Kiara Lui – The Unseen Library

Publisher: Allen & Unwin Australia (Trade Paperback – 4 November 2025)

Series: Kill Your Brother – Book Three

Length: 368 pages

My Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

The most relatable new Australian crime book for all office drones is the awesome and addictive Kill Your Boss by the always impressive Jack Heath, an exceptional read that proves very hard to put down.

There are a lot of talented and entertaining Australian authors writing outstanding novels these days, but one of my favourites due to his consistently clever and entertaining reads is the wonderful Jack Heath. Hailing from my home city of Canberra, Heath has been entertaining Australian readers for years with his interesting combination of complex works. I am a massive fan of his amazing crime fiction novels, which includes his spectacularly over-the-top Hangman series (including Hideout and Headcase).

In recent years, some of Heath’s best work has been some amazing and twisted murder mysteries set in small-town Australia. The series started with Kill Your Brother (one of my favourite Australian novels of 2021), a clever read that saw a damaged protagonist imprisoned and forced to choose between killing her guilty brother or dying alongside him. I had an outstanding time with Kill Your Brother, and I eagerly dove into the loosely connected sequel, Kill Your Husbands. Featuring two of the protagonists from Kill Your Brother as they get drawn into a devastating case involving a series of murders after some ill-advised partner-swapping. I deeply enjoyed this fantastic sequel, and it ended up being one of my favourite Australian books of 2023. Naturally I was very keen when I saw that Heath had a third book in this series coming out in late 2025 with the awesome title of Kill Your Boss. I dove into Kill Your Boss as soon as I could, and it proved to be another great read with a very fun plot behind it.

Plot Synopsis:

What would it take to turn you into a killer?

Detective Sergeant Kiara Lui has just broken up a loud brawl between two blokes in front of the Warrigal Public Library. But just as she’s about to leave the scene, a man inexplicably plummets from the sky and slams into the bike rack right in front of her, dead.

Neville Adams was the head of library services, hated by staff, borrowers, or in fact anybody who had ever met him. Kiara quickly seals the building, trapping everyone who might have pushed him off the roof. She expects to have someone in custody within minutes.

Instead, the investigation becomes the most challenging and dangerous of her career as it spirals outward, ensnaring half the town. It seems that Neville was connected to the disappearance of Emmylou Chisholm – a case that Kiara could never solve, and that has haunted her ever since.

If the killer isn’t found fast, the first two victims won’t be the last . . .

Compelling, propulsive and darkly funny, this is a perfect follow-up to Jack Heath’s bestselling Kill Your Husbands.

Kill Your Boss was a particularly amazing novel from Jack Heath and one of the better pieces of Australian fiction I had the pleasure of reading in 2025. Featuring an extremely compelling crime fiction narrative with some fantastic dark humour behind it, Kill Your Boss was extremely fun to get through, and I had a brilliant time with this latest twisted offering from Heath.

Heath cleverly builds around the fantastic and entertaining concept of a villainous and wildly disliked boss getting murdered. Once again set in the small Australian town of Warrigal, Kill Your Boss has an instantly great opening with the victim, Neville Adams, plummeting to the ground from the library roof, right in front of main police protagonist Detective Sergeant Kiara Lui. Kiara, who previously served as a supporting character in Kill Your Brother and the main investigator of Kill Your Husbands, quickly takes charge of the case, locking down the library and hoping to identify the killer amongst the people trapped inside. However, Kiara soon hits a wall with her investigation when it becomes apparent that everyone in the library, especially Adams’s employees, hated him. With multiple motives and no witnesses, Kiara starts diving into the crime, assisted by rookie cop Ben Higgens.

This first part of Kill Your Boss sets the story up nicely, and you are soon quite hooked on the case, especially as the novel breaks apart to follow either the police or one of the suspects. Thanks to this split, you get a good insight into the compelling investigation, while also examining the combined motives of the potential suspects, each of whom are covering something up, including involvement in an alternate case that the protagonist is familiar with. Heath keeps the story moving quickly and effectively, and there is some additional grim humour as it becomes apparent that multiple characters tried to kill Adams, but only one succeeded. This perfectly leads up to the final third of Kill Your Boss, as all the various motives come to light, and the various suspects are whittled down thanks to some additional gruesome killings before the big conclusion. I think that Heath set up this entire mystery extremely well, and the various red herrings ensured you were guessing right up to the end.

Heath once again manages to pull together a brilliant book that is somehow fun and twisted at the same time. Featuring a series of murders that starts with a very relatable sentiment around bad bosses, Kill Your Boss effectively builds up a complex mystery that has a lot of fantastic layers to it. This mystery is then well supported by the author’s great use of multiple different perspectives, especially as you get invested in all the complex suspects and their lives. This tight and entertaining story hits hard while also presenting the reader with dark humour, especially when it comes to motives for murder, and the result is a particularly addictive book that you can’t turn away from. Heath also successfully endeavours to make Kill Your Boss a particularly open book to all sorts of readers, from those looking for an amusing Australian mystery with a great small-town setting, to those readers already familiar with the author’s wicked humour and aptitude for murder.

