‘Maybe it sounds like an overreaction to kill a man because of a few recipes. But you have to understand, they were very, very good recipes.’

This was a fun and twisty thriller, where you think you know how it ends until you actually get to the end. Filled with twists I absolutely didn’t see coming, I had a blast reading this book - meatballs (but from where?) and all.

We follow a disgraced editor as she is given the opportunity of a lifetime - editing the personal memoir of famous celebrity chef Maria Capello. With a television show, cookbooks, and personal sauces, she’s a name everyone knows - just like Martha Sterwart. The only issue? Her husband mysteriously died one night before she became famous and everyone thinks she killed and ate him. Now, she’s planning on addressing the rumors once and for all - and she’ll only speak to Thea Woods. Alone. At her remote farm. Without any access to her cell phone or the internet.

Filled with tension, mystery - and a deadbeat husband at the heart of it all - we get into the mind of Maria Capello to discover what really happened that night her husband died. Did she kill him, or did he really commit suicide like his note implies? And just what, exactly, is in her locked freezer in her house and what is her ‘secret ingredient’ she uses for everything? I went into this book expecting to know the answer to a lot of these questions, but it wasn’t until the end that the mystery was well and truly solved. Maria Capello is a woman of many faces - one to her audience on her television show, one towards her business life, and one that is truly herself. But until the end, we’ll never know just which one is speaking to us, or what will happen next. Truly an exciting ride and one I’d recommend taking.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing this e-ARC.

Rounding up to 5 stars, marked 4.5 on Fable. The family drama in this book!! What an eerie, but also fun read! I’m not one to guess the twists and turns, so I was so pleasantly surprised with how this whole thing wrapped up.

Thea, a book editor coming off of a scandal, was hired specifically by culinary genius Maria Capello to edit her secret, upcoming memoir. This project could very much so change Thea’s life and only catch is that Thea has to be in Maria’s farm house, without outside contact, to edit her book. Maria has always had some mysteries surrounding her that she had never addressed, until now. Thea has no idea what she has gotten herself into.

This was such a fast, fun read. I couldn’t put it down. Thank you NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for this ARC!

Disgraced editor Thea gets the chance of a lifetime when she is handpicked by celebrity, tv personality, chef, author, and super mom, Maria Capello, a woman she's looked up to since she was a child. There's got to be one heck of a catch, though, as Maria has ditched her previous publisher to take a chance on struggling Thea for a tell all memoir. It's easy to envision Maria in either of her kitchens, chilling to think how honed her cousin Hank keeps his cleaver, curious how so many people have wolf eyes and razor sharp canines, disturbing (devastating for those with animal loving hearts) how gruesome some of the slaughterhouse scenes are, and exciting to follow people and tiny trails to figure out the mystery of it all. There are rumors that Maria killed her husband, and everybody's dying to know what her secret ingredient is. Lucky for us, she has plans to let everybody know, after telling us just how much she loves her family.
This book draws you in right away, and while there were a few spelling or grammar errors in my e-ARC, they were few and far between, didn't take away from the reading experience. The atmosphere and pacing worked in tandem to add to the unsettling feeling that continuously builds for Thea the longer she's at the farm. I enjoyed the prose, the characters, the story. And while I enjoyed Maria's recipes for her book, clever girl, they did take me out of the headspace for the rest of the story. It's genius for her to include a recipe to match each chapter, to prove to the world she was more than a great chef's wife, more than a mother, more than a woman copying recipes that had to be Damien's. It's methodical and calculated and I love that extra detail describing the absolute finesse of this mastermind. The only other thing that kept this from being five stars was the predictability of the questions involved. While I was happy to have not deduced each of the mysteries in this book, others were so obvious they were hardly tantalizing (Maria loves to leave her fans salivating!). There's maybe one too many pieces for this puzzle that just seemed a dash too much. Other details, though, I loved reading about (histories, backstories). Is Maria somebody you should look up to? Well, that just depends on your family dynamic.
Really, this story is about one woman's incredible patience to write one hell of a love story. Just maybe not the one you expect.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the e-ARC!

