The Art of Getting Hammered

by Joanna Wallace

Claire and her hammer are back in this hotly anticipated sequel to the award-winning You'd Look Better as a Ghost.

Genres: Fiction

352 pages, Unknown Binding

Expected publication August 6, 2026

About the author

Joanna Wallace studied law at Birmingham University before working as a commercial litigation solicitor in London, during which time she represented litigants in many fascinating cases and became remarkably proficient at unjamming photocopiers.

Joanna lives near London with her husband, four children and two dogs.

Reviews

[Jodie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Art of Getting Hammered is a crime fiction novel full of dark humour about a hammer wielding serial killer who lost her mojo and somehow ends up in a situation where people are dropping like flies, but this time she's not the one doing the killing!

Essentially you get exactly that. It was quite a fun and easy read. However, it ultimately didn't stand out much to me (neither the story nor the main character intrigued me enough), so I am rating it 3 stars.

Still a good pick, if you want to pick up a book with an unusual protagonist whose answer to everything is killing people.

[Kenzie Leckie ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars** I read Joanna’s first book in the series and absolutely loved it so I was super happy to be sent an arc copy of this one.

It was so good to see how Claire’s been getting on and meeting some characters from the previous book. However it had been a while since I read it and forgot some stuff but don’t feel like it affected my reading of this book so definitely think this one could be read as a standalone too.

Despite there being so many characters, I was able to keep track of who was who and they didn’t get muddled at all. I really enjoyed the addition of the pub as a setting. My only reason not giving this 5 stars was because I feel like the humour wasn’t as good or funny as the first book but that’s my only criticism.

[Books By Your Bedside · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and Viper for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

This is the second of Joanna's books for me - I read The Dead Friend Project, and I have a copy of You'd Look Better as a Ghost which I haven't read yet. And even after just one book she has become an author I look out for for funny and bloody thrillers and I highly recommend her.

This one is less murder and more chat, which is fine as that's what it says in the synopsis, but I would have liked a bit more murder - because I'm weird like that. Or maybe it's not that. I think it might be because the murdery bits don't really kick in until the second half and that made the first half feel rather slow.

It is surprisingly funny and felt more personable; we spent more time with Claire and got to know her as a person before knowing her as the murderer.

Now, this is a sequel to You'd Look Better as a Ghost, which as stated above, is the one book of hers I haven't read, which is a bit annoying as I didn't know this was a sequel. Now I can't say whether I missed anything obviously, because I'm not aware of what I could miss. But I never felt like I was at too much of a disadvantage reading it. But I'm sure there will be aspects of it or characters that are familiar to readers who have read the first one.

There are quite a lot of characters in this one and I'm not great at keeping on top of names, but I know that's a me problem rather than a problem with the book itself. But they did feel distinct enough and interesting to read about.

I definitely preferred The Dead Friend Project to this and it does have some flaws, in my opinion, but I still really enjoyed it. She's got this talent for writing recognisable characters, giving us blood and murder and thrill, whilst keeping it humerous and lighthearted.

The genre of dark-humour-female-serial-killer is a saturated one at the moment and whilst I did enjoy this, I'm not sure it would stand out currently. But I will definitely find that copy of the first book and maybe once I've read that I may return to this one to see if I get any more out of it.

[Nataliejade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin for my ARC of this.

Gloriously hilarious dark humour.

We follow Claire a part time serial killer who just isn’t finding satisfaction in her hobby anymore - or life for that matter. Until a spark of mystery brings back her love for things as she tries to find out who has been killing on her turf!

This book was a little mixture of fast and slow paced for me because although not that much happened when you think about it, just Claire’s rundown of day to day life, being in her head and reading her view of ‘normal people’ in ‘normal situations’ was laugh out loud funny and kept you wanting to read more.

There were some fun twists and unexpected turns in this book that I really didn’t see coming.

Overall, it was a nice easy to read comedy.
3.5 stars.

I have just seen as I have been posting this review that this is actually book 2 which goes to show how well it stood on its own.

[Farah G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once a trigger happy serial killer, Claire has been finding it increasingly hard to find either inspiration or motivation to keep doing what she has been so good at in the past. But surely someone has to deal with the vast number of annoying people who seem intent on acting out without any thought for the consequences?

So, when an encounter at a pub gives her a second wind with regard to her passion, Claire is delighted - until she discovers that she isn't the only feral killer in town. So, what on earth is going on?

This is an amusing and very twisted story, but in a crowded field of darkly humorous stories about female serial killers, it did not really stand out as an entirely exceptional book. It was fun though, so it gets 3.5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

[Dani · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Art of Getting Hammered was dark, witty and just the right amount of ridiculous. Claire is trying to embrace a more normal life when she discovers someone is up to no good at the local pub. Then people start dying and, for once, she isn’t the one behind it.

Claire’s completely warped outlook on life continues to be the highlight of the series. I found myself laughing at moments I probably shouldn’t have, and the mystery itself kept me guessing. A sharp, quirky crime novel with plenty of black humour.

With thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

[Sarah Bonner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Claire and her trusty hammer are back and they’re better than ever. With Wallace’s dry wit and brilliant observations of humanity’s foibles, THE ART OF GETTING HAMMERED is an utter joy in the darkest possible way. I loved it.

[Wendy Darling]

Wait, what?!

[Mariee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one gripped me, read in one sitting!
A nice fun easy read with a few twists