The Kind Worth Killing

It's always great to discover a new-to-me author of crime thrillers like Peter Swanson. His two ultra-deceptive main characters deliver shocking surprises.

Two strangers meet in a London lounge, awaiting their flight to Boston. Ted is handsome and married. Lily is beautiful and also married. Attracted to one another, they sit together on the plane and swap stores of their not-so-blissful lives. When Ted reveals that his wife is cheating on him, Lily says, “Sounds like the kind worth killing.” Ted says, “How would I do it?” “So you don't get caught.”

A cross between Gone Girl and Strangers on… show more.

Although a suspense novel rather than a mystery, this one utilizes plenty of tricks to keep you enthralled and guessing. It starts with a “Strangers on a Train” kind of premise, the exchanging of murders by people who just met. Then it takes off, morphing into unexpected incarnations, each one exciting and satisfying.  If you become a fan, and I’m betting you will, be warned. Swanson uses similar plot developments in his other books. This is by far his best one.

Domestic Thrillers: I love Harlan Coben and Gillian Flynn and a half-dozen other authors that pen domestic thrillers, but I picked up Swanson’s Eight Perfect Murders last summer, loved it, and began snarfing up his other novels, of which my favorite is The Kind Worth Killing. It’s like strangers on a plane instead of strangers on a train (nuff said). Swanson certainly is a fan of classic mystery authors (Agatha Christie, Patricia Highsmith, etc.) as well as Alfred Hitchcock films. He’s got another half-dozen books in play, all of which deserve your immediate attention.