A Talent for Murder
by Peter Swanson
Pub Date: June 11, 2024
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
A newlywed librarian begins to suspect the man she married might be a murderer—in this spectacularly twisty and deviously clever novel by Peter Swanson, New York Times bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing and Eight Perfect Murders.
I read this book a little too quickly. I devoured the story and characters. It's always a pleasure to read a new Lily Kintner/Henry Kimball book. Aren't they a match made in heaven? I need another sequel ASAP! And I hope the next book will be a little longer, or I'll practice reading a little slower.
5 stars

5 Stars!! Excellent story! Excellent twists!
Another great chapter in the Lily Kitner saga.
The story hooked me from the beginning and never let go. Twists and turns! Thank you to NetGalley for an Advanced Reader.

Peter Swanson knows how to write a thriller. It's almost impossible to predict his plots because they're so unique and because he isn't like other writers. There are times while reading his books where I'm genuinely shocked by something. That doesn't happen a lot to me when I read thrillers. This book had me hooked from the first chapter. It is told from multiple POVs and characters, and I never tired of any of the characters (which is rare...). This book is a little dark and detailed at times but that just makes it seem more real and personal. I'm glad characters from previous Swanson books play a part in this one because these specific characters have earned my affection. I have become a big fan of Peter Swanson and I'll be recommending this book to all my friends and family members who love to read. And I'll be looking forward to the next Swanson book to be released. He never misses.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for allowing me to read and review such a captivating novel.

A nice addition to the Lily Kintner series. I found this book to be a little more straightforward in the sense that there’s not huge unexpected twists like the first 2 books but this book is fast paced, action packed, and super entertaining.

Holy smokes! 😱 What a book! I absolutely love Peter Swanson and what he has done with this series. It is so incredibly good. I fell in love with Lily and Henry while reading the first in this series and I was honestly rooting for them. I still am. I just can’t say enough good things, a must read for this series.

This was a really addicting and entertaining book! I loved how the story flowed and how the suspense just continued to build! I really didn’t know where it was going and it definitely kept me guessing. It’s so faced and I couldn’t put it down! You get to read from multiple character perspectives and that really enhanced my enjoyment of the story. It gets pretty dark and disturbing and it continually shocked me!

Thank you so much NetGalley and William Morrow for the arc!

I enjoyed this! It was a nice change of pace than other thrillers to have the murderer reveal in the middle of the story rather than the end. Lily though seemed to have zero remorse. I haven’t read the other two books prior so I don’t know if there’s much more about her and why she’s the way she is. But she was cray cray.

Thank you to William Morrow and Netgalley @Netgalley for this e-arc. All thoughts are my own.

Unofficial Synopsis:
Martha thought she’d live her life alone, so when she meets the charming and sweet Alan, she is quick to fall in love. Even though he’s gone for half the year.

So, when he comes home with what appears to be blood on the back of his shirt, Martha decides to start investigating. She learns that for all the city’s Alan has been at over the last year, five of them have had unsolved cases of murders of women.

Could she be married to a serial killer? Or is it s coincidence?

Review:
I didn’t realize going into this one that it was part of a series, but it was still entertaining. It did read like a standalone in many ways, so I don’t think you need to be vested in the series to enjoy it. I love good fast paced thrillers, and I feel that this one was a little slow for my liking. It seemed to drag at times. However, the story was good, and I love reading about any characters dealing with books and I felt really connected to Martha. I loved that this story was told through multiple POV’s. I always enjoy books like this more because I feel so much more connected to the characters. Another thing that I enjoyed was the multiple timelines. This can be tricky because if not done correctly I feel like you can get lost, but that wasn’t the case here. I found it easy to follow. I enjoyed the suspense and thrills that seemed to be at every corner! Peter Swanson is always an auto-buy author for me, and he will continue to be.

Peter Swanson is a genius! I just read the first two books in the Henry Kimball/Lily Kinter series then immediately was able to read this new one and was totally floored! Fantastic series, fantastic characters and writing! Recommended too all thriller readers!

Wow!! What did I just read?! I couldn’t put this book down!! The characters were well developed and I found myself staying up way past my bedtime to finish it. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this incredible book! I will definitely be sharing it with all of my fellow book lovers!

I didn't realize this was part of the Henry Kimball/Lily Kintner series. I just saw who the author was and immediately requested it! Thankfully, I've already read the previous two so i was beyond thrilled to read this one!

I hate to say it but this was my least favorite Lily + Kimball collaboration 🫣

The Kind Worth Killing is one of my all time favorite thrillers, so I’m always comparing the next one to the original. While the premise was interesting, it fell a bit flat for me.

I still love Peter Swanson and he’ll always be an auto buy author. I look forward to what comes next!

📜A Talent For Murder
✍️Peter Swanson
📠William Morrow
📚Mystery/Thriller, Fiction
🗓️Pub date: June 11, 2024

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✨Thank you @NetGalley and @williammorrowbooks for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Also thank you to @petermswanson for writing another 5-star read!!!

✨Martha and Alan are practically strangers, yet they’re newlyweds. Martha, a librarian, was forced to believe she’d be single forever and married to her books before she met Alan, a divorcee. They weren’t together long before he proposed.

