Book Review - An Ethical Guide To Murder by Jenny Morris

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Title: An Ethical Guide to Murder

Author: Jenny Morris

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: 16th January 2025

Rating: 5 Stars

How to Kill Your Family meets The Power in this entertaining and thought-provoking read, that asks:

 

If you had the power between life and death, what would you do?

 

Thea has a secret.

She can tell how long someone has left to live just by touching them.

Not only that, but she can transfer life from one person to another – something she finds out the hard way when her best friend Ruth suffers a fatal head injury on a night out.

Desperate to save her, Thea touches the arm of the man responsible when he comes to check if Ruth is all right. As Ruth comes to, the man quietly slumps to the ground, dead.

Thea realises that she has a godlike power: but despite deciding to use her ability for good, she can’t help but sometimes use it for her own benefit.

Boss annoying her at work? She can take some life from them and give it as a tip to her masseuse for a great job.

Creating an ‘Ethical Guide to Murder’ helps Thea to focus her new-found skills.

But as she embarks on her mission to punish the wicked and give the deserving more time, she finds that it isn’t as simple as she first thought.

How can she really know who deserves to die, and can she figure out her own rules before Ruth’s borrowed time runs out?

Woah, what on earth did I just read, just wow! This is a book that will absorb you, while also making you ponder big ethical dilemmas. 

And I am astounded to learn that this is a debut novel.  Makes me very excited for this author's writing career if this is the level of book she is writing as a starter. 

Ok you have to suspend your belief in reality to understand and totally believe Thea's power, I believe this is distinctly more paranormal than anything I tend to read, but I was drawn in from the title.  And after starting to read, I just had to keep reading to find out what would happen. 

And I never ever ever predicted that ending, although it makes total and utter sense. 

If you were able to kill people undetected, but also able to give additional life to others would you be able to decide who was deserving? That is what Thea is struggling with throughout this book, while also having to live a double life. 

There is her best friend who she is suddenly able to save from a very premature death, there are people she is completely convinced she should kill, and there is a man egging her on having discovered what she is able to do.  

This will certainly get you thinking, and I have no idea what I would do in Thea's position, besides attempt to avoid all physical contact with everyone for the rest of my life. 

Utterly brilliant and easily the best book I've read so far in 2025! 

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.