Reviewed by Craig Sisterson
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?
The foreshadowing was perhaps clear in Swanson’s earlier, excellent novels such as The Kind Worth Killing and Her Every Fear. The Massachusetts authors has a resume stacked with fiendish twists, strong characters and nods towards mystery writing greats such as Highsmith and Hitchcock.
As he's shown in those earlier books, Swanson is a master of taking a set-up with echoes of classic tales, then providing a fresh and modern twist, taking things beyond what may be expected from the blurb and delivering far more than a simple homage. I've thoroughly enjoyed Swanson's earlier work, so went into this new tale with some pretty high expectations, given the backcover blurb hinted that he was really embracing his love for the crime genre and the classic tales that have gone before.
In Rules for Perfect Murders (entitled Eight Perfect Murders in the United States), Swanson does indeed lean hard into his love for the mystery genre, centring this latest novel on a specialist mystery bookshop and a bookseller who gets caught up in a series of murders that echo famed cases from classic mystery novels. Malcolm Kershaw is co-owner of the Old Devil’s Bookstore in Boston. Years ago, he published a blog post listing some of the least detectable murders from the mystery genre, his favourite ‘perfect crimes’. Now he’s visited by FBI Special Agent Gwen Mulvey, who’s noticed a few unsolved deaths that possibly echo the fictional killings on Michael’s list.
Is someone mimicking the likes of Agatha Christie and James M Cain? Has Winnie the Pooh creator AA Milne’s droll whodunnit The Red House Mystery inspired a modern-day killer? And what of our narrator Malcolm – is he a knowledgeable expert merely helping the FBI, a target, or maybe a suspect? Swanson keeps readers on their toes, with plenty of suspects, swerves, and red herrings.
Overall, Swanson delivers an absorbing, cerebral mystery that should titillate fans of the genre on several fronts. There’s plenty of ‘inside baseball’, so to speak - and a warning that this book does contain some spoilers for those who haven’t read some of the classic tales that are referenced - and also a lot of love for this genre we enjoy. Malcolm is an engaging and unreliable guide, and the pages melt by. A stay-up-all-night kind of tale that tickles the mind more than the adrenal glands. Fun.
Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at books festivals on three continents. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. You can heckle him on Twitter.
No comments:
Post a Comment