User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Books are time travel. True readers all know this.
What an adventure this book was! There's no denying that Eight Perfect Murders was a good deal more meta than my usual thriller picks, but I thoroughly enjoyed this romp through the mystery/thriller/crime genre-- from the classics to the modern to the obscure.
This book scratched an itch I didn't even know I had, so to speak. See, I love
love lists of books. When Goodreads or Buzzfeed or whatever posts a list of "50 Must-Read ____ Books" or "10 Most Anticipated Books of ____", then you can bet I'm clicking. I am such a sucker for those lists. I just didn't know I wanted to read a mystery about one until now!
There's a lot I can't say about Eight Perfect Murders, but I'll try to give you some idea what it's like. I've only read one other Swanson book so far (Before She Knew Him) and this one was very different.
The protagonist, Malcolm Kershaw, is the co-owner of the Old Devils Bookstore, a place specializing in mysteries. One day, an FBI agent enters the store and begins to question him about several murders, which may or may not be related. What has brought Malcolm to her attention is a blog post he wrote when he was first hired at Old Devils: "Eight Perfect Murders." It's a list of eight mystery/thriller novels that contain, in Malcolm's opinion, the most "perfect", unsolvable, uncatchably brilliant murders. Thing is, some of the recent murders seem oddly similar to several of the "perfect" murders in the novels listed.
Malcolm gets dragged into the investigation, part aid and part suspect, and it's not a spoiler to say we learn very quickly he has a lot of secrets of his own. And, wow, I just really loved the exploration of all these novels. Not just the eight at the centre of the story, but many great crime novels. Some I knew well; some I'd never heard of. Be warned: this book does spoil the plot of all eight novels mentioned in the blurb - The A.B.C. Murders, Strangers on a Train, The Red House Mystery, Malice Aforethought, Double Indemnity, The Drowner, The Secret History and Deathtrap - so you may want to read them first if they're still on your TBR.
To me, this book was a celebration of the mystery genre. A laugh at its conventions; a love letter to its best and underappreciated works. Following Malcolm as he tries to piece together the puzzle and come to terms with just how guilty he himself is... well, it's quite a ride.
I did figure out the "culprit", though, and I think a lot of mystery readers will. There are too few possibilities to make it truly challenging. But I honestly did not care. The fun is in the getting there, the thrill of the chase, and the uncertainty of the many small mysteries the book presents along the way. I'm just that kind of thriller reader, honestly. I do not care if you can pull out the shockiest shocker of a twist if I don’t enjoy the getting there. Give me a good ride and a protagonist who intrigues me over "twists" any day.
Also, I have about fifty new recommendations from this book. That's only a slight exaggeration.
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Rating: really liked it
Wow! What do I even say about a book that has rendered me speechless? This book is a thriller lovers dream come true. First of all, Peter Swanson won me over with The Kind Worth Killing and has never let me down since. I find him and Liz Nugent to be the masters of the dark, twisted thrillers. I often wonder how they come up with this stuff! Can you imagine their computer search history? The stuff that murders are made of!!!
Sooo with that being said, listen to this premise...absolute genius...Malcolm Kershaw owns a specialty bookstore- he carries mystery, thriller books that may be hard to come by. He is an expert in classic mystery books and he knows them in and out. People travel from all over the country to visit his little store. When Malcolm publishes an interesting blog post on the bookstore's site about how to commit the perfect murder, he uses 8 different books with plots that in his opinion would be the perfect crime. Not much came of that at the time but years later someone is murdering people and following this list to the tee. Now the FBI is interested...very interested in what Malcolm has to say.
OMG this was a thrill ride from the word go. I devoured and I mean devoured this book in one single day. My internal voice kept saying, this book is so good you should slow down and savor it. Yet I couldn't flip these pages fast enough as I had to know what happened. This book had so much appeal because not only was it was a very unique plot, it also had a ring of truth to much of it. My google fingers were going at warp speed as I researched if any of this has really happened. The answer is YES. This was like a history lesson for me of authors gone bad...so fascinating. I also discovered many books that were on the "list" that I want to read!
Add in a fantastic bookstore cat named Nero that has his own Instagram page and what more can you ask for?!! I love a gorgeous cat with a history...my oh my if this cat could talk.
Rating: really liked it
I need a Gibberish translator right now! Because this is only language I may fluently speak after reading this book. Fcjeijfiojopi50ov! See! I lost control my thoughts again! I cannot form a proper sentence!
