This book explores how axes were used as a tool and for murders from ancient history to more present day cases. It spent more time on the history of the axe as a tool than I expected from the title. However, this was very well researched with an accessible writing style that pulled me in. The book delved into some lesser known cases in history as well as famous ones like Lizzie Borden. Some of the explored stories were more interesting than others, but I feel like that tends to happen in books that cover a lot of different cases. I wish there'd been some illustrations of some of the axes. I can see this appealing to true crime fans and history buffs alike.

Okay so, the book is interesting. It’s essentially what it claims to be, a history of the axe murder from ancient times to now. However, I feel that the book’s 300 pages are simply not enough for the history to be concise. Previous reviews mention the lack of certain notable crimes like the Axeman of New Orleans. James is a good writer and her style is very accessible (albeit sometimes confusing). BUT I think this is just too short to be really good. I know long true crime is perceived as exhausting but this one needed a lot more meat. Very interesting what information is in the book though.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: May 13, 2025
“Whack Job” by Rachel McCarthy-James is part true crime, part historical nonfiction but is it one hundred percent unique.
McCarthy-James’ book goes all the way back to the very first murder we have on record, through the Ancient Egyptians, Indigenous tribes and the infamous Tudor family (without missing the incomparable Lizzie Borden of course) and right on through to the current century that all have one thing in common- the axe.
Each chapter starts with a breakdown of information on one of humanity’s earliest tools that is still used today, with uses in farming, on ships and many others- the handy axe. These segments, too, go chronologically, introducing readers to the very first tools that humans used as axes, right up through to their current iterations.
The early historical murders were more educational than entertaining for me, but the facts McCarthy-James presents are novel and obscure, which caught my interest. (For example, the earliest known human skull that suffered a tragic head wound was so ancient it predated Homo sapiens. And if a human is hit on the parts of the head that can be covered up with a baseball cap, it is usually assumed that someone else was to blame, as accidental human injury does not cause damage to that part of the skull- neat right?) Once Lizzie Borden entered the picture, and the crimes presented were more popular and notable, I was already enraptured.
Rachel McCarthy-James is a co-author on “The Man on the Train”, which was a story I stumbled upon purely by accident but ended up loving, so reading “Whack Job” was a no-brainer for me. I love McCarthy-James’ sarcastic wit, which sprinkles the pages in both of her books, as it is not often that I laugh out loud while reading about axe murderers.
“Whack Job” is unlike any non-fiction I’ve read before, and it doesn’t quite fit into any specific genre, but instead balances on the edge of at least two or three. However, “Job” is informational, gritty, engaging and smart and whatever the genre is, Rachel McCarthy-James stands out.

This should have been a podcast. The book format doesn’t work as well as a book. There’s not a whole bunch of cohesion here. It has funny moments though. Those I really enjoyed.

I like the quirky stuff. If you do, you’ll enjoy this one.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. all opinions are my own.

This was a miss for me, but I think it's more a matter of the marketing being off than the book itself. Although the title is somewhat misleading as well. I only made it about halfway through before I had to put it down, but this would be closer to a history of the axe than a history of axe murder. If it's a history of axe murder, it's missing some pretty important axe murderers.

I also found the tone a little jarring. When I saw the title, I cracked up laughing, but most of the writing was very academic and pretty dry. Every once in a while, there would be something funny, but it really didn't land because it felt so out of place against the overall tone.

I think this could benefit from spending a little more time determining the book's audience, adjusting the tone, and marketing it appropriately. I appreciate you offering me the eARC!

My thoughts on this book were not what I was expecting. I expected to read a book about the history of murders by axe - not the actual history of the axe....if this makes sense? Lots of ax info...not much murder info and that's what I was here for which is why I agree with most reviewers that the title was a bit misleading. Overall an interesting read, just not what was expected.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Both quite what I was expecting out of this book by the description given. However it was an interesting historical account with some murders thrown in for the timelines.
Definitely well researched too.

This book hardly met my expectations but it was still well researched so for that I'll give it a solid 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 stars. I was originally interested in this book because of the fun title and my knowledge of the Lizzie Borden case. I expected this book to have more humor and antidotal moments but this felt more like a research paper - which I can totally appreciate but it's just not what I was hoping for.

I agree with many of the other reviews that say the book was informative and easy to follow! Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

Of course, I was intrigued and amused by the title! This book traces the development of the ax through time, pairing it with a murder in a related period. Some of the early descriptions of the ax were a little too bogged down in detail for me; I didn't care about the tool itself as much as I was interested in the true-crime aspect. Later chapters offered a better flow. The book was informative without being flat and it was an interesting read.

