It's very rare that I like sequels better than firsts, but this one was so good! I read The Kind Worth Killing a few months ago and was honestly not impressed. Maybe it's because some of the characters are reoccurring and more fleshed out in this sequel, or maybe I was just in a good mood, but either way, this latest release by Swanson has solidified my trust in him as a storyteller.

It's hard to summarize this book because there are multiple storylines and each one feeds into the other. Essentially though, after having left the police force, Henry Kimball becomes a private investigator and is hired by a woman named Joan to check her husband's fidelity. He accepts but quickly realizes that circumstances are not as they seem and his life is in danger from people he knows once again.

My biggest question is, will we get a third book in this series??

Complex and Fast-moving, this one had some Unexpected twists.

Note: This one has major spoilers, so The Kind Worth Killing a must-read before this one.

A huge thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC of this!

Henry Kimball is working as a private investigator after the events in The Kind Worth Killing when his former student Joan Whalen shows up at his office. She is sure her husband Richard is having an affair and wants Kimball to investigate and document proof of his infidelity. What seems like a simple case soon turns into something more when Henry stumbles across two dead bodies. The timelines alternate between the present-day investigation and flashbacks to years earlier when Joan was younger and mixed up into some sketchy business then too.

Overall, this was great follow up to The Kind Worth Killing and I enjoyed it. I would highly recommend checking out the first book before picking up this story. Henry's limericks had me giggling. I was happy to see both Lily and Henry back in action and it wouldn't hurt my feelings if they were to appear in more of Swanson's books.

Reading this made me realize how much Kind Worth Killing relied on the element of surprise to be successful, mostly because here, where we know how things work in this series, everything feels a bit ho hum.

Make no mistake, this is well plotted and well paced and certainly an entertaining read, but it feels more like Swanson’s typical work rather than like Kind Worth Killing, which was a cut above his other novels.

If you’re just wanting a satisfying Lily/Henry tale, you’ll definitely get it here, but if you’re looking for the jaw-dropping experience that many readers found reading its prequel, you’ll be disappointed. In some ways this feels like Swanson has gone all “for the fans” in writing this. I see nothing wrong with giving the people what they want, so to speak, as long as it doesn’t read like you’re writing your own fanfic (don’t worry, this doesn’t), but it does mean we all have to manage our expectations a bit about what we’re getting here.

In all, it’s a fairly predictable read that feels like a LOT of other things that have been previously published in the genre, but it’s also entertaining and a fun reunion with beloved antiheroes.

Henry Kimball, a cop turned private investigator is hired by a blast from his past, Joan. She wants to find out for sure if her wealthy husband is indeed cheating on her. There’s just one thing Joan has always been a little off and it’s not long before he starts doubting whether he should have taken the case. Things then become pretty complicated when he’s working the case and stumbles into a house with two bodies.

This is a great follow up to The Kind Worth Killing. I love that we’re seeing not only Henry Kimball again but also Lily Kitner. The dynamic duo is back again and I am here for it. Let me tell you I hope there is more of these two in the future. The Kind Worth Saving is a fast paced psychological thriller with a lot of action and plot twists. This one has an excellent ending too. If you haven’t read The Kind Worth Killing read it first before diving into this. Overall, I can’t wait to read more by this author.

First line: “Do you remember me?” she asked, after stepping to my office.

Summary: Henry Kimball has set up a private investigation business after he was fired from the police force. His newest case brings back memories from the year he taught English at a local high school. Joan has come to Henry to enlist his help to find out if her husband is cheating on her. It seems an easy case until Henry stumbles upon two bodies in an empty house. However, it appears like Henry was meant to discover these bodies. Something is not adding up and he starts his own investigation. But it appears that he now may be the target of a killer who has hidden for years in the shadows.

My Thoughts: When I requested this I had not read The Kind Worth Killing yet. Once I saw that this was a sequel to that story I picked it up and loved every minute of it. I was very excited to jump back into Lily and Henry’s strange relationship.