There is no slightest chance for me to dislike this book! 8 perfect murders based on selected amazing thrillers starting from Christie’s epic “A.B.C. Murders” (this time the killer concentrated on bird names more than alphabetical order) to thrilling Ira Levin play “Deathtrap” (after watching the movie version, everyone had hard times to consider Christopher Reeves their superhero!), Highsmith’s “Strangers on a train” (Mr. Swanson gives so great details about differences between the Hitchcock movie and the original story which is darker and more spooky), Donna Tartt’s “ A Secret History”.
And let’s not forget James M. Cain’s “Double Indemnity” (if you haven’t watch its movie, do it immediately to see Fred MacMurray’s brilliant performance!), A.A Milne’s “Red House Mystery”, John D. Macdonald’s “Drowner” and Anthony Berkeley Cox’ s “Malice Afterthought” (I have to make confession that I didn’t read the last three of them. But I already add to my MOUNT TBR that I rent hourly for bungee jumping activities!)
Old Devil’s Bookshop’s owner Malcolm Kershaw chose those 8 books and wrote a blog of them as “8 perfect murders help you get away with them” ( It is not the title but you got his motivation to write this article!)
Now a FBI agent appears at his bookstore, asking for his help because there might be killer out there obsessed with his article and commits murders at the same ways written on those books.
And as we continue to read about the facts Malcolm also the narrator of the story presents us, we realize he keeps secrets to himself and slowly when we get inside of his mind and learn more about his traumatized love story with his ex-wife who died in the car accident, we pity on him but also start to get suspicious about him. Why a killer is obsessed with his article? Could Malcolm get involved with one of the murders? Did FBI agent tell him the truth? Could the killer also be a vigilante who brings the justice by punishing very notorious people because as far as we realize the victims are not angels, they have their own crimes and dirty secrets!
This book is mesmerizing puzzle, combining perfect thrillers’ plots and subtexts at the most proper places intercepted with Malcolm’s fast pacing, brain cell destroyer, heart-throbbing story. He confuses the hell of us by giving small pieces about the truth. We get lost in his head and we are misled by him so many times and sucker punched by unexpected twists we could never see coming.
I’m not gonna talk more about the story because it’s so hard to write more about without giving spoilers and I’m not the most trustworthy person who likes to write the murderers’ identities in the middle of each Christie books and send them to my loved ones (You may guess I’m not the most lovable person!)
Overall: This is dark, intense, puzzling, dazzling, exciting, nail biter, hair splitter, heart throbbing, nightmarish, brilliant book and it already became one of my favorite books of the author. Even some revelations still have some small plot holes, I only cut half star and I’m giving my 4.5 rounded up to 5 doubtful, manipulative, mind-bending stars!
I didn’t get rejected for this book but I couldn’t let it root at the NetGalley’s pending purgatory so this time I’m thanking myself and my husband’s credit card to buy this book and devour it at one sit! Highly recommending, one of the best thrillers of the year! Of course I should have had this!
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Rating: really liked it
Malcolm, owner of an old school bookstore, has a story to tell. The FBI wants to interview him because of some murders and their possible connection to a blog post he made, listing the eight perfect murders in literature. Even if I hadn't read all the books, I'd at least seen the old movies that were made from the books so the plot of this story was interesting to me.
Malcolm realizes that the FBI suspects him of the murders that have occurred since he seems to have a blueprint in his blog, listing the murders and more that may happen, with his innocent list posted years ago. So Malcolm takes it upon himself to figure out who is committing the murders, why they are committing them, and why they may be trying to frame him for them. Malcolm has a sad history, with his wife dying in a car accident and with something happening to him in the past that has caused him to never read murder mysteries again. He seems so low energy, passively observing life, and rarely eating more than a few bites of food...is more bothering Malcolm than the death of his wife and this new situation of a murderer copying a list he made?
I enjoyed this story although I did get tired of the repeated details of each book. And if you have never read the books and don't want to be spoiled, this is not the book for you. Malcolm is going to totally spoil each book, over and over again. Still, I wanted to find out just what was going on with Malcolm because he seemed to be an unreliable narrator who had a lot he wanted to tell.
Oh, there is a book store cat that I loved. Nero, a yellow tabby who was the reason that a lot of people visited the store regularly. We all need a Nero in our lives.
