Several years ago, fictional Boston bookstore owner Malcolm Kershaw wrote a blog post listing the eight most perfect murders in crime fiction–among them: Agatha Christie’s The A.B.C. Murders, James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity and Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train.
Now, in Peter Swanson’s Eight Perfect Murders, an FBI agent thinks someone is using Kershaw’s list as a script. As he and the agent work together to see if it’s true, the connections appear real, but soon the reader begins to suspect that Kershaw is not all that he seems.
The result is a a suspenseful, well-written homage to classic mystery stories that offers both a bleak noir atmosphere and the charms of a puzzle mystery.
For the full text of my review for The Associated Press, please click here.
Bruce DeSilva's Rogue Island 