rest of the people trying to find out what’s the deal with this mysterious “secret ingredient” she’s always hinting at.

This book is a mystery/thriller with a lot of juicy twists, and honestly I was hooked the whole time. I loved the addition of actual recipes at the end of Maria's memoir. Loved. Loved. Loved.

If you’re into twisty mysteries with a bit of that dark culinary flair, definitely check this one out!

Thank you NetGalley and Viper publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion! Needless to say, as always, all thoughts are my own and I have not been influenced in any way.

Dead Husband’s Cookbook is a quirky, darkly humorous novel that blends mystery, drama, and a touch of the macabre. Danielle Valentine presents an intriguing premise with some genuinely fun moments and a unique voice. While parts of the story may feel uneven or over-the-top, readers who enjoy unconventional plots and a dash of satire will likely appreciate its charm. It’s not for everyone, but those in the mood for something a little offbeat and different might find it an entertaining read.