Published March 3, 2020
Thank you to William Morrow/HarperCollins and Edelweiss for this ARC.
Rating: really liked it
CLEVER!! “Books are time travel. True readers all know this. But books don’t just take you back to the time in which they were written; they can take you back to different versions of yourself.”
A blog post written on eight mystery novels that detail the perfect murders becomes the blueprint for a serial killer in Eight Perfect Murders. This is a compelling, original, and intriguing read about the mystery genre. When Mal, an independent bookstore owner, is contacted by the FBI regarding a blog post he wrote years ago, he is shocked to discover that someone is using his literary recommendations as a guide to commit murder. Mal realizes he has a connection to one of the victims and he begins to wonder if the murderer is going to make him his next target.
This is a book for those who love mysteries and appreciate the nuances of the genre . Mal discusses what makes mysteries so riveting to read. He details some classics, and in discussing the perfect murder plots, reminds readers of why some mysteries are so powerful.
Mal is the single narrator and he controls every word of this story. I got caught up in his tale and was eagerly flipping the pages to see where he was going to take me. He weaves in a wealth of knowledge about the mystery genre and throws in some red herrings, while at the same time slowly revealing his secrets.
When the reveal occurred, I was a little underwhelmed, but then I soon realized I got caught up in the wrong element of this book--yes, the mystery of who is committing the murders is intriguing, but what is even more intriguing is the narrator himself. This isn’t about the who or the why. It is about the power of the narrator. I had fun trying to unravel Mal’s secrets and uncover the web of the eight perfect murders. I highly recommend for those who love the mystery genre.
I received an ARC of this book from Edelweiss and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: really liked it
Malcolm owned a bookstore. He decided to do a blog on his website called Eight Perfect Murders. In his blog he decided to make a list of the genres most unsolvable murders, those that are almost impossible to crack. Malcolm finds himself at the center of an FBI investigation because a clever killer has started using his list of these perfect murders.
This book was more of a slow burning mystery to me, instead of a thriller. I am not a big Agatha Christie fan, so that is why I didn't love this one. I am more of a thriller fan. There were some parts
that I did enjoy, especially the ending.
I have not read any of the books on Malcolm's list. There were a couple that I would like to read but I feel that I already know what the books are about because there are so many spoilers.
This book seemed to repeat itself over and over again. I was very disappointed. I didn't feel like the characters were well developed and there were a lot of characters. This book lost the thrill for me. It didn't have enough suspense for me. I put this book down many times. I did love the ending. I loved his books, The Kind Worth Killing and his book Before She Knew Him. I love this author and still can't wait to read his next book. I am in the minority of this book. Lots of others loved it.
Several of us read this book in The Traveling Sister Group.
I want to thank Edelweiss, the publisher and the author for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: really liked it
I have no idea how to rate this book...
Rating: really liked it
I don’t trust narrators any more than I trust the actual people in my life. We never get the whole truth, not from anybody. When we first meet someone, before words are ever spoken, there are already lies and half-truths. The clothes we wear cover the truth of our bodies, but they also present who we want to be to the world. They are fabrications, figuratively and literally.
Back in 2004, when he first started working at
Old Devils, the mysteries-oriented bookstore that he now runs, Malcolm Kershaw was asked to write a blog post.
Eight Perfect Murders was his list of the best, fool-proof murders committed in mystery fiction. He posted and promptly forgot about it. Now, many years later, a killer seems to be using his list as the basis for a series of murders. Is Malcolm a potential target? Or is Malcolm otherwise involved? Special Agent Gwen Mulvey, thirties, blonde, has taken an interest. Seems not only is Malcolm’s list in use by a fan of the genre, someone Malcolm knows is one of the victims.
Peter Swanson - image from the site
Blood TypeThe blog piece that Malcolm wrote includes:
The Red House Mystery – A.A. (Alan Alexander) Milne – 1922
Malice AforeThought – Anthony Berkeley Cox – 1931
The ABC Murders - Agatha Christie – 1934
Double Indemnity – James M. Cain – 1943
Strangers on a Train – Patricia Highsmith - 1950
The Drowner – John D.MacDonald – 1963
Deathtrap – Ira Levin - 1978
The Secret History – Donna Tartt – 1992
For fans of mysteries this is both a fun puzzle and a docent-led tour of some of the best suspense writing of all time. Be forewarned, if you have not read these already, or seen the films made of some, the book will spoil them for you.
