At a Glance
• Author: Bella Mackie • Genre: Thriller & Psychological Suspense • Books: 2 • Active: 2021 to 2023
Grace Bernard is in prison, for a murder she didn't commit. The six she did commit are another matter. That premise lets Bella Mackie write a crime novel that is also a scathing satire of wealth and privilege.
Mackie's craft is voice: Grace is so funny and so certain that readers find themselves rooting for her. What a Way to Go applies similar wit to a wealthy man's death and the family around him.
Her books prove that humour and menace are close cousins, and that a great narrator can carry a reader anywhere.
Lessons for Writers
1. Know your reader, Bella writes with total clarity about who the book is for.
2. Make the hook personal, every premise is anchored in a character's private stakes.
3. Build a world readers return to, recurring themes turn single books into a career.
4. Keep evolving, the distance from How to Kill Your Family to What a Way to Go shows deliberate growth.
Behind the Writer
Bella Mackie is a British journalist and author whose debut novel, How to Kill Your Family, became a Sunday Times number one bestseller. Its savagely funny narrator, Grace Bernard, plots revenge on the wealthy family that abandoned her. Mackie followed it with the darkly comic mystery What a Way to Go. Bella Mackie (born 1983) comes from London, England.
Milestones
• How to Kill Your Family: Sunday Times #1 bestseller.
• Television adaptation in development.
• Author of the memoir Jog On.
• Award-winning journalist.
Your Reading Order
1. How to Kill Your Family (2021)
2. What a Way to Go (2023)
Key Takeaway
Study Bella Mackie not just as a reader but as a writer: the craft choices on every page are a masterclass in connecting with a global audience.