One of the most interesting nonfiction books I've ever read. The research and plotting was well done and true to the topic. As a society we tend to think murder and violence are such new concepts. This proves those thoughts false.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this wacking good book about a tool that was probably in many ways the key to early man's survival, a tool that went from chopping wood to chopping enemies, or innocent people as used in many heinous cases of murder through history.

When my parents first moved from their 6 story apartment in the Bronx up to the wilds of Connecticut, the first thing my father bought was an axe. My mother brings this up every Flag Day, as that is the day the moved, and how my father was bound and determined to get that axe. There was a fireplace, but most of the heat came from the furnace downstairs, one that was already as old as the house. The lot was abutted by forests, but the land was flat with only two trees near the house, a crabapple tree, and a dying peach tree. However this was the country, though it was a residential block, and an axe was needed. Axes have been used for a long time, to cut trees, to shave skins, to hammer things into place. And hammer heads off. Axes were tools, signs of authority, weapons to secure one's rule, and to wipe out families when used by a darker and more disturbed section of the human race. This book tells their story. Whack Job:A History of Axe Murder by Rachel McCarthy James is a history of the axe from murder in the first, and the first murdered body, to tombs, to holding power, keeping power, and the blood that has been spent in both stories and in real life.

The title is a bit of a misnomer as this is more a history of times with axes, in addition to details about famous crimes with axes. This isn't a Lifetime movie, or podcast about true crime with a cutting edge to it. The book begins with the author's interest, writing a book about a famous transient who traveled the rails, coming to small towns and using an axe to muder families. The author than goes into the mythology of the axe, how papers loved to talk about axe murders to sell papers, before going way back in time, to a burial pit with a body. A body that seems to be the oldest found, at least so far, to show that they were murdered with an axe. From there we move forward, to China and a woman ruler whose tomb was never broke into, and her numerous axes showing both her power, her ability to rule, and the ruthlessness in which she did so. To Egypt and pharaohs killed by axes, changing history. To England and the use of the axe in executions to win a King an heir, and to kill off those who complained. Lizzie Borden and her tale of woe, and of another woman in Iceland who used male pride and an axe to wipe out enemies imagined.

A book with a lot of history and a clever way of telling it . I can see where some people would be a little upset thinking they were getting a book about serial killers, willing to clutch at their pearls about stories of chopping and blood, and learning about Chinese history. However I found this book interesting, and enjoyed it quite a bit. James is a good writer, able to talk about various forms of axes, wounds, and bits of history quite well. The setup is interesting as are the periods covered. Some of the humour could have gotten the axe, but I can see where in a book that can get a little grim, a joke is necessary. The mentions in media about axes was also well done, with examples that fit the narrative quite well. Not the book I expected but one I really got into.

A nice mix of crime, history and tool use, with a story that offers a lot of facts, and interesting bits of trivia. I like these kind of books, as I love to learn something new, and dropping quips about axes does make for different conversations. Or ends conversations. This is the first book I have read by Rachel McCarthy James, but I look forward to more.

A world history told by a True Crime aficionado becomes a history of ax murders, natch. According to other reviews, this book is very much a basic, 101 intro to ax murder, since apparently it doesn't cover <i>enough</i> ax murders, and of the right type, which says a lot about the True Crime fans.

Going back to the dawn of human evolution and ending in 2022, the book covers the many uses of an ax, the many types of axes, and how and why axes have always been in easy reach.

Pre-homo sapien peoples, Vikings, American colonists, Chinese empresses, and more, axes pop up all over the world as both tool and weapon, as a symbol of power and a symbol of savagery. As fascinating look at world history.

Whack Job explores the axe as both a tool and a weapon, tracing its role in human history from prehistoric murder to battlefield brutality and infamous executions. Through gripping true-crime accounts, it examines how this simple tool evolved alongside society, shaping both conflict and culture. This compelling study reveals how even our most violent impulses are woven into the stories we tell about the past and ourselves.

From the description, I was expecting this to be accounts of when the axe was used to murder someone and why. Some of the accounts shared are that, but it was a bit of a mixed bag about murders committed with an axe, people who must have been powerful because they were buried with an axe, and people who were executed by an axe. The only thing that connected them was that an axe is mentioned at some point. There were several times I was confused about why a story was being told.

Some of the true crimes were interesting, and it was what I was expecting. I thought this would be an unbiased factual approach to what led to the axe being used, but the author frequently offered her opinion on the matter.