Caveat lector. The list of eight is only the beginning. More than any other book I can remember,
Eight Perfect Murders offers a cornucopia of fun genre references with a stop or two outside the field as well. It gives you a chance to reacquaint with some of the true whodunit classics, each with unique ways of doing someone in, ways the killer is aping. Swanson has some fun with the list, questioning whether the murders were all that foolproof and whether this or that other book should have been included instead. It is a delightful element, and you can imagine the discussions that went on in selecting this or that and excluding some others. It will certainly provide considerable fodder for your already mountainous TBR lists.
We follow Kershaw as he tries to figure out who may be up to no good, with, and without Agent Mulvey, and tries to keep one step ahead of any official investigations. There is a bit of body heat developing between Krenshaw and Mulvey, but is that a natural result of boy meets hot special agent, or is the attraction a fatal sort, a manipulation, and if so, on whose part? There does seem to be something a bit off about the hot detective.
I have not read all of Swanson’s books, but caught his first two, and there are
common elements. Secrets abound. Not surprising for the genre, but Swanson’s
leading men tend to hold significant intel back from the reader, to be revealed over the course of the book. There are also
femmes fatale, dramatic women who hold the leading man in thrall, resulting in dark consequences. In this case, it is Kershaw’s wife, Claire, and I will say no more about that. One thing that is different this time is that we have a single narrator. Swanson usually likes multiple perspectives. Krenshaw’s bookstore is in Boston, being a
familiar siting of Swanson stories. Beacon Hill being revisited is a familiar locale for readers of his oeuvre. Asked in a 2017 interview about this element in his work, Swanson said:
It’s hugely important. I think Boston is a good location for a thriller, but I write mainly about Boston because that’s where I live. In Her Every Fear, [published in 2017] I wanted to write something that felt like a gothic thriller, and to me, a large apartment building in Beacon Hill just felt right. That section of Boston feels a little bit trapped in time. It has cobblestones, and narrow streets, and several of the buildings still have stable doors.
He was going for something along those lines this time too, I expect, an old-timey specialty bookstore with familiar but infrequent customers, and scads of references to old books. This would have felt out of place in a Barnes & Noble on a large public square.
Early on, Krenshaw is reminded of another young fictional special agent.
It was impossible for me not to think of Clarice Starling,…from Silence of the Lambs. It was where my mind almost always went, to books and movies. It had been that way since I first began to read, And Mulvey, like her fictional counterpart, seemed too tame for the job. It was hard to imagine her whipping a gun from a holster, or aggressively questioning a suspect. She did question a suspect, though. She questioned you.
Mulvey keeps Kershaw involved, even if his motives might be less along the lines of providing a public service than they are keeping informed of her progress in order to better protect himself. But what is he protecting? Thus, the quote that opens this review. Is Mulvey a good actor, intent on seeing justice served, or is he Dr. Lecter, serving up bits of information to someone he likes and respects, in service of some other plan?
As for
gripes I heard the ticking sound that meant Nero was coming toward us along the hardwood floor. Agent Mulvey, who heard it as well, turned and looked at the store cat.
Hearing cat claws clicking on the floor is not a thing. My wife and I care for many cats, and have had many more over the years, none lacking claws, and never have we ever heard the click-clack that is described here. It is possible, I suppose, that there
are cats that might provide such a sonic announcement of their arrival, but natural selection has seen to it, as Carl Sandburg can attest, that little cat feet are silent. A jarring item like this takes one out of the story, and I bet there are many readers in the target demo for this book, graced with feline presence, who might hack up a hairball on reading about such a cacophonous cat. A small, nerve-jarring bit. Swanson tosses in an impending storm, fills the streets with snow, but other than showing us a bit of Boston in winter, it did not seem that the weather motif added much, really, to the feel of the tale.
