Stuff I Read: The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

A chance encounter with a beautiful stranger in a bar prompts a mild-mannered businessman to voice his desire to kill his cheating wife. He never thought that the stranger would offer to help. And as they plot a murder, the businessman finds out that he never really knew his wife, while his accomplice finds out his wife is everything she remembered her to be and worse. Payback’s a bitch in Peter Swanson’s 2014 mystery/thriller, The Kind Worth Killing.

The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

The Kind Worth Killing opens on Ted Severson, a nice-enough, rich-enough businessman enjoying a drink at an airport bar. He strikes a conversation with Lily Kintner, a pretty redhead who likes a good martini. After a few of them, Ted tells Lily that his wife, Miranda is probably cheating on him while he sat in that airport. He’s angry and hurt and could kill her for what she’s done. And like a murderous genie, Lily expresses her desire to help. After weeks of wistfully talking about it and planning hypotheticals, Ted and Lilly begin staking out Miranda and her lover. In the background, however, Miranda isn’t anything like the person Ted thought he married. Into the money more than the man, she’s devised a plan of her own to separate herself and the money from Ted, a plan that he won’t survive if she has her way. And Ted soon finds himself caught between two femme fatales that have more in common than anyone realizes.

This is an amazing piece of modern-day noir, with twists and turns all over the place. The biggest story twist happens in the first third of the book where it reveals that this is NOT REALLY TED’S STORY. No, the true protagonist is cleverly hidden and the reveal is masterfully done. The story is paced well, with big plot twists coming at a reliable clip, but nothing so blatant that you couldn’t go back to find the teases and seeds earlier in the narrative. And the flashback chapters peppered throughout give excellent insight into the characters and their motivations.

However, those characters sometimes come off as a bit flat. While the story’s true protagonist gets plenty of development, everyone else seems like one-note imitations of tropes better done in other noir stories. Killer, Accomplice, Stooge, Femme Fatale, Cop. They’re all at the party. But the strength of the plot rescues the characters from their own blandness. The cast may not be interesting, but they are given plenty to do.

Don’t get it twisted, though; I thoroughly enjoyed The Kind Worth Killing. It’s the kind of smart murder mystery/thriller that makes me not want to get on the author’s bad side. Pick it up for a read if you come across it.

Pros: Smartly plotted, lots of twists, slow burning not thriller with big pops of plot.

Cons: Characters need a bit of seasoning.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.