“If You’re On the List, Someone Wants You Dead.” Yikes! I’ve enjoyed other Peter Swanson books, so what did I think of this homage to And Then There Were None? Check out my Review of Nine Lives by Peter Swanson.
Nine Lives by Peter Swanson
Published on March 15, 2022 by William Morrow. Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy, which I accepted in accordance with FTC guidelines.
Review of Nine Lives by Peter Swanson
I really enjoyed Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson, which was an homage to classic mysteries. By a killer, haha. But also by Swanson, and I love that he is inspired by the greats. I was not as much of a fan of his Every Vow You Break, which got a pretty weird at the end. My Spoiler Review of Every Vow You Break is here.
Nine Lives is also inspired by a classic: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, something that the characters in the book remark on. I have read And Then There Were None, but of course can’t remember what happened except that it was a book about a group of people killed one at a time.
I think And Then There Were None had more of a locked room aspect, while in Nine Lives the people on the list are spread across the country and get picked off one by one. The first murder occurs at a seaside resort in Maine, where Detective Sam Hamilton wonders about the strange list of names that the victim was holding. FBI agent Jessica Winslow also receives the list and learns from a colleague that someone on the list got murdered.
The book moves around and around among the POVs of all nine potential victims, plus Sam Hamilton, who is not on the list. I thought this approach had pros and cons. The pros were that Swanson was able to paint a little portrait of each of them. The con was that the narrative bounces around a lot and ends up being just one person being murdered after the other.
Maybe two-thirds or three-quarters through the book, the killer’s motive starts to become clearer. And, well, I had questions.
I can’t ask them here because they involve spoilers, but you can come to my Spoiler Discussion and Plot Summary for Nine Lives where I will give you my questions about the book and you can answer my questions or ask your own!
You can also try Peter Swanson’s 2023 Christmas novella, The Christmas Guest!
Have you read this? Are you a Swanson fan? I’m going to read The Kind Worth Killing, as everyone seems to love that one!
Didn’t they adapt And Then There Were None for TV? I feel like it was a BBC drama but at this point I don’t even remember, I’m not a huge Agatha Christie fan. Either way, it sounds interesting to see a book inspired by I’d be interested to see if it stands up against the original it was inspired by.
I’m sure they did! the difference with this is that it didn’t have the locked room element. I think in the book they were all trapped on an island? In Nine Lives the people on the list are scattered around the US.
I haven’t read this but it sounds really good. I love a story like this.
I hope you try it and then come join the spoiler discussion!!