Rules for Perfect Murders: The 'fiendishly good' Richard and Judy Book Club pick

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The thing that makes this story work, is the same thing that makes all mysteries work. My appetite for a good mystery never wanes. I can never go too long without reading some form of crime fiction.

I need a Gibberish translator right now! Because this is only language I may fluently speak after reading this book. Fcjeijfiojopi50ov! See! I lost control my thoughts again! I cannot form a proper sentence!

The Second Wife

Mal is very matter-of-fact in his telling of this narrative, I thought. I imagined him to have a dry tone even as he relates everything going on because he is beginning to realise he’s not where he wants to be. It’s when he talks about Claire, about their life together tha t I can feel the anger and love in his words. He has made us care about a character who, if not actively dislikeable, has nothing to commend him. The protagonist makes a point of telling us that he finds it easy enough to make someone’s surface acquaintance but almost impossible to move beyond that to real friendship, and that is exactly the way the reader feels about him Peter Swanson’s books are so psychologically smart. Gosh! It would be easiest to tell you that I loved it all, and I pretty much did. Malcolm’s love for books was pretty darn special. Eight Perfect Murders often felt like a classic murder mystery, and I loved every bit of that. It was like a story within a story. The ending was extremely satisfactory, and overall, I just plain loved it.

Mal is a book nerd, who nonetheless expected to be living a different life from the one he has. He takes us through meeting his wife, Claire, her death and how she shaped and changed him – while at the same time readers are on the journey in the present with him and Gwen as they try to figure out who is copying his favourite murders. I loved the author's book, The Kind Worth Killing. This book has once again made me a fan of Peter Swanson. The deaths lead FBI Agent Gwen Mulvey to mystery bookshop Old Devils. Owner Malcolm Kershaw had once posted online an article titled ‘My Eight Favourite Murders,’ and there seems to be a deadly link between the deaths and his list – which includes Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. Gwen and Malcolm realise that the killer may not be killing victims in the exact same manner as the author wrote the original murders in the books and the victim themselves may not be targets, but it’s the intent that’s important. But still….The eight books Mal has listed for 'Eight Perfect Murders' are ones a lot of us are familiar with, but there were a few there I hadn't read (I will remedy that). Swanson continues to refer to other mysteries throughout the book - I have come away with a huge reading list! This is a bookish book, for bookish people, and one I will be buying a hard copy of. I expect to read it again. If I could nominate this as a modern classic murder mystery, I would. This deserves to be with the Agatha Christies, which is exactly where it will be being placed on my library shelves. Peter Swanson remains one of my go to authors and though this one didn't grab me, I will still be watching for his next release. The protagonist, Malcolm Kershaw, is the co-owner of the Old Devils Bookstore, a place specializing in mysteries. One day, an FBI agent enters the store and begins to question him about several murders, which may or may not be related. What has brought Malcolm to her attention is a blog post he wrote when he was first hired at Old Devils: "Eight Perfect Murders." It's a list of eight mystery/thriller novels that contain, in Malcolm's opinion, the most "perfect", unsolvable, uncatchably brilliant murders. Thing is, some of the recent murders seem oddly similar to several of the "perfect" murders in the novels listed. Told from Mal’s perspective, readers are swept along in his narrative as he is approached by an FBI agent, Gwen, and asked for his input regarding a series of murders that seem to be based on a list he once wrote for his bookshop’s blog called Eight Perfect Murders.