How to Murder Your Way to Happiness

by A.C. Sherman

A twisty suspense thriller ignites when an office manager, his ambitious but incompetent lawyer, a wannabe rapper, and a security guard encounter separate problems they believe they can solve by committing murder.

Genres: Thriller

175 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 2, 2024

About the author

A. C. Sherman was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He loves to travel. Among his favorite destinations are Helsinki, Toronto and Chicago.

Reviews

[Trinity Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining, the right amount of suspense and drama. I just wish I knew what came about 2 of the other characters.

[Shanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very honored to win a copy of this book, but it was not what I expected at all. I often enjoy novellas, and love crime and mystery genres. I was not familiar with what a noir would entail. The extent of morally compromised themes was surprising to me. I know I sound prudish, but I just was not comfortable with the thickness of this theme. I read through the first chapter and enjoyed the overarching detective material. In the end, I passed my book along to someone else who enjoyed it much better than I. Because I cannot really give my own rating, I will base it on the review of person I shared it with. He said it was interesting and easy to read, but the crudeness was slightly distracting to him, as well.

[Morgan Burnham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun book with unexpected plot twists in every chapter! Had me laughing out loud on one page and gasping in surprise on the next. Couldn’t put it down!

[Brandee E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could’ve used some more character development and better editing. But overall not a bad story line. Just could have been expanded on.

[Phyllis Bernstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book reminded me of the film noir categories from years back. It had humor and lots of suspense. A really enjoyable read!

[Wanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

love this book.

[Timothy Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Noir is all about bad ideas executed badly under the influence of uncontrolled passion. Andrew Sherman understands that and has crafted a cautionary tale that veers from lighthearted to deadly serious in a heartbeat. The story starts with a cuckolded husband crafting an explosive missive to his rival with every possible opportunity for things to go wrong. Then it interrupts its regularly scheduled narrative to show us how we got to this point.
There’s a healthy dose of Quentin Tarantino in this story, or I should say these stories, tales of domestic quarrels that spark out of hand and brush up against each other in unexpected ways with violent results. Yes, there are murders, but no perfect murders, and it’s the imperfections that provide the sudden turns that in less expert hands would send this story crashing through the guardrails. But Sherman keeps a steady hand on the wheel, even if none of his characters do. A Noir Story is a fine debut, and I look forward to reading Sherman’s next effort.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

The four stars for the premise of the book versus the one and a half stars for the execution generously average out to three. The plot doesn’t make up for the complete lack of atmosphere or the lackluster characterization. The only way you could tell there in Detroit is that Sherman got the neighborhood street names right and we didn’t learn enough about any of the characters to care what happened to them. The third and, to me, most egregious fault is the horrible writing. The book reads like a first draft written by someone who hasn’t learned about prepositions or articles; most of them are missing. Please at least respect your reader enough to read the book before publishing it. Better yet, hire an editor or if you can’t afford one, join a critique group and accept help from your fellow writers.

[Lea Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

It really lost me at the infidelity bringing the “alpha” out of the “beta” in him, which reminds me of the manosphere/incel culture. I don’t like the way it seems to blame the man’s murderous instincts on the woman.

[Denise · Rating 1 out of 5]

A total waste of time. The one halfway decent character in the book screwed up at the end.