The Kind Worth Killing: A Novel

The story is about Ted Severson and Lily Kitner, who meet on a flight back to the US from London. Ted is distraught because he had recently caught his gorgeous wife, Miranda, cheating on him with their general contractor, Brad. Ted and Miranda live in Boston but are building a luxury home on the coast of southern Maine. Ted was going to surprise Miranda for a visit because she spends a great deal of time in Maine supervising the building of the house while it is being built. On his surprise visit, as he is approaching the home, he sees Miranda and Brad through the windows having sex in the kitchen. On the flight, Ted is drunkenly telling the story to Lily, a complete stranger (he thinks-which adds so much suspense to the story later) and in his inebriated state says he is so mad that he wants to kill Miranda. To his utter surprise, Lily responds by saying something along the lines of "Well why don't you just kill her then?" At first Ted is shocked but as Lily talks openly about her thoughts of people with morals like Miranda and of murdering people, Ted becomes convinced that he should kill Miranda. He doesn't want to divorce her and let her have half of his fortune after what she has done to him and Lily has put forth a pretty solid plan on murdering both Miranda and Brad to make it look like Brad is the killer. Lily would be Ted's alibi and, to Ted, it looks like all should go as planned.Ted and Lily meet a few times to make plans and then the plan should be put into action. However, things go awry. And I mean they ago crazy and the story goes all over the place, but not in a way that the reader can't follow the story. The author just does an excellent job of taking the storyline and flipping it on its head. This story goes everywhere. I can honestly say I had no idea what was going to happen next. I was compelled to keep listening because I had to know what was going to happen. I couldn't believe what I was reading! I kept saying to myself "Is this really happening?" and "Are they nuts?" I was all over the place with my feelings. It really got in my head because I just couldn't stop thinking about it. When I started this book, I really didn't have time to read it so I listened in pieces and then had to start over, but when I re-started it again a few days ago, I got hooked and listened to it pretty much straight through and got to a point where I just couldn't listen to it in my car anymore. So I brought it inside and listened until very late into the evening to the very end and had everything figured out.The chapters switch voices between Ted and Lily at first and then some major twists and turns take place and in the following two parts of the book, Lily and two other voices take over in the telling of the story. I don't want to say whose voices take over because that may lead into spoiler land. It was very well written and the major characters; Ted, Lily, and Miranda; were very well developed and I felt like I knew everything about them and what made each of them tick. The storyline flowed well but like I said, there were a few times that it was literally flipped on it's head. However, the twists and turns didn't make the story confusing, it added more suspense. This was a pure thrill ride that got into your head like an earworm and made you keep thinking about it over and over until you just couldn't stop and you had to know what was happening and just finish the darn story.This was one of the most thrilling/suspenseful novels that I have read in awhile! And I read a lot of mysteries! For a mystery to get 5 stars from me it really has to stand out. The author, Peter Swanson, is literally killing it in this novel of psychological suspense! I highly recommend it to any fan of this genre. In fact it is up for a Goodreads Choice Award. Definitely 5 stars!! READ THIS BOOK!

4.5 stars.Ah yes. How many of us have lamented this tireless need of the publishing world to tell us This Book is The Next That Book. The next Hunger Games! Game of Thrones on Mars. Girl on Train, Gone Girl, and on and on and on it goes. Why, I think only days ago, Larry registered a similar complaint in a review he posted.I've thought long and hard about this, and I seriously cannot think of a single example of such a blurb on a book I read, where the blurb had even the least bit of veracity to it. Shame. Because who among us is truly out there, scouring the reading world for The Next ... whatever?! We're NOT, right? What we actually hope to find is a book that isn't just an example of The Next formula fiction installment. In fact, me personally? I'm on the lookout for that book that is unlike any I've read before; one that takes a genre and does creative, fresh, and inventive things with it.It is honesty a crying shame that some of the books I referenced earlier received such wide readership, while this brilliantly executed mystery of mysteries nearly fell below my radar. Seriously! In its first chapter, it was already better than all of Girl on a Train.It was so SMART! Holy carp! The plot twists, the connections that, like in real life, come back to bite you in the hiney eventually. It was so fun to read. And such an intelligent suspense story! Any time I thought I had the slightest clue about where the story might be headed, I was proved wrong and then some.It takes serious guts to write such an ambitious novel. And Mr Swanson pulled it off with icing and fresh strawberries on top! He gave us a murder plot that was instantly intriguing. You want to know! Wait, this guy met this woman at the airport, and they're having a "hypothetical" conversation about how to kill his potentially unfaithful wife? And then they stay in TOUCH?! This is the story's pacing, from its first page, to its last. And always, Swanson managed to remain several steps ahead of me. It was wonderful fun.Definitely recommended.I was thinking of awarding this book 4.25 stars, but Swanson's captivating writing style, his talent for creating a feeling of atmosphere as you read his story, and the creative plot twists deserve a 4.5. No doubt about it.

The Book itself: It took me a moment to write this review because, at first, I couldn't figure out what was bothering me. It was a page turner from start to finish. It had a Gone Girl type atmosphere, with a lot of twists and turns and was a decent little thriller. However...Characters: I have never so actively disliked two characters before. Ted is "handsome, rich, and ripped". Lily is "beautiful, sultry, and mysterious". Which is great for them because I could find nothing to like about either of these narcissists (I thought Ted would burst into a lecture about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps when he started talking about his "artistic but flaky" wife).I guess the hardest part for me was that they were both written as if they were God's gift to the opposite sex and nothing about their characters indicated otherwise except for their self-reported looks. I didn't like either of them which made caring about their cat-and-mouse game of "wits" not that thrilling to read. As a few other people have said, these two were unlikeable to the point of distraction.I would really like to smack the person who started the trend of completely unlikable, unreliable protagonists.The Ending: I don't necessarily think that it was written to be the opening to a sequel as some said. It felt like an inexperienced writer trying to leave an ambiguous ending, like the end of Inception or Pontypool.As a whole, I just really wanted it to be a better reading experience.

I don’t usually write reviews for books but this one was sooo good. I was hooked from the very beginning. The story line was so twisted and I just loved every second of it. I was definitely surprised and caught off guard by the ending. 10/10 definitely recommend!

I feel like the author could’ve kept going! So many unanswered things! WHAT HAPPENS NEXT 😂Great read. Love the fierce main character.

An engaging , charming, action-packed psychological thriller. A wonderful read.

Die Idee erinnert ein wenig an die Strangers on a Train von Patricia Highsmith. Die Fremde in der Businesslounge am Flughafen bietet dem Protagonisten an, seine ihn betrügende Frau zu töten. Danach nimmt die Geschichte aber deutlich mehr Fahrt auf als ein Highsmith-Buch. Zahllose Volten und unerwartete Wendungen. Swansons erster großer Erfolg, der irgendwann einmal als Klassiker gelten dürfte. Für Krimifans ein muss, das ist kreativ, temporeich, boshaft und sehr gut geschrieben.

An easy and enjoyable read about twisted characters

The kind worth killing definitivamente sobrepasa las cinco estrellas! Es una grata sorpresa encontrarse con un thriller contemporáneo que vale la pena leer. Lo recomiendo bastante!