The Kind Worth Killing

by Peter Swanson

You should never talk to strangers...Gone Girl meets Strangers on a Train in this year's must-read psychological thriller. "Extremely hard to put down". (Sophie Hannah). "Chilling and hypnotically suspenseful". (Lee Child). 'Hello there.' I looked at the pale, freckled hand on the back of the empty bar seat next to me in the business class lounge of Heathrow airport, then up into the stranger's face. 'Do I know you?' Delayed in London, Ted Severson meets a woman at the airport bar. Over cocktails they tell each other rather more than they should, and a dark plan is hatched - but are either of them being serious, could they actually go through with it and, if they did, what would be their chances of getting away with it? Back in Boston, Ted's wife Miranda is busy site managing the construction of their dream home, a beautiful house out on the Maine coastline. But what secrets is she carrying and to what lengths might she go to protect the vision she has of her deserved future? A sublimely plotted novel of trust and betrayal, The Kind Worth Killing will keep you gripped and guessing late into the night.

• ISBN13: 9780571302192
• Publish Date: 5 February 2015 (first published 3 February 2015)
• Publish Status: Transferred
• Out of Print: 26 September 2015
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Faber & Faber
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

This is probably the best Peter Swanson book I've read so far. The multiple character POV's added to the suspense, while the various twists had me re-evaluating my ending predictions. Swanson does a fantastic job making the main (villainous) character likeable! It was odd rooting for a murderer, but alas, I was.

The plot, although not original, had good momentum in the beginning, but I definitely prefer more action with a book such as this. Excessive details of landmarks and weather with only a handful of action points is what really slowed the book down for me. It felt more like a mystery and less like a thriller. 

Overall, the mainstream plot combined with mediocre action points is what ultimately decided my 3 star review. The various plot twists are this book's best quality and for that alone it's worth the read.

[Leah]

When I spotted The Kind Worth Killing on Edelweiss, I was intrigued. I'm trying to read more crime thrillers this year - with success, actually, and this one sounded right up my alley. The idea of two people meeting in an airport bar and confessing they would quite happily like to murder someone - in this case, Ted's wife Miranda, with Lily encouraging him right from the start, was a beginning to a novel unlike any I've ever seen. It was hypnotic and hugely engrossing. There was no fanfare, no long and winding build up to the main event, once Ted and Lily got talking and decided to meet after the plane journey, you just knew it was on, and I liked the fact the novel just got straight to the point.

What I liked even more was that the novel is split in to three parts, and the end of each part leaves you gasping. There was a pretty major event at the end of part 1 which I didn't see coming in a million years. One minute you're reading about a vengeful husband and his accomplice Lily, and the next it's all on its head and you're reading something else entirely. It was pretty amazing, actually, even if I do feel sad for the person who left us at the end of Act I. From there it just gets even more twisted and complicated and it was delightful. It was so intriguing to see the different points of view - Ted, Miranda, Lily, Detective Kimball, and to see who would eventually come out the winner; if anyone can win at killing people, obviously.

Lily was by far the most compelling character. I liked Ted a lot, he was very much an innocent in regards to what he wanted to do to his wife, but Lily was an enigma right from the start. She was just so freaking honest about what she wanted to do and seeing what she did in the past left me somewhat open-mouthed at just how callous she was at disposing of people. By far my favourite of her disposal methods was that of her cheating boyfriend. It was very well played. I liked how honest Lily was. She knew what she was, and she knew what job she had to do again and again and again, and she did it and excelled at it. In novels like these, the honest character always wins for me.

The Kind Worth Killing is one of the twistiest novels I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Just when you think it's all sorted, all figured out, along comes another twist in the tail. And none were as shocking as the one at the very end. It was very much an open-ending, but the way it ended, the manner of the ending, left you in no doubt what was going to happen and I confess, it did make me sad. I can't say why without ruining the whole book, but if you want to chat about it after you've read it, come and yell at me and we'll talk. I never expected as much as I got from the novel and that made it all the more delightful. It was amazing to see all the twists and turns come at me, and try to figure it all out, The Kind Worth Killing is one of the more impressive books I've read this year for sure.