While part of a larger series that started with Kill Your Brother, Kill Your Boss is primarily a standalone read, which I honestly think enhances the story, as the various new characters, as well as the existing protagonist, get a lot more prominence without tying the narrative down to previous events. Detective Sergeant Kiara Lui once again works extremely well as the book’s primary investigator, and it was interesting to see her take more of a leading role in this novel. While Kiara was an excellent primary protagonist, as well as a mentor to a new police character, it is the other larger-than-life supporting characters who make Kill Your Boss very impressive. This includes a truly despicable murder victim whom you honestly don’t feel too sympathetic to, especially after the flashbacks. This excellent use of a villainous victim adds some great complexity to the plot, especially when it’s revealed that multiple people tried to kill him simultaneously. This victim is well matched by the various suspects, who serve as supporting perspective characters in the plot. Without giving too much away, each of the suspects in this novel is very entertaining, and the range of complex interactions and grudges they held made for a very entertaining read. I particularly enjoyed the final revelation about why the main killer committed the first murder, which fits the overall entertaining mood of Kill Your Boss perfectly, and was a perfect endcap on these outstanding characters.

Jack Heath continues to showcase why he is one of Australia’s most entertaining crime fiction authors. Featuring a brilliant plot loaded with outrageous revelations and supporting characters, Kill Your Boss was a wonderfully addictive novel from start to finish. Compelling, twisted and just so much fun, Kill Your Boss is a very impressive read, and it was easily one of the top Australian novels of 2025.

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Kill Your Husbands Cover

Publisher: Allen & Unwin Australia (Trade Paperback – 28 November 2023)

Series: Kill Your Brother – Book Two

Length: 384 pages

My Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

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One of my favourite Australian authors, the scarily good Jack Heath, returns with another twisted and brilliant thriller, Kill Your Husbands.

Easily one of the best Australian thriller authors at the moment has to be the always impressive Jack Heath. Hailing from my hometown of Canberra, Heath has written a compelling range of epic thrillers over the years, all of which have been fun and captivating in their own way. I am a major fan of his Timothy Blake series (check out my reviews for Hideout and Headcase), which follows the gruesome adventures of a murder-solving cannibal. Heath has also produced several other great standalone or Australian series, including his 2021 novel, Kill Your Brother. An intense and shocking thriller that forced a highly damaged protagonist to choose between killing her guilty brother or dying herself, Kill Your Brother was one of the best pieces of Australian fiction in 2021 and I had such a great time reading it. As such, when I saw that Heath had a new Australian thriller coming out this year, I was very excited, especially when I found out it was a sequel to Kill Your Brother. This new book, Kill Your Husbands, had a wicked plot synopsis, and I fell in love with it the moment I read it. One of my most anticipated books for the second half of 2023, Kill Your Husbands was a shocking read that I had so much fun with.

It was supposed to be a relaxing weekend away for three couples, longtime friends since school the six overworked and stressed adults decide to escape their taxing lives for a weekend up in the mountains. With no internet or cell reception, their getaway was supposed to be a quiet time of drinking and bushwalking. However, after the topic of partner-swapping is raised on the first night, the entire mood of the weekend shifts. What starts as a joke soon turns into an elaborate plan to ensure anonymity between partners, with the lights turned off and the men choosing a bedroom at random. No one will know who they’ve been with, and no one will ever be certain if they slept with anyone other than their spouse.

However, when the lights come back on, one of the participants is missing. A search soon reveals their body outside, clearly the victim of a violent attack. With no cell reception and the keys to the cars missing, the remaining five people quickly become suspicious of the other survivors. As the weekend continues and more people begin to disappear and die, old wounds, festering grudges and decaying relationships come to the fore, turning husbands against wives and friend against friend.

Two weeks later, Senior Constable Kiara Lui returns to the murder scene with her girlfriend, Elise. Having interviewed the survivors, Kiara is certain at least one of them is lying and the killer is within her grasp. Kiara knows that the answers lie within the house, but with strange occurrences occurring around the property, one person still missing, and her own girlfriend’s strange behaviour starting to concern her, can Kiara break through all the lies and secrets and find the truth before the killer strikes again?

This was another excellent and thrilling read from Heath, who pulls together another insane, yet highly clever, mystery that you really cannot put down. Making full use of Heath’s outrageous plot, Kill Your Husbands is a dark and twisty novel that I had so much fun reading and which is easily one of the best pieces of Australian fiction I have read all year.

I loved the unique, memorable and very twisted central idea that Heath came up with for Kill Your Husbands, as murderous partner swapping is honestly it was one of the more amusing and outrageous plot focuses I have seen. Starting off with a quick introduction sequence, the reader is soon enthralled in split focus narrative throughout Kill Your Husbands as half the chapters recount the weekend of the murders and the events leading up to the killings, while the rest of the chapters are set after the murders and focus on Senior Constable Kiara Lui, a supporting character from Kill Your Brother, as she attempts to solve the crime. This proves to be a very clever and impressive way to showcase the plot, and I loved the simultaneous look at the investigation, the weekend in question, and all the key events that led up to the crime. Both separate storylines are very interesting and compelling in their own way, especially as they paint two different pictures of the chaotic events in question. Thanks to Heath using first names during the chapters set in the past and only referring to surnames when it comes to the later investigation, you don’t get any spoilers about what is going to happen during the weekend. As such, it isn’t until the end of the book that you are completely certain about who dies and who survives, and this allows you to remain on the edge of your seat as your watch the chaotic events unfold.