This was a very cleverly written thriller/cookbook that I couldn't put down. I was hooked from the first page and the drama kept me going. Crossing my fingers for a sequel!

OMG I absolutely loved this book! It drew me in from the beginning and I loved the twists as well as the inclusion of recipes. Thank you NetGalley and SourceBooks for this advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

An excellent read for any and all readers! Author comes at you with both barrels and knocks you out of your shoes! Great job fleshing out all the characters. I give this book FIVE stars! Definitely recommend!

I really enjoyed this book! It draws you in fairly fast and keeps you right there all the way through. Very twisty with just enough of a dark unknown to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Add this to your release reading list for August! Thank you to the publisher and Danielle Valentine for the ARC via Netgalley!

Engaging and entertaining. A recommended purchase for collections where crime and thrillers are popular.

This is a weird, quirky book. It’s all over the place from Woman’s lit, cookbook, to mystery to horror. I’m kind of confused.

It fits in well with some of the current streaming entertainment, but I certainly can’t recommend it. I’m not sure about a genre classification. So, certainly not for me.

Thank you Netgalley for this very unusual read.

This story follows book editor Thea who has the opportunity of a lifetime. She is chosen for a reason unknown to her, to edit famous chef Maria Capello’s long awaited memoir. Maria’s husband disappeared 20 years prior and Maria has never talked publicly about it until now.

This book hooked me from the start! I didn’t want to put it down. The story was a little predictable but the concept was so interesting and well done! I loved the mix of Thea’s POV and Maria’s chapters in her book. I also loved having Maria’s recipes throughout the story. It tied in perfectly! I loved this book so much! Highly recommend if you’re looking for a fast paced thriller!

Thank you Netgally for this ARC!

A 3.5 star Recipe for Intrigue with a Pinch of Overcooked Drama

Let me start with a confession: I picked up The Dead Husband Cookbook expecting a quirky blend of culinary chaos and dark humor... something akin to a Sweeney Todd pie with a side of sass. What I got instead was a simmering pot of mystery, seasoned with a celebrity chef’s flair and a dash of “did she or didn’t she?” intrigue. Danielle Valentine’s latest dish, set to hit shelves soon (I snagged an early copy through netgalley—thanks!), is a curious concoction that left me both satisfied and slightly peckish for something more.

The book centers on Maria Capello, a celebrity chef who’s less Gordon Ramsay or Martha Stewart and more Hannibal Lector and Shauna Shipman. She’s built an empire of cookbooks, TV shows, and supermarket sauces, all while keeping mum about the mysterious disappearance of her famous chef husband, Damien, thirty years ago. Now, Maria’s ready to spill the beans—or so she claims—by penning her memoirs. But here’s the twist: she snubs the big publishers and their seven-figure offers, opting instead for a small press with a disgraced editor on the verve of being fired. Why? That’s the question that hooked me, like the smell of garlic sizzling in a pan.

The narrative unfolds like a well-plated dish: visually appealing, with layers of flavor that reveal themselves bite by bite. We get scenes of Maria in her Italian-style kitchen, whipping up recipes that sound delectable and made me hungry at nine in the morning for creamy risottos and herb-crusted lamb—while flashbacks hint at darker times with Damien.

So why only 3.5 stars? Well, the mystery, while tasty, sometimes feels overcooked. And the big reveal—without spoiling it—left me thinking, “Huh, I saw that coming from the appetizer course.” It’s not a dealbreaker, but I wanted a twist that’d make me drop my fork, not just nod politely.

Still, there’s charm here. I could picture Maria in my kitchen, rolling her eyes at my sad knife skills while regaling me with tales of Damien’s ego. It’s a book for those who love a good whodunit with a side of cannibalism.