In addition, there will be unrelated eye-rolling. You may hear yourself saying things like “fuh realz?” or “No, no way,” or “You’re kidding me, right?” as a character does this, that, or something else, that seems just dramatically dumb. On the other hand, if you are willing to treat your eye-ball chafing with over the counter products, and use ear plugs to drown out the sound of your own complaining voice, this remains a pretty fun, engaging read. Krenshaw seems likable, and his love of books will make him sympathetic to, you know, readers. Mulvey is intriguing, as we wonder if she is a straight arrow, or up to something. Krenshaw’s wife is a damaged, over-the-top siren, someone I found a bit tough to relate to, which is hardly a crime. But then we are not looking for high lit in a mystery novel. The rest of the supporting cast were drawn lightly, but served their purposes well. Swanson’s clear love of and appreciation for the genre, as expressed in the multitude of references, both in written and cinematic form, is infectious. (a treatable infection, nothing deadly, I promise). Having a shop cat named Nero doesn’t hurt.
While it may not be Swanson’s best work, there is no mystery about it.
Eight Perfect Murders is a perfectly fun, engaging page-turner of a read, particularly for devotees of crime fiction.
“I felt closer to Claire than I’ve ever felt to anyone before or since,” I said.” But sometimes I didn’t know her.”
Tess was nodding. “I feel the same way about Brian, close, I mean, then every once in a while, he’ll say something, or else I’ll read something he wrote, and I wonder if I know anything about him at all.
Review posted – March 6, 2020
Publication dates
-----March 3, 2020 - Hardcover
-----January 26, 2021 - Trade paperback
=============================
EXTRA STUFFThe book was released as Rules for Perfect Murders in the UK on May 3, 2020
Links to the author’s Tumblr, Twitter and FB pages
Swanson’s web site has a cornucopia of samples of his Hitchcock poems, other poetry, short fiction and non-fiction, and is well worth checking out. Armchair Audience is Swanson’s site for writing on “Books read. Movies seen. TV Watched” He makes a slight nod to himself by referencing in the book a site called
The Armchair SpoilerBook references - the Eight perfect Murders…Plus
-----The Red House Mystery by A.A. (Alan Alexander) Milne (a writer of very substantial brain on Gutenberg
-----Malice Aforethought by Anthony Berkeley Cox - Part 1 of 8 - audiobook
-----The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie - free text on Internet Archive
-----The ABC Murders - free audio on Internet Archive
-----Double Indemnity by James M. Cain - novel - wiki
-----Double Indemnity - film - wiki
-----Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith – novel - wiki
-----The Drowner - John D. Macdonald. novel - wiki
----- The Secret History by Donna Tartt – novel- wiki
==========
Others, but not all – wiki links-----Shake Hands Forever by Ruth Rendell
----- Louise Penny novels
-----We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
-----Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
-----Too Many Crooks by Rex Stout
-----The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith – (really J.K. Rowling)
-----James Crumley - Elaine Johnson’s (a character in 8PM) favorite author
Poems-----Winter Nightfall by Sir John Collings Squire
-----Black Rook in Rainy Weather by Sylvia Plath
-----An Exequy by Peter Porter (About a dead wife)
My reviews of other books by the author-----2015 - The Kind Worth Killing
-----2014 - The Girl with a Clock for a Heart
Songs/Music-----Max Richter - 24 Postcards in Full Colour
-----The End of the Affair soundtrack by Michael Nyman
Interviews-----Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb – 2017 - Q&A with Peter Swanson
-----You might check out my 2014 interview of the author below my review of - The Girl with a Clock for a Heart
Rating: really liked it
Calling All Bloggers!!!! This book might make you want to resist/reconsider/re-think blogging lists; such as, your top ten favorite books, top ten favorite movies, or as is the case in this book - making a list about "The Eight Perfect Murders" found in fiction.
Malcolm "Mal" Kershaw is a bookstore owner and mystery aficionado has found himself caught up in a murder investigation when a killer begins using his blog list about "perfect" murders and uses those as inspiration and begins killing people. When an FBI agent knocks on his door one cold winter night to ask him questions about the books on his list, why he choose them and how they are connected to recent unsolved murders, Mal is intrigued and agrees to help.
Mal is an interesting character in that he fully acknowledges that he is not entirely good with people and the more he gets to know someone the more distant from them he begins to feel. He has a small circle of people in his life who are quirky and interesting as well. Plus, his bookstore, The Old Devil's Bookshop (how's that for a name? has a cat name Nero who is certainly more popular and interesting than his owner (isn't he?).
Is there a connection? Does the killer know Mal or is this individual a stranger who was inspired after reading the books on Mal's murder list? As the book progresses, Mal's past and his relationship with his dead wife also come to light. Is Mal a suspect or is he just an expert in the mystery genre? Are the murders perfect, or will the killer be brought to justice?
