Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson
Malcom Kershaw is the co-owner of a bookstore in Boston that specializes in murder mystery novels. After what he did, he can no longer read them. His life has been ordinary, if not dull, until the moment an FBI agent tracks him down and asks him about a blog he wrote for the store years ago - “Eight Perfect Murders.” The pair scope out the possibility that someone is recreating murders from this list one by one. Mal almost immediately sees it for what it is - someone is trying to point the murders towards the list and Mal himself. Will Mal be able to solve the mystery and find the killer before he’s framed for the crimes himself? This was so good but definitely on the darker side. The beginning of the book when we saw where Mal lived and the beginning of the mystery made me think of Hal in Ruth Ware’s The Death of Mrs. Westaway (definitely also recommend this one!). I also wondered more than once if a bookseller obsessed with literature who may or may not be a killer but is definitely comfortable with breaking and entering may have been inspired by Joe in the YOU series by Caroline Kepnes. If you enjoyed that series, you will enjoy this of a similar vibe. It is not often that I predict the end game of the novel and still find the ending rewarding but this ending did reward and also answered some nagging questions. I’d love to see Gwen come back as a main character in a future Swanson novel. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 - 4.5/5