Overall, it was interesting, if not exactly what I was expecting. True crime readers may enjoy this one.

This is a fabulous title and an interesting idea. The concept of axe murderers has morphed into a joke in modern times but it certainly wasn’t to those who were killed by these useful tools.

The subtitle of this book is “A History of Axe Murder” which implies that this will be historical true crime. The main problem is that it is a mishmash: a history of axes and similar tools, a superficial description of different historical events where axes were used to kill people, including state-sanctioned executions. There is very little of what I would identify as “true crime.”

The author is enthusiastic and writes with humor and it is apparent that she did a huge amount of research to find the different stories about axe killings, dating back to hundreds of thousands of years ago. It was interesting to read about the different ways axes have been used to symbolize power, the fact that human sacrifice has been and will seemingly always be a part of humanity, and many other tidbits of our depressing state of existence.

There was a lack of cohesion; it felt like rather random stories from different epochs, describing instances of where someone was killed with an axe, not a book about axe murders.

If the reader goes in knowing this, then there will be a bigger chance of not being confused or disappointed.

"State violence performed with an axe is not necessarily the same as axe murder as an act of interpersonal violence."

And yet most of the book is about "state violence performed with an axe" and not axe murders. It's only the last couple chapters where you really get into that, despite the book claiming to be a history of axe murder. It's more of small snippets of different points in history where there also happen to be axes.

For some reason, I expected this to be humorous like Mary Roach's work, but it was not. Most of the book was boring history with a lot of names and some dates to keep up with and the reader is sometimes expected to know people and places with no explanation. At one point the author neglected to use BCE so the dates were going in the wrong direction and it was distracting. A lot of the book felt like a student trying to meet word count by being unnecessarily verbose.

Some of the chapters don't have to do with death by axe. Washington got a chapter solely because of the story of him cutting down a cherry tree.

The author says "a lot of forensic advances, even recent ones like blood spatter, are downright stupid" and I don't know how to take that in any way besides the author doesn't believe in forensic science, which is pretty stupid for somebody writing a murder book.

There were at least two spots where somebody was called the wrong name, despite being called the correct name in the sentence before or after. There were also multiple spots where it seemed like a word or two was missing, though that could have been the formatting on my phone.

TLDR; cool concept, bad execution.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

I thought this would be more fun - from the title, it seemed like James would have more of a sense of humor in her writing. There are some places where humor shows through, but this did end up being a lot drier than I thought it would be.

However, I did text multiple people about a line in this book and have been having an extended debate about whether triage counts as ritual human sacrifice for *several* hours - so it does fulfill my secondary reason for reading nonfiction (having cool talking points).

I probably wouldn't recommend this as a nonfiction to people who are mainly fiction readers, but I think people who read a lot of non-fiction will enjoy it!

This title definitely caught my attention. A book about axe murder? Why the heck not? I especially appreciated the author's take on Lizzie Borden. She's a local legend. The other chapters and time periods were also quite interesting. The Icelandic saga was another favorite. I appreciate the level of research the author conducted, especially in the cases of the earlier historical eras.

This is a short book and a fast read. I was entertained even if it wasn't ground breaking. The general topics give a taste of areas where the reader can go down paths to look for more information, which is the general goal for compilations of this sort.

Axe murders throughout history, from prehistoric mass graves in Spain, to axe-wielding warrior royalty of antiquity, the to the lurid tabloid accounts of the 19th and 20th centuries. We also learn about the humble axe itself, and the factors that cause it to go from utilitarian tool to weapon in crimes of passion. I liked that it managed to strike a balance between brainy (there is lots of talk about the role axes came to occupy following industrialization and mass production) and irreverent (one of the epigraphs is a line from an Insane Clown Posse song).

Interestingly enough, the chapter about Lizzie Borden, the most famous suspected axe murderer in history, is the weakest. It felt like something from an amateur true crime blog: basic details about the murder are peppered throughout the chapter instead of putting the important stuff first, the author spends a lot chapter space speculating as to what actually happened.

Very interesting topic in true crime that I had never thought would be this interesting to me. Covers all the big cases and even some I was unaware of and even makes learning about murder a fun experience.

This was hard to get into. The author starts out with the history of axes as a weapon in ancient Egypt. I had no in-depth knowledge of the various rulers during this time frame, so tough reading. Things picked up after the first chapter, when individual instances of axe murders were described but with a bit too much snarkiness and mild humor for my tastes. It's a short book, so I was grateful for that. True crime is a genre I read on occasion but I didn't much care for this book.