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

Product Information

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 was a buddy read with my friend, Marialyce, and we enjoyed our discussion, especially of the ending. Like this? You might also like England’s Finest, by Christopher Fowler or The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda.

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. 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. Once the FBI made the connection between Malcolm’s blog and the murders, the investigation naturally draws Malcolm into the center of it. The eight books Mal has listed for 'Eight Perfect Murders' are ones a lot of us are familiar with, but there were a few there I hadn't read (I will remedy that). Swanson continues to refer to other mysteries throughout the book - I have come away with a huge reading list! This is a bookish book, for bookish people, and one I will be buying a hard copy of. I expect to read it again. If I could nominate this as a modern classic murder mystery, I would. This deserves to be with the Agatha Christies, which is exactly where it will be being placed on my library shelves. Peter Swanson’s latest release Rules for Perfect Murders (also released elsewhere as Eight Perfect Murders) is a very clever novel. I notice Anthony Horowitz has offered up a recommendation quote for the cover, which makes sense as it’s reminiscent of his (more traditional crime fiction) work as well.I’ve listed them because if you have not read them, or seen the movies, and 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... 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!!! I thought about all the press conferences I’d seen over the years, parents trotted out for missing kids, killed kids, abused kids,” she says. “We can be sad, distraught, confused, pleading, forgiving. But not furious. Fury is reserved for other people. The worst thing you can be is an angry woman, an angry mother.” But Eve is angry, and now she has nothing left to lose. The Secret History – Donna Tartt – 1992For 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.

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. 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.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? Swanson maintains the story’s unflagging momentum throughout, and by the time you reach the end, you realise yet another classic mystery is in play. I will let Kershaw himself tell you which it is. No,' I said, but that wasn't entirely true. It did remind me of something, but I couldn't remember exactly what it was. 'I don't think so,' I added. Rules for Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson was published in Australia by Allen & Unwin and is now available.

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. 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.

The Familiar Dark

This was my first Peter Swanson book and I loved it! I connected with the writing, characters and storyline immediately and that connection remained strong throughout. I love that this feels like a tribute to crime mystery thrillers, as it discusses these perfect murders from eight different books in great detail Because crime fiction is fun and entertaining in a way no other genre can match- and Peter Swanson pushed every one of those buttons- knowing his audience, knowing the elements we avid fans enjoy about crime fiction, and weaving them into this story in subtle, shrewd ways, just the way we like it. In Rebecca Fleet’s The Second Wife, Alex is walking home along the seafront one evening when he smells smoke and realises his house is on fire. His wife, Natalie, has escaped, but his daughter, Jade, is still inside. She is rescued by a firefighter, but when she wakes, she tells her father that she was hiding when the fire began, because there was a man in their house. This is a clever book. It is not fast paced; instead the tension builds slowly, imperturbably. There is only one narrator, Mal, the owner of a bookshop specialising in mysteries. There is a lot of dialogue, something I don't usually enjoy, but it works well here. There is a lot about this book that is different - in the very best of ways. I loved every moment of this read.

The story is told in first person which in this book really worked, though the author does do a little cheat by not telling use everything that the character knows. The plot is complicated but in the more than competent hands of Swanson I was never lost. The author does break the forth wall is several places coming out of the story and talking to the reader. Cool. It burst the ever sought after, Fictive Dream but in this case blended in with the voice and was almost expected. What I thought truly brilliant about this story is how the author disguises an old trope that has yet again risen in popularity, the plot in Strangers on a Train where strangers kill for each other to mire the motive and opportunity. The character is alive and three dimensional and I was with him all the way. The book starts a little slow and continues to spin up in suspense. I thought I knew what was happening and was reassured when the author broke the fourth wall and asked the reader if he/she/they caught the clues given and listed them. Nice. Very atmospheric, and if this book were a movie, I could picture it being made in “Autochrome Lumiere” (that muted color) as Boston was experiencing a very, snowy Winter throughout this story, and I could picture the cold nights and see the warm glow of lamps, as Mal, And Gwen reread the books on the list, and tried to figure out who the murderer could be... Malcolm Kershaw, owner of the Old Devil’s Bookstore, in Boston once compiled a list titled “Eight Perfect Murders”.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!) 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!)