The beginning I found to be a little slow but that may have had to do with the lack of Lily’s involvement. The book is divided into three sections with two different narrators who give us the points of view for the plot and the timeline was jumping around to show how events have lead up to Henry’s investigation. There is something about Peter Swanson’s writing that keeps you wanting to read just one more page or one more chapter. As the story progresses the plotting and tempo pick up which keeps the tension high until the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was lots of fun and gave many shocking moments for the reader. I could not wait to see how everything ended but mostly how Lily would change the course of the plot. I picture the character Villanelle from Killing Eve when reading Lily’s point of view. She is definitely my favorite part of these books. I would highly recommend this to someone who loves a great edge of your seat thriller.

FYI: Sequel to The Kind Worth Killing.

I’ve read almost all of Swanson’s books and consider him an auto-read author - any time I see a new book is coming out, I’m excited to jump right on it. I first read The Kind Worth Killing shortly after it came out in 2015 and reread it a few months ago in preparation for the release of The Kind Worth Saving. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

Unfortunately, I hated The Kind Worth Saving. I only finished because I was curious to see how it ended but I wish I hadn’t read it and frankly I wish it hadn’t been written and things would have just ended with the ending of the first book.

Please stop reading here if you don’t want to see anything spoilery for either of the books. Please stop reading here if you are the author. I appreciate that this worked for you and I’m sure you understand that not every book is for every reader. This one wasn’t for me.

TKWK starts with Lily and Ted in a Strangers on the Train type situation right? Where they can commit a murder and no one could ever connect them. In TKWS - we rerun that same thing with Joan and Richard. Joan and Lily are so similar sometimes I can’t even remember who I was reading.

Annoying enough to have that be so similar - but then it needs to bring in Henry and Lily from the first book. The connections and plot are so convoluted and over the top I have pain from how hard and how often I rolled my eyes.

There isn’t a single character in this book who is likable or relatable in the least. Henry’s limericks are awful. Did Richard need to ALSO have dreams of being a mass bomber in addition to the regular murders? I’m so mad that I wasted a few hours of my life on this book. I hate this book.

TW: School shooting

One day, a former student of private detective Henry Kimball walks into his office asking for his assistance. Joan is convinced her husband is having an affair and even knows who it is with and wants Kimball to catch them in the act so that she has solid proof. Seemingly an open and close case, Kimball accepts only when he approaches the home where the two are said to rendezvous, he finds himself in the middle of a crime scene with two bodies. With his suspicions, Kimball knows something even more sinister is in play as he dives int Joan’s past and even his own to unlock the truth behind not just this tragedy, but two others. The closer Kimball gets to the truth, the more he begins to realize he may very well be the next victim.

This was the perfect sequel to Peter Swanson’s first book “The Kind Worth Killing” with the return of Henry Kimball and even Lily Kintner. The story does a good job of answering certain questions left by the cliff hanger in the previous book and was written in the same style which I really enjoyed. If you have not read the “Kind Worth Killing” I highly recommend you do before diving into this one as there is heavy connection to the first and will spoil the first book if you have not read it yet. This thriller has dual timelines and kept me on the edge of my seat, the characters were all crafted beautifully and you get good insight into what makes each of them tick. Sequels at time make me nervous but I thought this was done amazingly well and goes along so well with the first book and was a great way to continue Henry and Lily’s stories. Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for an eARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This title is now available to purchase!

I didn’t enjoy this as much as the first one. It felt very slow and it was hard for me to get in to. A little disappointed but I might give it another shot in a few months.

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn’t sure how a follow up to The Kind Worth Killing would sit with me, (you shouldn’t mess with perfection), but after getting reacquainted with the characters I was hooked! There’s a brief synopsis a few chapters into the book, but I would really recommend reading the first book relatively soon before. This book also introduces many new characters including a whole lot of Dicks! Haha! The fast pace and sudden twists had my head spinning and wishing for more! This is definitely a must read for any psychological thriller readers!

