Rules for Perfect Murders: The ‘fiendishly good’ new thriller from the bestselling author

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Mal is very matter-of-fact in his telling of this narrative, I thought. I imagined him to have a dry tone even as he relates everything going on because he is beginning to realise he’s not where he wants to be. It’s when he talks about Claire, about their life together tha t I can feel the anger and love in his words. I’ve listed them because if you have not read them, or seen the movies, and you read this book...the plots will be spoiled for you! 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. Peter Swanson remains one of my go to authors and though this one didn't grab me, I will still be watching for his next release.

Malcolm’s narration is a brilliant touch, as the reader finds themselves caught up in his saga, especially when it becomes clear that he’s gotten himself into a real jam, going from quiet bookstore owner to a man with his own secrets, with danger lurking around every corner... The blog piece that Malcolm wrote includes: The Red House Mystery – A.A. (Alan Alexander) Milne – 1922 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! The Red House Mystery, Malice Aforethought, The A.B.C. Murders, Double Indemnity, Strangers on a Train, The Drowner, Deathtrap and The Secret History. 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.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.

Mal ends up taking on some leads into the investigation himself. He has to for his own safety. Will this game of cat and mouse ever stop? He posted them on his blog, and now, FBI agent Gwen Mulvey has arrived at the bookstore, one cold, snowy night because she thinks there might be a killer out there, recreating the Murders from his list: Do you need to know about the plots and twists and turns of the books mentioned? No, I don’t think so. I knew some of them, but not others and it didn’t detract from the rest of the book. Okay, gushing about the literary bits overAs we follow Malcolm's narration, a tribute to mystery novels develops alongside the intriguing and puzzling plot, touching on many of the various representations of crime fiction over the years. Personally, I thought Swanson did a great job with weaving a mystery around the eight novels on Malcolm’s list, showcasing their magnificence, while supplying a sly dose of irony and satire that often made me smile.

What did I learn from making this list? That perfect murders, at least the artful kind we find in books, are all about concealment and misdirection. They have a lot in common with well-executed magic: it’s all about fooling the detectives (and the readers), making us look away from where the crime is happening. Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders, another book on Malcolm’s list, is a textbook example: it appears as though a psychopath is bumping off victims according to the initials of their names, but the truth is something else altogether. Poirot, naturally, is not misled, and the world can be set to rights. DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Faber & Faber via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of Rules For A Perfect Murder by Peter Swanson for review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own personal opinions.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!) The deaths lead FBI Agent Gwen Mulvey to mystery bookshop Old Devils. Owner Malcolm Kershaw had once posted online an article titled 'My Eight Favourite Murders,' and there seems to be a deadly link between the deaths and his list - which includes Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders, Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train and Donna Tartt's The Secret History. This is the fourth book I’ve read by Swanson, all of which feature complex and interesting characters and often an ethical or moral dilemma or two. Although I was a tad disappointed in some of the leaps in logic (here) this is a very clever and engaging book, offering up a lot of twists and surprises.

Lately, there is a very definite trend for murderers who get away with it. Highsmith got there first, offering up Tom Ripley in five books filled with his unsolved crimes. Nowadays, just in the realm of TV, we have Dexter, the serial killer who hunts his own kind, and the cut-off-in-its-prime Hannibal, an artful, imaginative riff on the world of Thomas Harris’s Hannibal Lecter. Then there’s Ruth Wilson’s sly performance as Alice Morgan on Luther, stealing the limelight from Idris Elba, and Jody Comer’s brilliant assassin in Killing Eve, adding a sense of humour to the killing game. As the book progresses go, his retelling of the present begins to take on a tinge of fear as he begins to put pieces together and realises just what is going on — and who is killing people he knows, and more importantly why. Written by Peter Swanson — Anthony Horowitz calls this entertaining new puzzle mystery by Peter Swanson ‘fiendish good fun’, and that really hits the nail on the head. It pulls together some of the best plots from past crime novels and combines them in a deliciously innovative way. Eve has been anticipating disaster from the second her daughter Junie was born. Twelve years later, as The Familiar Dark opens, it arrives, as Junie and her best friend Izzy are murdered in the local park. He isn’t surprised when Special Agent Claire Mallory shows up in his bookstore wanting to question him, but he is surprised when she wants to question him about a blog list he wrote several years ago.Is the murderer trying to frame him, to catch his attention, or will he be the next victim? As the body count continues to mount, Kershaw inevitably tries to protect himself by starting his own investigations into whom the murderer might be. The number of twists that course of action takes will have you second-guessing Kershaw, the FBI, and yourself! So…what happens when people start mysteriously dying and their deaths are strikingly similar to those murders on his list? Well....the FBI comes calling! That’s what! Surely this is nothing more than a disturbing coincidence? Or is someone really following his little “favorites” list! With Johnson’s death, the murder spree veers much too close to Kershaw. She was a particularly troublesome regular at Old Devils Bookstore who’d moved away, thankfully. He hopes to hide this connection from Agent Mulvey, and it’s only the first of his many cleverly disguised secrets, as you gradually realise what an unreliable narrator you have on your hands. Mulvey isn’t telling him everything either, of course, and from the beginning you may have doubts about her and the entire investigation. Malcolm Kershaw, owner of the Old Devil’s Bookstore, in Boston once compiled a list titled “Eight Perfect Murders”.