Eight classic murders. One killer thriller fan…

The gripping new thriller from the master of psychological suspense.

A series of unsolved murders with one thing in common: each of the deaths bears an eerie resemblance to the crimes depicted in classic mystery novels.

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.

Can the killer be stopped before all eight of these perfect murders have been re-enacted?

My thoughts on Rules for Perfect Murders

As someone who reads a lot of crime fiction, the idea behind this book is so appealing – a killer reimaging some of the most famous whodunits in fiction. Because, while I haven’t read all the books on Malcolm Kershaw’s list, I completely understand that moment when you finish a book and think ‘wow!, I never saw that coming.’ It’s no wonder he chose it as a topic for a blog post (I may steal it myself!), or that an enterprising killer decided to use that list to have a little deadly fun.

Of course, the question for Malcolm is why his list (his blog wasn’t that popular after all)? And why him? Because the killer definitely seems to have a connection to Malcolm, he just isn’t sure what it is.  And this is where the fun starts, turning Rules for Perfect Murders into a whodunit of its own. I really enjoyed this part of the book – there were plenty of twists and turns to keep me interested and lots of red herrings to keep me guessing.

Then there was Malcolm. At first, he seems perfectly straight-forward, a good man caught up in circumstances he can’t control. Knowing Peter Swanson, though, I should have known better. There was so much more to Malcolm than there first appeared. This added to the book as the novelty of ‘killing by the book’ started to wear thin (for me at least), and left me just where I wanted to be – thinking ‘wow! I never saw that coming’.

Enjoy!

Emma x

Note: I received this book in return for a fair and honest review. All thoughts, feelings and opinions are my own.