28 July 2026

A big thank you to Jonathan Ball Publishers for providing me with a review copy.

Mr and Mrs Dixon Hide a Body is Jennifer Holdich’s second novel, and what a wonderfully entertaining read it is. I was incredibly excited to pick this one up, and I’m delighted to say it exceeded my expectations.

James and Daisy Dixon are an unusual couple. James is a successful businessman who is treated almost like royalty whenever he returns to his hometown. Daisy, on the other hand, is a small-town girl who lost her mother at a young age, accidentally poisoned some of her school friends, and has never quite managed to fit in with the local community.

Years later, Daisy finds herself trapped in an unhappy marriage. She spends much of her time imagining all the different ways she could murder James, although planning the perfect crime turns out to be much more complicated than she expected.

When the couple accidentally kills a man, they are forced to put their differences aside and work together to hide the body before anyone discovers what they have done. What follows is a wonderfully chaotic mix of dark humour, mounting tension, and increasingly ridiculous situations.

At the heart of the novel is a manipulative and controlling husband and a wife he has consistently underestimated. Jennifer Holdich does a fantastic job of bringing these characters to life. It took no time at all for me to dislike James and start rooting wholeheartedly for Daisy, whose small acts of rebellion—like secretly hiding her favourite snacks from her controlling husband—made her instantly relatable and surprisingly easy to cheer for.

Daisy was undoubtedly my favourite character. Despite making some morally questionable decisions, she is impossible not to support. I also loved the way the author described Daisy’s wonderfully eccentric homemade outfits. I could picture every colourful creation so vividly, and more than once they left me smiling, if not laughing out loud.

The humour is what truly makes this novel shine. Jennifer Holdich perfectly balances the darker premise with witty dialogue and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, creating a story that is as suspenseful as it is entertaining. It is one of those rare books that has you wondering how the characters are possibly going to get out of the mess they’ve created while thoroughly enjoying every twist along the way.

This book absolutely delivered on the promise of its blurb. It was witty, clever, and incredibly entertaining from beginning to end. I loved every minute of it, and my five-star rating reflects just how highly I recommend it.