Cleverly plotted and brilliantly good fun for any crime fiction aficionado, Rules for Perfect Murders is Peter Swanson’s homage to some of the most ingenious and foolproof methods of dispatch in the history of the genre. It also features one of his trademark complex characters with forty-something bookseller and widower, Malcolm (Mal) Kershaw, the novels sole (unreliable) narrator. Mal co-owns speciality used and new mystery bookstore, Old Devils, in Boston where daily footfall often barely reaches double figures. Despite no longer having the stomach for reading contemporary crime Mal does a good job of pretending and smiling in the right places, however the arrival of FBI Agent Gwen Mulvey to pick his brains on the genre is something he could well do without, especially given the news she breaks...
Agent Mulvey is investigating several unsolved murders that have all taken place within the last year in New England and which she believes have taken their cue from famous crime fiction novels (The A.B.C Murders and Double Indemnity for starters). Intuition and a Google search has brought her to Mal’s door by way of an old blog post that he wrote for the store called ‘Eight Perfect Murders’ in 2004. Mulvey has a theory that someone is using his list to commit a series of murders and asks him to reread the books and assist her investigation despite Mal being sure that he himself is considered a suspect. But if someone is using Mal’s list to frame him or attract his attention, might he be in serious danger? And just how closely connected to him are they?
Much discussion of famous novels ensues as Mal’s narrative unravels his back story and the death of his troubled wife, Claire Mallory, five years earlier. But Mal has something to hide and as he second-guesses himself and those closest to him in a bid to end the killing spree and protect his secret, the result is a fast-paced and satisfying story. The denouement is classic Swanson brilliance and Mal’s story, the hat tips to the genre and the deft trail of clues along the way kept me fully invested in a suspenseful novel that was a memorably entertaining ride!
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Firstly, I'd like to thank Netgalley and Faber & Faber for the eARC of this book for an honest review.This isn't my first Peter Swanson book. I read Before She Knew Him a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it! I was definitely expecting good things! I thought that the idea behind this book was very unique with the murderer following a blog post of '8 Perfect Murders' written by the MC, Mal. I enjoyed following Mal's narrative and listening (audiobook) to how the story panned out. I loved that a lot of the book was set in the book shop Old Devils. It sounds like such a great place and with Nero the cat that lived there, even better.I found that I always wanted to read this book. It didn't take me long to get through it as I was so intrigued to see how it would end. I liked how the narrator spoke to the reader and by the end we know why. I thought that the ending was really good. I didn't expect who it was. Also I was left with a lot of thinking when I finished this one. Peter Swanson always creates such brilliant unreliable narrators and Mal is another great one!
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