Be warned: this book does spoil the plot of all eight novels mentioned in the blurb - The A.B.C. Some I knew well some I'd never heard of. Not just the eight at the centre of the story, but many great crime novels. And, wow, I just really loved the exploration of all these novels.

Malcolm gets dragged into the investigation, part aid and part suspect, and it's not a spoiler to say we learn very quickly he has a lot of secrets of his own. Thing is, some of the recent murders seem oddly similar to several of the 'perfect' murders in the novels listed. 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. One day, an FBI agent enters the store and begins to question him about several murders, which may or may not be related. The protagonist, Malcolm Kershaw, is the co-owner of the Old Devils Bookstore, a place specializing in mysteries. I've only read one other Swanson book so far ( Before She Knew Him) and this one was very different. There's a lot I can't say about Eight Perfect Murders, but I'll try to give you some idea what it's like.

I just didn't know I wanted to read a mystery about one until now! When Goodreads or Buzzfeed or whatever posts a list of '50 Must-Read _ Books' or '10 Most Anticipated Books of _', then you can bet I'm clicking. This book scratched an itch I didn't even know I had, so to speak. What an adventure this book was! There's no denying that Eight Perfect Murders was a good deal more meta than my usual thriller picks, but I thoroughly enjoyed this romp through the mystery/thriller/crime genre- from the classics to the modern to the obscure.

Peter swanson rules for perfect murders