Olivia Wistern planned an over-the-top party to celebrate her husband’s milestone birthday. Their country mansion was lit up with glowing orbs woven through the trees and floating in the lake. The Champagne flowed, a who’s who of guests dressed to the nines, imbibing. Olivia had one more trick up her sleeve. Her trunks were packed and, after the party, she was leaving Anthony. She never got the chance. Somehow, he fell into the lake and died after being impaled on a lance that was holding up the largest orb. “Speared, like a fish,” Olivia thinks when she sees him.
Anthony lived large and in death, he left behind large problems. Although he ran a successful financial firm, lately his appetite to earn more turned him into a British Bernie Madoff, operating a Ponzi scheme that robbed dozens of investors, including some family friends, of millions.
Bella Mackie’s What a Way to Go is a farcical romp inside a wealthy family whose members turn on each other as they fight for their survival.
If Anthony thought that death would find him in a better place, he was wrong. Until he can figure out who killed him, he’s stuck in a purgatory presided over by the type of officious women he would have fired at his firm. He spends his days watching a monitor that shows his wife, four children, and his business partner, Giles, talk about his passing, dropping hints about how he might have died, but never implicating the actual killer.
Meanwhile, Olivia, now a social pariah, has to deal with her children who treat her with disdain. Her son, Freddy, raises plants and animals on the mansion’s grounds and was never in line to take over Anthony’s business. The two older daughters, Lyra and Jemima, call Olivia by her name, never mom, and are only interested in how much they will inherit. The youngest, Clara, is young and self absorbed, using the tragedy to accumulate even more followers online.
When the will is read, Olivia is the sole beneficiary. But with the government coming after all of the family’s resources, there’s nothing left. Olivia, of course, had a backup plan. Years ago, her brother, Charles, had convinced her to syphon off money into an offshore account. Now, she has a tidy nest egg. She just needs to wait until things calm down before she can leave the country and access those funds. None of which, will go to her children. She actually delights in telling them that they are all broke and she has no money to give them. They don’t believe her, but have no way of figuring out where the money might be.
Olivia emerges as the most likely suspect to have offed her husband. And there’s someone who is determined to prove Olivia is a murderer. Anthony owned a pub and enjoyed what the venue offered – lots to drink and young women to fondle. One woman called him out and was fired. Now she runs an online true crime blog called “The Sleuth.” Armed with her smartphone, she confronts various members of the family, records the encounters, and posts them on YouTube. If the police are ready to declare Anthony’s death an accident, this YouTube stalker won’t let that happen.
While Anthony is eager to prove who killed him so he can move on in his journey, only a fool would believe that he’s destined for a better place. There’s no remorse on his part, even when he’s watching news reports about the victims of his Ponzi scheme. For Anthony, the whole things was a lark, something to break the tedium of just managing money. Where was the fun in that, was his thought. Somehow, the way he’s presented by Mackie, it’s hard to dislike Anthony. Being so honest about his motivations doesn’t absolve him of guilt, but does make him easy to understand. And while he wasn’t a likable man, the fact that he provided a cushy lifestyle for his children who couldn’t earn a living on their own and yet can’t mourn him in death, makes him a little sympathetic. Even the worst father deserves a little appreciation for what he was able to do, even if he wasn’t perfect. Still, meeting that low bar probably won’t be enough to get Anthony to the pearly gates.
What a Way to Go
Bella Mackie
Top photo: Bigstock
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