In this post, A Talent for Murder Review + Spoilers and Ending Explained, I will give you my quick take on A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson, explain how it fits into the The Kind Worth Killing series, and offer protected spoilers and the ending explained.
A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson: Overview
- Published on June 21, 2024 by William Morrow Books
- A lean 255 pages
- The third book in the Henry Kimball and Lily Kintner series, which includes The Kind Worth Killing, and The Kind Worth Saving
- More by this author: check out my post called What’s the Best Book By Peter Swanson!
A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson: Jen’s Quick Take
- Clearly (in title and plot) inspired by The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
- Felt similar in plot and structure to the first two books in the series, with multiple narrators, a twisty plot, and a bunch of amoral people trying to outwit one another
- Short in length and thin in character development, this book was, to me, weakest in the series.
Did you forget the plots of the first two books? Check out my:
Plot Summary for The Kind Worth Killing
Plot Summary for The Kind Worth Saving
A Talent for Murder: Jen’s Review
I thought The Kind Worth Killing was a fun book with a fun premise: if you thought you could get away with killing someone, would you? Especially if they deserved it?
The Kind Worth Killing starts with a “Strangers on a Train” premise as two people meet in an airport and discuss who they might like to murder.
Then there’s a lot of crossing and double-crossing, people who aren’t who they seem to be and dark secrets revealed. It’s a fun book that I enjoyed.
The Kind Worth Saving came out in 2023 and I did see the point of it. Two of the characters, police officer Henry and sociopath Lily, developed an odd rivalry that reminded me a LOT of the Luther plot with beguiling sociopath Alice Morgan (love that show!)
In The Kind Worth Saving, limerick-writing Henry is now a private investigator who takes the case of a woman who wants him to confirm that her husband is cheating. As expected, things take a turn and there is:
- a character who has a backstory similar to Lily’s
- a rapprochment between Henry and Lily, who start a wary collaboration
- references to Nine Lives
I didn’t think that A Talent for Murder was as successful as the first two books
- The premise was strong, but then things just got weird and unsatisfying.
- A Talent for Murder was quite short (only 255 pages) which I didn’t think was enough time to really make it interesting. And cost THIRTY DOLLARS.
- The new characters felt flat and underdeveloped to me
- I don’t think it added anything interesting to the Henry/Lily situation
I said the same thing about this third book in a series: if you’ve missed the characters, you might enjoy this, but if you picked this up without reading (or remembering) the first two books, you’d probably be disappointed.
A Talent for Murder Spoilers and Ending Explained
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