So, I was snuggled up on my couch reading and then there was a twist, a revelation, another twist, another revelation and once again, Peter Swanson reminded me why I am such a fan. His plots are well thought out, perfectly paced and intelligent. He knows how to keep a reader engaged and had me glued to my seat. I love trying to figure a book out (the whole whodunit) and had my super sleuth hat on while reading this one (I did not figure anything out) in this book. Needless, to say, I love that he had me guessing until pretty much the end. Plus, now he had me intrigued and wanting to read and re-read some of the books on the "Perfect Murder list". Plus, those who have been to Boston or live in Boston, will enjoy being able to say "I know that place!" or "I'm familiar with that street!" as Mal walks around the city.
Fans of Peter Swanson and the Mystery genre will not be disappointed.
Thank you to William Morrow and Edelweiss who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Rating: really liked it
Guess who got the ARC?! Me!
Can't wait to read this one ASAP...
Rating: really liked it
This one was a page turner from the beginning. (for me) What a bookish tale!
A bookish narrator- Malcolm Kershaw
A bookish setting - Old Devils Bookstore
A bookish blog list - Going to have to read some of these and
Strangers on A Train is one I own and will read next!
A bookish murder I guessed wrong!
Even a bookish cat! Nero (
don't worry he fares fine!)
While I was reading, I never wanted to close the book! I was always intrigued and changing my theory. All I wanted to do was read, collect the clues and find out more. At one point, I said "I knew it", but no I didn't!
Finally a mystery that doesn't involve a missing child, an unstable female or a same old/ same old premise!
In the mood for a something different? Tired of all the predictable mysteries and underwhelming endings? I would highly recommend this one!
Brilliant! Don't miss it!!!
Thanks so much to Goodreads for this win! And EW for my e-copy! OUT MARCH 2020
Rating: really liked it
3.5 STARS"Do you want to tell me why you're questioning me?"
She unzipped her leather bag and removed a single sheet of paper. "Do you remember a list you wrote for this store's blog, back in 2004? A list called 'Eight Perfect Murders'?"As an avid reader of anything that Peter Swanson writes, I couldn't wait to crack open Eight Perfect Murders. My first love affair with the written word outside of adolescence was with many of the books included on this perfect murders list, including Agatha Christie, Patricia Highsmith, James M. Cain, etc. I'm an only child and an old soul, so most of my years growing up included black and white Alfred Hitchcock movies and books that were written before my parents were born, so you can see why I had such high expectations for this story going in. Overall, I did enjoy Eight Perfect Murders, and I think it will be a smashing hit in the book community.
Our story begins with an introduction to Malcolm Kershaw, and we quickly learn how he became a bookseller and why he's drawn into the FBI's investigation of a series of murders that look alarmingly similar to those in popular mystery novels. Malcolm has penned a list of what he considers to be eight of the most flawless murders carried out in suspenseful fiction, and the agent who interviews him believes the killer is drawing from Kershaw's exact list. Our protagonist isn't certain how he can help, other than to discuss in detail these murders with Agent Gwen Mulvey, but he decides being cooperative is a better way to keep the FBI at bay. If you've read anything by Swanson, then you know that his protagonists always have a secret or two that they are hiding, and it's the reader's job to figure out how big or small those secrets may be.
Obviously I'm not here to spoil the plot for you or tell you how it all wraps up, but I will say that this one has a slightly different feel to it than the author's previous novels. While my favorite aspect of the story was the inclusion of these books that I am so fond of, it also felt like the in depth discussion into these novels halted the flow and pacing of the story at hand. It's also worth noting that, if you haven't read any of the books listed in Malcolm's blog post and are wanting to read them for yourself, you may want to pick those up before starting this one. This isn't a slight against the author; he respectfully chose older books that a large portion of the fiction reading population have already devoured, but there are many spoilers throughout this book for the stories in the list. Aside from this, I thought the final 70% was well done and found myself glued to the book. Swanson pulls his trademark twists and turns, which is always a pleasant experience. If you're looking for a relatively short read full of mysterious nostalgia, put this one on your TBR for March!
*Many thanks to the publisher for providing my review copy.