Would I recommend it? Sure, especially if you’re the type who’d binge Hannibal and think his dishes look tasty. The Dead Husband Cookbook isn’t a five-star feast, but it’s a solid 3.5... tasty, entertaining, and worth a nibble. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a tart to bake.

a very strong 4 stars!

woah...

this book kept me hooked the entire time! i thought the premise was intriguing and unique. the family drama mixed in with the suspense just kept building and was SO GOOD. at first, it started out very eerie and mysterious but boy oh boy did it shift to thrilling very quickly. i had some theories about the twists and i was probably about 50% correct on some of them. some moments almost make you feel like you are reading from an unreliable narrator which really got me thinking.

very creepy, fun, and dark (such a strange combo of words to string together, but alas it was)

also, LOVED the inclusion of recipes and lowkey want to try some of them out!!!

thank you to NetGalley & SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for this thrilling arc!

The way this book had me SCREAMING at the protagonist. Part thriller, part cookbook, and more twists than a mountain road. This book is *chef's kiss* I am excited to try out some of the recipes in this book because it had my stomach growling and doing flips.

First of all, thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark! And NetGalley for this arc!

Can we say that the cover of this book is STUNNING and draws you in? That is what made me immediately click on it and hit “request.” The book turned out to be very dark and atmospheric, with a laugh mixed in too.

I definitely did not expect that final twist!!

This book kept me going till the end. I didn't always see Maria as the bad one. I did think she was behind her husband disappearing. There was always the thought in the back of my mind if they were really making the food for the recipes with people that she had killed. I didn't see the son shooting him though. Each family does have their issues and ways to deal with it. The way that the book was put together was very clever. The names of the recipes had me giggling as well. If there was a follow up to this book I would defiantly read it.

Thank you to Netgalley for this arc. The cover to this book is awesome and made me want to read it. I highly recommend reading it and it was really good.

I received an ARC of this ebook from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review. This book was very dark, which kept me hooked the entire way through. I loved all of the twists and the suspense was well written. Thea does not come across as very smart, which annoyed me but was probably necessary to advance the plot line. Overall, this is a very good thriller/horror that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a creepy read.

if you’ve ever watched a cooking show and thought, wow, i wonder what that secret ingredient is?—let me assure you, you don’t want to know.

Maria Capello is the kind of chef whose knives are just a little too sharp, whose family is just a little too secretive, and whose long-missing husband is just a little too...well, let’s just say "unaccounted for." enter Thea Woods, a writer who should probably have read a few more true crime novels before accepting a gig in Maria’s secluded estate—because the Capellos have been keeping their family recipes (and their family secrets) under lock and key for decades.

this book is a deliciously unsettling blend of mystery, gothic horror, and psychological suspense. the atmosphere is so thick with tension you could spread it on toast, and Maria herself? let’s just say i wouldn’t accept a dinner invitation from her anytime soon. The slow unraveling of the truth—both through Maria’s storytelling and Thea’s increasingly claustrophobic reality—left me absolutely hooked. the horror elements and the twist was INSANE. subtle but chilling, like the feeling you get when you realize there’s one too many chairs at the dinner table. and that final reveal? i’ll never look at a "signature dish" the same way again.

highly recommend if you like your thrillers dark, your protagonists in way over their heads, and your food metaphors served with a side of existential dread.

thank you SOURCEBOOKS Landmark!

I enjoyed the premise of this book and, amazingly, was surprised by the final twist. The characters were interesting and I really enjoyed the inclusion of the recipes throughout, to add to the story.
Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

3.75 stars

I really enjoyed this book. Thea is down on her luck and lands the job of editing a celebrity chef. The celebrity chef husband went missing 30 years ago and gossip is sure Maria did it. As Thea works with her she starts discovering secrets that could rock not only Maria's world but her own. I really enjoyed all the twists and how everything came together .
This is my first book by this author and won't be my last