Murder Mindfully by Karsten Dusse

4 Stars from me

For me this is a light-hearted poke at a crime thriller with the lead character, Björn, appearing to be the world’s most unwitting / inadvertent serial killer.

It’s also pretty obvious that the author really does know a lot about mindfulness and I’ve got to admit that some of the advice makes way more sense then any actual mindfulness books that I’ve read!

Björn leads a slightly chaotic life and it seems he gets rather easily tied up in some really quite unfortunate situations. But, his saving grace as a character is that he loves his almost estranged wife and his daughter, Emily, and would do literally anything to protect her and make her happy.

And so ensues a series of almost slapsticesque events ranging from mafia hits to pre-school places and it is just as unpredictable as it sounds. Somehow Björn gets himself into and out of the most outlandish of situations.

I would describe Murder Mindfully as a tongue-in-cheek crime thriller, honestly I didn’t think this concept would entirely work but it does and I enjoyed the book.

Blurb: Calm your mind. Be here, now. Take a breath. And kill…

‘I didn’t kill anyone until I was forty-two. That’s actually a little on the late side for my current professional environment. Admittedly, I did kill almost half a dozen in the week that followed.

Björn has been given an ultimatum: repair his work-life balance, or his wife Katharina will leave him – and take their daughter.

He reluctantly starts a mindfulness class and to his surprise, it’s a revelation. He becomes calmer, more focused, and he’s starting to understand what’s really important in life. So when his client and brutal crime boss Dragan Sergowicz tries to interfere with his precious family time, Björn remembers his new-found goal to find serenity – and kills him.