3.5 stars

Peter Swanson’s The Kind Worth Saving is his sophomore thriller in the Henry Kimball/Lily Kintner series. Joan hires Henry Kimball to investigate her husband and when he stumbles upon a murder/suicide on the job, what ensues is a twisty chain of events that sends Kimball down a deadly road of discovery.

Swanson has a knack for writing easy, enjoyable mystery thrillers and readers will enjoy this talent in his latest book. With a plot-driven narrative and additional elements of mystery and suspense to the main thriller genre, Saving is a quick and satisfying read. Is it going to knock your pants off and move mountains for you? Probably not. But I think there is definitely merit to books like this that don’t take too much thought, have an element of fun trying to solve a mystery and you can bounce in and out of it easy enough and not feel lost. And speaking of lost, admittedly, I haven’t read the first installment in this series and at no point was I confused or lost. Swanson creates an entirely new plot and reintroduces the characters in a way that you definitely don’t have to have the first book under your belt for context. With that being said, after reading this I want to read The Kind Worth Killing because I really liked the characters of Henry and Lily and would love to see their backstory prior to the encounters in this book.

While this is a plot-driven book there are some emotional, almost poetic moments in Henry and Lily’s relationship. It’s not totally one-dimensional and there is great character development between those two especially. There’s definitely some heart to this one on top of all the action and suspense. I also liked the darker feel to it in a few incredibly creepy moments with some of our deranged secondary characters.

The Kind Worth Saving is a sure win for fans of Swanson and any mystery/thriller junkie out there. Twisty and dark with fast pacing, this book checks all the boxes for a great mass-market thriller. I’m looking forward to reading the first in this installment and believe this series is the kind worth… continuing.

From my blog: Always With a Book

Thank you Netgalley, #partner, for the advanced copy of The Kind Worth Saving in exchange for my honest review.

Peter Swanson has become a must-read author for me when it comes to thrillers and I love that his books are so addicting and binge-worthy and this latest one is no exception – I read this one in a day! The Kind Worth Killing is one of my favorite books and so I was thrilled to see that he wrote a sequel to it…and I loved this one just as much if not a touch more!

I will say that while you don’t have to read The Kind Worth Killing to read this one, I really feel that having read that one will just make this one so much more enjoyable. You will just have a better understanding about the nature of Lily and Henry’s relationship and why it is the way it is. But that’s all I’m going to say about it because whether you have already read it or you pick it up after you read this one…it is a must-read book and I truly believe that after you read this one, you will want to read it if you haven’t already done so.

So back to this latest book. Peter Swanson has done it again. He has given us a twisted, binge-worthy book full of characters that you just can’t put your finger on as to whether you can trust or not. I love the characters the Swanson creates. You know they are morally gray, but you can’t quite pinpoint exactly why until the bottom drops out. This book is one clever twist after another that I did not see coming and I loved every second of it. It kept me glued to the pages so much so that I devoured this in one day…I just could not put it down. I love when an author has me liking characters I probably shouldn’t. But somehow Peter Swanson gets me to do just that every single time! I will be a fan of Lily and Henry forever and would love more of them, just saying!

The structure of this story, moving back and forth in time, and having it told from multiple perspectives, really keeps things moving, and you guessing, as to where everything is headed. Add in a crazy cat and mouse game and short chapters and you will be hard-pressed to put this one down once you start reading it.

There is a reason Peter Swanson is a must-read author for me and he has proven it with this book! I loved this one and cannot wait to see what his devious mind concocts for us next!!!

The Kind Worth Killing is by far my favorite Peter Swanson novel, so I was stoked when I found out there was going to be a sequel! I was beyond excited to get this NetGalley approval! I wasn’t sure how it would even play out, but I was thrilled to have some answers after TKWK ended with such a huge cliffhanger. I was pretty surprised with the route that was taken for the cliffhanger though.