Rating: really liked it
Peter Swanson writes the dream novel for crime and mystery fiction aficionados as he pays tribute to the genre, with the ideal unreliable narrator in bookseller Malcolm Kershaw who runs and part owns The Old Devil's Bookstore specialising in crime fiction, in Boston, Massachusetts. Many years ago Kershaw compiled in his blog a personal list of the eight perfect murders in crime fiction, it comprises of Agatha Christie’s A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, Ira Levin’s Death Trap, A. A. Milne's Red House Mystery, Anthony Berkeley Cox's Malice Aforethought, James M. Cain's Double Indemnity, John D. Macdonald's The Drowner, and Donna Tartt's A Secret History. In a wintry Boston in the present, FBI Special Agent Gwen Mulvey turns up at Kershaw's bookstore, convinced his list is bleeding from fiction into reality, with a killer working his way through it, guided into committing the perfect murders in real life.
Mulvey co-opts Kershaw into her investigation as they re-read and discuss the books on the list, he is aware he is a suspect, with more of his personal history slowly and skilfully revealed in the narrative. Malcolm is a loner, who struggles to connect with people beyond the initial developments of a relationship, the one and only exception being his beloved wife, Claire Mallory, a woman with her own past trauma and other issues. From childhood, his favourite genre has always been crime fiction although in more recent times he has not been able to read it, instead cribbing from reviews for current crime fiction to cover for his contemporary lack of knowledge. As he visits crime scenes with Mulvey, it becomes increasingly clear as more murders occur replicating those from the original list, that a killer is targeting those connected to him, getting ever closer to the bookseller himself, triggering Kershaw's urgent investigation to identify the killer.
Swanson litters this entire novel with other literary references to numerous well known crime novels, and I should warn readers who want to read from the blog list that they should do so prior to reading this as there are major spoilers included. The creation of the central protagonist, Malcolm Kershaw, and his development is done with skill and Swanson draws on classic well known tropes in the crime fiction genre with panache. This is the perfect multilayered read for crime fiction readers, and I have no doubt that this book will go down a storm on publication. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Faber and Faber for an ARC.
Rating: really liked it
Ooooh this shit SLAPPED! 👏
I love a good thriller gimmick, and following the plot of 8 classic murder mysteries books while they're being copycatted by an unknown killer present day was JUST what I needed.
From page 1 when when this book introduced itself as "Eight Perfect Murders: a memoir" I was hooked. The main character, a bookseller named Malcolm essentially talks directly to the reader, acknowledging what we may be thinking of him and the case throughout, which was *chef's kiss*. We love a smart, self aware narrative style.
So he basically wrote this blog post back in the day about 8 perfect murders from the mystery genre, from The ABC Murders to The Secret History, and now the FBI is on his doorstep looking into a string of real life murders that seems to follow his list. It gets a 4.5⭐ from me.
Thanks to @williammorrowbooks for sending me an early copy
Rating: really liked it
***NOW AVAILABLE***
2 and ½ rounded up to a 3 for a good premise that went very wrong. Being a bookseller I always like books that take place in, about or around a bookstore.
O.K. finished this last night and I thought it was a big disappointment. It moved at a snail's pace, at least for me. It was at 70% on my Kindle before I actually felt the plot was picking up some speed.
Unless you read a lot of Agatha Christi and older mysteries and love them, I think you will get very tired of the mention over and over again about the books that the killer was basing his method of murder on. There was a lot of needless repetition, and I feel I no longer need to read those books as he has told me the plot and the way the murderer committed the crimes for each of these books.
There are so many characters in this book that it will make your head spin. The one that I really enjoyed was Ms. Mulvaney, the FBI agent who gets in trouble for following her instincts and working along with Mal, but she had her own suspicions about what was going on.
I don't understand this author. His first book had so many amoral and nasty things in it that I totally dislilked “All The Beautiful Lies” . The second one I read “Before She Knew Him" I enjoyed. I thought it was clever and fast paced. Now this one, ugh!!
I know I am already the outlier once again but I thought this book was boring. I didn't feel any tension while reading it and I didn’t really care about Mal who seemed self absorbed and was not very quick to figure out what was going on. There are so many red herrings in this book I felt like I was in an aquarium!
I don’t want to turn anyone off from this book so read a variety of reviews, there are plenty of higher reviews out there, we’re all different. I can only give my honest opinion and my feelings of being disappointed in what I had hoped was going to be a great read.
I received an EARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss.
This book is set to publish in March of 2020.
This was a Traveling Sisters buddy read.
