Another day, another god-awful package from my mother so ridiculous I couldn’t help but laugh (and maybe also cry). Today’s prize? A Life Alert. I called her immediately so I could ask, “Why, Mom?”

“Because! I see on TV! A woman fall—is so sad. She yell, Help! Help! I fallen and can’t get up! You single. You can fall and not be able to get up.”

Instead of convincing her that she worries too much or that this was for old people, my mother instead badgered me into adding the Life Alert to my too heavy key chain that already included “essentials” like a jar opener (“no man to open jars for you”) and a self-defense tool (“no man to protect you”).

At least I was on my way to meet Olivia and Elle now. We didn’t have the most conventional meeting, but I couldn’t imagine my life without them now. I first met Olivia when I stopped by my (now ex-) boyfriend’s condo, thought he was proposing to me, and walked in, half naked (long story), on him proposing to Olivia, his girlfriend of two years. And then after Olivia and I dumped his ass and I took her on my prepaid vacation that was supposed to have been for him and me, we walked in on him already at the AirBnB with half naked Elle.

So what’s a girl to do? I can tell you what these three girls planned to do to the man we discovered cheating on all three of us.

Get. Him. Back. Revenge served bubbling, steaming, scalding hot. Glitter in the washing machine. Nair in the shampoo. Release three frogs labeled #1, 2, and 4 in his condo in the hopes he’ll spend weeks searching for #3. Today was prank day, and no part of Tucker Jones’s life was safe.

We were dressed in black—Elle’s idea to “fit the part”—and my first sign that this was a bad idea should have been when Olivia knelt in front of our shared ex’s door and pulled out lockpicks.

“You said you could get in!” I whispered.

“I can! And we will!”

“She’s like a female Double-oh-seven,” Elle said.

“Except she’s the victim, not the cheater,” I pointed out.

Elle laughed and pushed my shoulder. My heart swelled.

“I want to be you when I grow up,” Elle told Olivia.

“Me too,” I added, then asked, “You’re sure he’s not home?”

“I’m sure,” Olivia said. “He’s in Phoenix for work.”

Why was I so nervous? What was the worst that could happen? He comes home, sees us, and tries to propose to all of us at the same time? I kind of wanted to see what Olivia and Elle would do if he dropped to one knee and yelled out his prepared generic proposal to no one in particular, ha. That had been his strategy back at the AirBnb, yelling out “I don’t know her!” while not meeting any of our eyes.

The door clicked open. Olivia smiled.

This was it. Sweet, sweet revenge. Planned down to a T.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t plan for everything.

Like how, in that moment, unbeknownst to us, Tucker was already dead. And after we cover his condo in our DNA, we will become the most likely suspects, with motive and means. The police won’t care that everyone in Tucker’s life had a reason to want him dead.

So as much as we don’t want to, we will have to solve his murder before we go down for it.

We have to become…the Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club.

The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club – A Hu Done It Mystery, Book 1
Genre: Humorous Cozy Mystery
Release: June 2025
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link

In this laugh-out-loud murder mystery, three women dating the same man band together to get revenge, but when they discover his body, they’ll need to solve his murder before they go down for it.

The body in the closet was going to be a problem. Kathryn Hu knew it. Yes, Tucker Jones was a cheating scumbag, and yes, she’d agreed to meet Olivia and Elle—Tucker’s other girlfriends—to exact revenge for all he’d put them through… But then they found him. Dead.

Do they look guilty? Yes.

Do they feel guilty for having wished him dead just hours before? Maybe a little.

But—solid motive and a crime scene covered in their DNA aside—they’re innocent. They swear.

To clear their names, Kat, Olivia, and Elle team up to find the real killer. But as they go undercover and lie to everyone, including the hot detective working the case, they realize that every person in their ex’s life had a reason to want him dead. Will they uncover the truth before they go down for a murder they didn’t commit?

Filled with humor and shenanigans, The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club is a romp of an adventure by award-winning author Gloria Chao, perfect for fans of Dial A for Aunties, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It and John Tucker Must Die.

About the author
Gloria Chao is a screenwriter and the award-winning author of The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club (sequel to follow June 2026), Ex Marks the Spot, When You Wish Upon a Lantern, Rent a Boyfriend, Our Wayward Fate, and American Panda. She graduated from MIT and became a dentist before realizing she’d rather spend her days in fictional characters’ heads instead of real people’s mouths. When she’s not writing, you can find her on the curling ice, where she and her husband are world-ranked in mixed doubles. Visit her tea-and-book filled world at gloriachao.wordpress.com and find her on Instagram and Twitter @GloriacChao.