Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

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A chilling tale of psychological suspense and an homage to the thriller genre tailor-made for fans: the story of a bookseller who finds himself at the center of an FBI investigation because a very clever killer has started using his list of fiction’s most ingenious murders.

Last year my book club read Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson (which was my recommendation!). I really enjoyed that book, so I was eager to pick up another Peter Swanson book, especially since a reviewer I follow on Goodreads had given Eight Perfect Murders a high rating.

This book centers around Malcolm, the owner of a mystery book shop. One day an FBI agent walks into his ship questioning him about a blog entry he wrote for the store’s website titled “Eight Perfect Murders,” which was about the eight mystery books with which he thinks contain the perfect murders. There are some unsolved murders the agent is looking into that seem to be following a pattern fairly similar to his list.

I didn’t like this one as much as “Before She Knew Him” and to me it was not as gripping. The mystery in itself was a bit of fun, and there were plenty misdirection’s to keep me guessing, but it was almost too many. There were also some characters and plot lines that I felt didn’t really serve their purpose. This was fast paced, and maybe a little too fast, as sometimes it felt rushed. But I still enjoyed the ride, and will read more of Peter Swanson.