✨Alan’s job takes him all over the country to different conferences and events. It’s after one of these trips, Martha finds blood on the back of his shirt.

✨Curiosity gets the best of her and she slowly starts piecing together incidents that happened around Alan’s trips—incidents that leave women dead. Soon she suspects he may be a serial killer.

✨As Martha teams up with old friend Lily Kintner—infamous killer in Swanson’s The Kind Worth Killing—she enters a dangerous web, trying to navigate her husband’s pastimes.

✨I absolutely loved this book! It was unique, twisty, thrilling, and kept me guessing. I love the ties to The Kind Worth Killing and The Kind Worth Saving and bringing Lily back. Peter Swanson’s writing is like a big bear hug and I just get lost in his stories. A must read!!

#netgalley #atalentformurder #peterswanson #williammorrow #summerreleases #advancedreadercopy #arc #bookreview #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #ivegotbooks #killmewithwords #idratherbereading #thrillerfiction #readthisnow #lilykintnerisback

Martha Ratliff is a newly married librarian. She was happy with her single life surrounded by books. She then met Alan and her life changed. When she found a blood streak on one of his shirts after he returned from a conference, she begins to suspect something. She discovers that the cities he said he travelled to for a conference, all had unsolved murder cases. Could her husband be the killer? She contacts an old friend Lily, who owes her a favors. Lily agrees to meet Alan and try to find out what kind of man he is. No spoilers here. Read it to find out if Alan is the serial killer.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson.

A Talent for Murder was a lot of fun, especially in the hands of Peter Swanson's particular style of writing. He knows how to make things just ridiculous enough to be entertaining and suspenseful without making it obnoxious. I love a mystery involving a librarian!

How many jaw dropping momenta can one thriller have?! This has to be a record! I went in blind, and I am so happy I did. My mind was blown after the first chapter. A Talent for Murder captivated me from start to finish. This incredible story has solidified why Peter Swanson is one of my favorite authors. I highly recommend!

(Full review and link to social media will be within 2 months of pub date)

Does anyone remember the first book that sent chills up their spine ? Mine was The Girl With a Clock for a Heart, by Peter Swanson. If anyone has read it they know Swanson, set the bar for disturbing. Since, I have been chasing that feeling . I was in search of that up all night, can’t sleep, cant breathe, can’t think, kind of feeling and I found it …..

A Talent for Murder

I think i made a subconscious decision to try everything in my power to give myself nightmares for the rest of my life . I can also tell you, I have achieved such goal without evening knowing I set it .

I’m officially terrified .

If you want to know what can scare the crap out of this thrill chasing, suspense lover than roll the dice and preorder yourself a copy of A Talent for Murder, You won’t regret it ….. or will you? 😏

Teaser :

A newlywed librarian begins to suspect the man she married might be a murderer—in this spectacularly twisty and deviously clever novel by Peter Swanson, New York Times bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing and Eight Perfect Murders.

Martha Ratliff conceded long ago that she’d likely spend her life alone. She was fine with it, happy with her solo existence, stimulated by her job as an archival librarian, constantly surrounded by thought-provoking ideas and the books she loved. But then she met Alan, a charming and sweet-natured divorcee with a job that took him on the road for half the year. When he asked her to marry him, she said yes, even though he still felt a little bit like a stranger.

A year in and the marriage was good, except for that strange blood streak on the back of one of his shirts he’d worn to a conference in Denver. Her curiosity turning to suspicion, Martha investigates the cities Alan visited over the past year and uncovers a disturbing pattern—five unsolved cases of murdered women.

Is she married to a serial killer? Or could it merely be a coincidence? Unsure what to think, Martha contacts an old friend from graduate school for advice. Lily Kintner once helped Martha out of a jam with an abusive boyfriend and may have some insight. Intrigued, Lily offers to meet Alan to find out what kind of man he really is . . . but what Lily uncovers is more perplexing and wicked than they ever could have expected.

Peter Swanson’s books are always a must-read for me. This is the third to star Lily Kintner (after The Kind Worth Killing and The Kind Worth Saving) and somehow Swanson continues find to new and fascinating layers to her personality. She might be my favorite character in all of crime fiction, and A TALENT FOR MURDER is a worthy addition to her story. 5/5 stars, highly recommended.

A twisted thriller for your TBRs, fans of Peter Swanson will not be disappointed with this latest release.

My sole complaint with this book is that there weren’t character names at the beginning to the chapters to tell me whose POV I was in, so it took some time to figure it out as I read. Perhaps this is a creative choice, or perhaps my ARC copy just didn’t have time, but either way I much prefer having the POV at the chapter start.

The story itself was intriguing and kept me entertained. I wasn’t exactly guessing at the end result, but it was definitely an enjoyable thriller.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted (free) ARC

I didn't realize going into this that it was the third book in the Henry Kimball/Lily Kintner series. Luckily, I had read the first book, so I knew a bit of the back story. That being said, you could mostly read it as a standalone.

Overall, it was okay, but fell short in holding my attention. While the premise had potential, the execution felt lacking, and the pacing was slow, making it a bit boring at times. It's a decent read for those looking for a light mystery, but don't expect to be on the edge of your seat.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the ARC!