Heath paces out both arcs of the story extremely well, and they work well together to tell an intriguing and powerful story. The scenes set in the past tell a powerful and character-driven tale, with flashbacks to prior interactions, details about their turbulent relationships, and a great range of petty slights that ensure everyone had a motive for killing the rest of the group. Heath ensures that the characters are all stewing in this during the early chapters in the mountain before the partner swapping scene occurs. The author sets this up perfectly, with the subterfuge, secret plans, and hidden desires all coming into their choices, and the resulting chaos sufficiently messing with them. As such, all of them are primed to be the killer when the first victim emerges, and the subsequent environment of fear, suspicion and hatred make for some outstanding scenes, especially when all their secrets come to light.

At the same time, the reader gets a fantastic look at the ongoing investigation being undertaken by Kiara as she tries to get to grips with the case. There are some great scenes here, especially as Kiara independently uncovers the secrets of the three married couples, which works into the other timeline extremely well. There are some fun moments in this part of the investigation, especially when Kiara and Elise make the interesting decision to book out the murder house for a holiday so they can try and find some answers, while also dealing with their own intense personal issues. While there are some excellent moments in this part of the book, the investigation angle of Kill Your Husbands is the weaker half of the novel, mostly because it lacks the juicy details the lead up to all the murders. I also didn’t think that Heath needed to shoehorn in the characters from Kill Your Brother into the plot, as fresh new police protagonists would have also been just as effective. Still this second half of the book was very fascinating, and the clues revealed within give you some great hints about who the killer is and how they got away with it.

The eventual solution for Kill Your Husbands is exceedingly clever, and I really liked how all the key events of the book played out. The climax of the murderous weekend is pretty damn shocking in its entirety, and I loved just how well Heath managed to keep secret who survived and who died right until the end. The killer’s motivations and the events that drove them to it are well set out, and the scenes where they commit their crimes really drive home just how dangerous they are. Certain other reveals towards the end of the book, especially when Kiara gets close to the truth, reveal just how clever this entire story is, and I loved how certain innocuous mentions or clues are well utilised later in the story. The entire solution of the book, as well as the final confrontation between Kiara and the killer are just perfect, and you will come away from Kill Your Husbands extremely satisfied after travelling through such a captivating, unique and brilliant mystery.

This elaborate story and murder mystery wouldn’t be possible without the great characters featured in Kill Your Husbands. I particularly loved the six friends who journeyed to the cabin and who end up being pulled into the deadly partner swapping/murder plot. Heath does a wonderful job of effectively introducing them and you get drawn into their complex lives, filled with emotional damage and occasionally petty problems. While you do feel sorry for some of the characters, most of them are somewhat despicable and unlikeable to a degree, which ensures that are highly interesting and fun in the context of the main murder. I loved how many personal issues and secrets came out as the story progressed, and you really get invested in seeing who the killer is, possibly more than finding out who survived. I loved how fun and interesting these main characters where and Heath did such a great job featuring him in this crazy story.

The other major characters are Senior Constable Kiara Lui and her girlfriend, Elise, who serve as the main figures in the investigation arc of the book. As I mentioned about, Kiara and Elise both appeared in Kill Your Brother, with Elise serving as the main character of that novel. However, Elise takes more of a backseat here with Kiara stepping up and leading the investigation. While I don’t think Kill Your Husbands really needed some of the drama and ongoing trauma surrounding these characters, I did enjoy seeing them still together after the events of Kill Your Brother, and I liked how Heath moved Kiara more to the fore in this book. Kiara was a badass investigator, and it was great to see her try to prove herself while also still concerned about her clearly traumatised girlfriend. For her part, Elise is still trying to prove herself after her controversial past the helpless position she found herself in during the events of Kill Your Brother. As such, she takes some big risks and acts very recklessly in this book, often to the detriment of Kiara’s investigation or emotions. This extra layer of emotional charge ensured that Kill Your Husbands’ plot was a little more convoluted and intense, and I did enjoy seeing these two characters again. That being said, you don’t need to have read Kill Your Brother to full appreciate these characters in this sequel, and you can get the full range of emotions from reading Kill Your Husbands as a standalone read. I honestly came away from Kill Your Husbands very impressed with how Heath introduced and utilised his characters and they were such a distinctive and fun group of figures who were perfect to get wrapped up in a murder.

Overall, Kill Your Husbands was another outstanding and compelling novel from Jack Heath, who continues to show why he is the master of crazy Australian crime fiction. Heath had a lot of fun with his outrageous plot and the way he worked his excellent and damaged characters into this complex murder mystery was very impressive. A captivating and dark read from start to finish, Kill Your Husbands is one of the most memorable and intense Australian thrillers of 2023 and Heath is a must-read author for anyone looking for some truly shocking and mental crime fiction.

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