A thriller that hits the target.
A HITWOMAN’S GUIDE TO REDUCING HOUSEHOLD DEBT
by Mark Mupotsa-Russell
Affirm Press, September 2024
(via Kaplan/DeFiore)
Olivia Hodges used to do horrible things – back when she worked for a Spanish crime syndicate – but she fled that life and moved home to Australia, building a family in the hippie, hipster community of the Dandenong Ranges.
When a small-time criminal gang brings tragedy to her family, superstitious Olivia believes it’s the universe demanding payment for her crimes. She wants revenge, but has to get it without adding to her karmic debt. So she creates situations where these bad men get themselves killed through their anger, ego and greed – all while trying to mislead the cops long enough to finish what she started.
Olivia’s voice is astounding: she’s cynical, witty and deeply human in a way that never feels forced. It’s quite a feat to write a novel that’s all-in-one package—a deliciously tangled thriller and a searing depiction of a marriage in crisis—and to make it so funny.
Mark Mupotsa-Russell lives in Australia. Before this book, he was a screenwriter, film reviewer cocktail columnist and PR consultant. He lives among the trees with his art therapist/superstar wife and hilarious son. When not writing, he obsesses about movies and martial arts.

Willa believes she’s cursed. Now bad luck has followed her up a mountain.
At the dawn of the 11th Century in a small Icelandic settlement, these words, daubed in blood, herald the arrival of a killer. Soon, a spate of murders threatens the fragile peace between pagans and a growing Christian minority. Arinbjorn, a young pagan farmer resolves to track down the killer before the community is permanently torn apart. His investigations will draw in Freya, an isolated housewife whose secrets could either condemn or free her.
Alex is a solicitor trying to keep afloat in a struggling London legal aid practice. When she takes on a new case for a Moldovan woman whose younger sister’s body was found in the Thames, Alex assumes Natalia’s story will be the usual sadly predictable tale of addiction and poverty.
Scraping rock-bottom after a painful divorce, Kate hardly bats an eyelid when her childhood best friend whisks her away to Ibiza at a moment’s notice. That’s Lena Fontaine, after all – movie star, sex symbol, supportive friend. But then the news breaks that Jimmy Carvell, Lena’s much older, long-time co-star – and rumoured lover – has been shot in his London home, and the internet explodes.