Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen – Book review

If you like your reads sharp, acidic, funny and with their tongue firmly in their cheek, then you’re going to love Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen. It’s the story of Saffy Huntley-Oliver, a woman with her own moral guidelines, ones with a Robin Hood inspired approach: get rid of the bad men to save the good people. Get rid, in the very literal sense…

Opening sentence: We’re playing Susie’s favourite game, the one where I own a shop and she plays the part of all of her cuddly toys coming in, in turn, to buy various items from her bedroom, and I pretend that I don’t want to sell any of them to her.

Murder and romance

So yes, if you’re going to enjoy Bad Men, suspend your disbelief and go with the flow. Saffy has been treated badly by men in her life, so she’s out for revenge. She is highly protective of her little sister, Susie, and has little interest in other people, but is on the lookout for a potential good – yet, crucially, not boring – boyfriend.

Killing bad men is my private hobby, my passion project, the thing that makes me tick. It’s my own humble attempt at smashing the patriarchy.

Alongside the murder, Saffy’s main focus is romance. Her path crosses (because she engineers it that way) with that of podcast host Jonathan Desrosiers. She has somewhat of a crush on him and his life takes an unexpected turn – his wife leaves him and he ends up with body on his doorstep…

Jonathan’s podcast is all about serial killers and things come a little close to home for him (literally) when a body in a bin bag is dumped on his doorstep. He has some questions. Namely, who is the body and, he is horrified to note, is this payback for his podcast sleuthing as ‘the bin bag killer’ is one he uncovered and now, it looks like someone is angry about that.

Not to worry, Saffy is there to comfort and help him…

Wickedly enjoyable

Bad Men is a darkly funny, feminist thriller / modern romance that keeps a fast pace and has tension thrumming throughout (will Saffy’s murderous ways catch up with her??). I had fun reading it and that’s always a good take-away, right?

If you like the sound of Bad Men, then I’ve enjoyed a few other books recently in a similar vein. You should also check out How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie and Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater. Happy reading!

• Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC;
• Get your copy of Bad Men here;
• Published by Bonnier Books 20th July 2023;
• 368 pages;
• My rating: