The voice of Malcolm Kershaw in Peter Swanson's Eight Perfect Murders won me over immediately even though it's crystal clear within the first few sentences that he's an unreliable narrator. (He even admits it.) Furthermore, he's the owner of a bookstore specializing in mysteries, and he doesn't read the genre. Interesting, eh? So the more readers fall under Mal's spell, the more they wonder just how much they can trust what he's telling them.

The city of Boston came alive for me as I read, and I loved all the literary and mystery allusions. By about the halfway mark, if readers stop and think about it, the identity of the killer is rather obvious, but I found myself not wanting to think about it and just let the story take me along for a very enjoyable ride.

One of my favorite passages in the book is this: "Books are time travel. True readers all know this. But books don't just take you back to the time in which they were written; they can take you back to different versions of yourself." I've found this to be true. If you're in the mood for a damaged main character with a compelling voice who will draw you into the world of books and mysteries and killers on the loose, pick up a copy of Eight Perfect Murders. It's a good'un, and I'm hoping to hear from Mal Kershaw again.

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Before reading this book, I had never read anything by this author but I shall look for his books in the future! His style of writing intrigued me from the beginning and the premise of this story was so very unusual. At first I was tempted a few times to just put the book down but I was continually drawn to it and about halfway through, I just didn't want to put it down at all. It's a great mystery and even though the characters don't give you the warm fuzzies, the reader definitely gets to know just what they're all about. Try it and if you're a mystery hound, I think you'll like it!

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I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery. Mal is co-owner of a mystery bookstore in Boston. The scenes that take place in the bookstore just felt so realistic and I loved that the book talked so much about mystery books. A blog that Mal wrote about books that contained the perfect murders is now being used by a killer to actually replicate those murders. Lots of characters and throughout, I just felt chilled like I was living in a Boston winter. Read this book. It's a winner.

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I have enjoyed every book that I have read by Swanson. This one may be my new favorite. I enjoyed this so much more than I expected! This is a delight for a thriller book lover like me! Our protagonist, Mal, is owner of Old Devils Bookshop in Boston. There is even a bookshop cat (wait until you get his story!). Mal wrote a blog years ago entitled "Eight Perfect Murders" based on mystery books that he considered to have pulled off the perfect murder in their plots. In the present someone is using his list to commit actual murders in real life. This list of actual published books is given to us very early in the book so I don't feel it's a spoiler to include one of the books from the list that I learned about and now must read! Are you ready for this? Who knew A.A. Milne (Yes, Winnie the Pooh author!) wrote a murder mystery entitled THE RED HOUSE MYSTERY? Well, I sure didn't. So that was an exciting bonus. Back to Swanson's book, though. It has twists and turns, some plot surprises and a chilling ending. Just perfect!

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