Eight Perfect Murders | Stephanie's Book Reviews

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Synopsis from Goodreads:

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.

Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of the genre’s most unsolvable murders, those that are almost impossible to crack—which he titled “Eight Perfect Murders”—chosen from among the best of the best including Agatha Christie’s A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, Ira Levin’s Death Trap, A. A. Milne’s Red House Mystery, Anthony Berkeley Cox’s Malice Aforethought, James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity, John D. Macdonald’s The Drowner, and Donna Tartt’s A Secret History.

But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookshop in Boston, when an FBI agent comes knocking on his door one snowy day in February. She’s looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that look eerily similar to the killings on Mal’s old list. And the FBI agent isn’t the only one interested in this bookseller who spends almost every night at home reading. 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.

I received a copy of this title via a giveaway on Goodreads. It does not impact my review.

Eight Perfect Murders publishes on March 3, 2020.

I don’t always know what to expect when I start a Peter Swanson book, but I do know it’s going to be addictive and hard to put down.

I really like Swanson’s writing style. There’s always good character development, slightly unreliable narrators, and little surprises placed effectively throughout the story. Though the book wasn’t fast-paced, I couldn’t read it fast enough. I just find the writing so compelling and I had to know what was going to happen next. I also thought Swanson did a good job of giving us multiple suspects. I will admit that while I did ultimately suspect the murderer, it was only one of my suspects out of many and was not even one of my top three guesses.

Long time mystery book lovers will enjoy the mentions of several books. However, I think you’ll still enjoy the book love even if you haven’t read any of the novels mentioned. Even though this genre is the one I read the most of, I’ve read very few of the “classics” and have not read any of the books listed here – or even heard of a few of them. As a lover of books, though, I still enjoyed the many literary references and general feeling of booknerdom.

Overall, I really enjoyed Eight Perfect Murders. I liked all the book references and the main character and the addictive writing. I thought the ending was a little unsatisfying, though, and wish there was a bigger twist. However, I still had a great time reading this book and definitely recommend it to mystery fans.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 4 Stars

I read a lot of books that I don’t end up reviewing for whatever reason. Some because I wasn’t impressed. Some because I didn’t have the time. Some I just wasn’t feeling it on whatever particular day I finished. Reviewing the Unreviewed is my monthly post where I share my few thoughts on all the books I didn’t formally review.

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Carpool (Milford College #1) by Noelle Adams. Read January 31-February 2. 3.5 Stars.

Jennifer frustrated me sometimes, but I did ship her and Marcus. I liked the small town setting and would’ve liked to have seen even more of that. Overall, this was a cute romance. I got it as a free e-book deal and I’m not sure if it’s still available for free, but definitely worth checking into if you’re a Romance reader.

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Throw Like a Girl by Sarah Henning. Read February 4-6. 3.5 Stars.

This had a few issues, but it was cute. I liked Liv’s family and how close she was with her brother. I liked how quickly the football team accepted her, even if it felt a little unrealistic. I thought the romance with Liv and Grey was pretty adorable, too.

There were some things that didn’t really work for me, though. I thought Liv picked up football way too quickly. We’re basically supposed to believe that she’s never played before, but she has a savant level spiral and is a good athlete and it takes her no time at all to be basically their best player. There’s also obviously a big dramatic moment with the romance and I thought it was resolved a little too easily. I read the part where things are supposed to be explained and afterwards I honestly had to re-read it because there was nothing in it that seemed worthy of a resolution to me. There were a few other nitpicky things here and there, but overall this was enjoyable.

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Anti-Stepbrother by Tijan. Read February 14-15. 4 Stars.

I loved this so much! It wasn’t at all what I was expecting, it ended up being much more. Summer was pretty quirky, which doesn’t always work for me, but I found her likable. I thought most of the characters were pretty likable and the angst and drama were on the low side, which was nice. I absolutely adored Caden and Summer together. It was kind of an enemies-to-friends-to-more story and I was here for it. I loved their friendship and it was kind of a slow burn to them getting together. I appreciated the “fade to black” love scenes. It really focused more on their relationship and feelings and it was so sweet and I just loved it. I’ve been disappointed by a lot of books lately, but this one totally broke me out of my slump.

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Ryan’s Bed by Tijan. Read February 15-16. 3 Stars.

I had a hard time getting into this one. It was a pretty depressing read, mostly exploring grief. I think there were some very realistic emotions, but I wish that more attention would have been drawn to how Mackenzie’s coping methods were pretty unhealthy. And even though I liked the relationship between her and Ryan, I couldn’t help feeling like Ryan kind of took advantage of her.

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A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. Read February 16-18. 3 Stars.

I thought this was ok, but not anything special. I’m kind of bummed I wasted one of YA BOTM credits on it. I liked Pip and Ravi, though Pip’s behavior did annoy me sometimes. There were several things I rolled my eyes at, but for the most part I thought the evolution of the mystery was pretty well done. It felt a little too long, though, and I lost interest well before the end of the book. And there were a couple scenes that felt completely lifted from tv shows I’ve watched.