Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson REVIEW

Summary:

Thom and Wendy Graves have been married for over twenty-five years. They live in a beautiful Victorian on the north shore of Massachusetts. Wendy is a published poet and Thom teaches English literature at a nearby university. Their son, Jason, is all grown up. All is well…except that Wendy wants to murder her husband.

What happens next has everything to do with what happened before. The story of Wendy and Thom’s marriage is told in reverse, moving backward through time to witness key moments from the couple’s lives—their fiftieth birthday party, buying their home, Jason’s birth, the mysterious death of a work colleague—all painting a portrait of a marriage defined by a single terrible act they plotted together many years ago.

Eventually we learn the details of what Thom and Wendy did in their early twenties, a secret that has kept them bound together through the length of their marriage. But its power over them is fraying, and each of them begins to wonder if they would be better off making sure their spouse carries their secrets to the grave.

My Thoughts:

This was an interesting read. From the beginning, we know that Wendy wants to kill Thom, and she does, but the novel takes us back in time to the reason they were together in the first place. Wendy and Thom dated in middle school until he moved away. When they meet again years later, they hatch a plan to kill her husband together so that she can get his money and can marry Thom. Years later, Thom is struggling with the guilt of what he did and not being able to talk about it with anyone else, prompting him to write a fictionalized version of what happened, which sends Wendy over the edge.

I enjoyed the writing and the story, but it is a bit lackluster when it comes to Thom's character development. He seems like a one dimensional character despite being important in the overarching story.

My Rating: 3 stars

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson REVIEW

 Summary:

Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershow compiled a list of fiction's most unsolvable murders - which he titled "Eight Perfect Murders" - chosen from among the best of the best, including Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders, Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train, and Ira Levin's Deathtrap.

But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, when an FBI agent comes looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that appear eerily similar to the killings on Mal's old list. And the agent isn't the only one interested in the bookseller. The killer is out there, watching his every move - a diabolical threat who knows way too much about Mal's personal history, especially the secrets he's never told anyone, even his recently deceased wife.

To protect himself, Mal begins looking into possible suspects . . . and sees a killer in everyone around him. But Mal doesn't count on the investigation leaving a trail of death in its wake. Suddenly, a series of shocking twists leaves more victims dead - and the noose around Mal's neck grows so tight he might never escape.

My Thoughts:

This book was SO GOOD OMG. A great example of an unreliable narrator.

Mal owns a bookstore with his friend and author Brian Murray. On a stormy winter day, he goes to close up shop when Agent Mulvey appears to tell him about the recent murders and the possible connection to his list from an old, abandoned blog.

She enlists him to think of the murders and try to figure out what other books from the list match up. Mulvey even takes him to a crime scene from a local woman that Mal was acquainted with. However, she gets taken off of the case because there was a possible connection to her father's murder in this case. The other agents don't seem to take this case seriously, as they do absolutely nothing at all. So Mal starts to look into things.

Past secrets are revealed - his wife had cheated on him and was a drug addict. After her death he arranged an anonymous murder swap. Mal kills someone a stranger wants dead, and the stranger kills the man who supplied his wife with drugs.

Later on, it's revealed that he was responsible for his wife's death - Mal's driving was the reason she swerved off the road and crashed. He also has a year unaccounted for after the murder swap - Mal thinks he may have also killed the agent's father.

Mal was not the only one responsible though - most of the murders were done by his anonymous friend. They end up meeting when he checks up on Brian and Tess. The killer wants Mal to partner up and kill his friends, but Mal ends up shooting the killer himself.

He then calls the agent to tell her all of the story before going into hiding.

This is maybe the second book that I've read this year that blew my mind this much. So, yeah. I definitely recommend it.

My Rating: 5 stars