You’ll definitely need to read The Kind Worth Killing (5⭐️) before reading this. It’s been several years since l read it, and I wish I would have reread it right before so it was fresher. The Kind Worth Saving follows former detective, Henry Kimball, as he navigates his new career as a private investigator. It’s told in multiple POV and alternating timelines, but it’s easy to follow. It’s filled with smaller twists and turns, but there are no really huge shocking twists. There are some trigger warnings so be sure to check those first. Overall, it was fast-paced and enjoyable!

What a ride! This book took me a bit to get into, but by part two it had become a total page turner and I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. It’s a dual timeline, multi POV book that isn’t so much a ‘whodunnit’ as much as an ‘are they going to get away with it?’

I loved the twists and turns and jaw-dropping moments in this one. Every time I thought some characters couldn’t get worse— they did! And what does it say about me that sometimes I enjoyed the villain’s POV chapters more than the good guy’s?

One thing I will say about this— it had been years since I read ‘The Kind Worth Killing’ and I wish I would have done a reread or at least found some notes on it or something. While I really enjoyed this, and the author does fill you in, I couldn’t help but think I would have loved it even more if the first book would have been fresher in my mind. I highly recommend this one either way, but that’s a suggestion to keep in mind if this is on your radar!

4.5 stars

The first book in the series, The Kind Worth Killing, is one of my all-time favorite reads. I was excited when I found out a sequel would be coming out. I decided to do a reread of the original book so that way the characters and storyline were fresh in my mind. While The Kind Worth Saving doesn't quite match the awesomeness of TKWK, I still had a blast reading it. A good continuation of the series and a lot of fun. A little more character driven but it definitely has that popcorn thriller type vibe.

Even though this book technically could be read as a standalone, I highly advise you read TKWK before diving into this one so that way you can fully appreciate it.

After loving The Kind Worth Saving, I was so excited to get that approved email for the ARC of the sequel! I've read quite a few books from this author and these two are by far my favorites from him.

This had a fantastic plot (although the first was pretty hard to beat) and hooked me right away.

It flips between a past storyline that gives us some mystery as to what's going on (which I loved) and then back to the present where we hear once again from Henry Kimball. It was great to learn more background info on Henry, and you really get to see what an interesting character he is.
The character development was great and I was able to form some pretty strong opinions about them all.

The multiple POVs made it a great read and really delivered some great punches along the way. The timing and flow was awesome and I felt like the balance between the past and present before merging together was perfect. It all fed into each other and I love when the puzzle pieces all fit together at the end .

I definitely think you should read The Kind Worth Killing before diving into this sequel, but Swanson did a great job recapping what had already happened in these characters lives. The story was kept fresh with the introduction to some new, dark & twisty characters.

A must read!

The Kind Worth Saving by Peter Swanson is a well thought out mystery/thriller with unpredictable turns. The story is dual POVs and dual timelines which I thought made the book read very quickly! This book follows the previous story The Kind Worth Killing, but I will say I did not read the first one and was able to follow along quite well. The author did a great job of giving you a bit of a breadcrumb trail to piece together what had happened previously. After reading and enjoying this one, I will definitely be going back to read the previous story. I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys mysteries steeped in the characters personal dramas.

A wife hires Henry Kimball, PI, to prove her husband is cheating. The wife, a person he knew in his past career as a high school English teacher, is proving to be someone who makes him uneasy. What should have been a simple case, turns into a murder case with possible ties to his past that Henry is determined to solve if someone doesn’t stop him first. The author does a great job of keeping you engaged with the storyline with an ultimately satisfying ending. I would recommend the book and the author.

I thoroughly enjoyed this follow-up to Peter Swanson's The Kind Worth Killing. Swanson's unlikely duo, the flawed Henry Kimball and Lily Kintner are back and as twisty as before. The book has charming moments dealing with Henry and Lily's complicated relationship, and offers as many turns as TKWK gave us; enough callbacks to the first book to make the reader smile, but not so alike that it feels dull and overdone. I was excited to get the chance to preview this title, and remain a solid fan of Peter Swanson with this newest offering. Definitely recommending this one to others!

<I> My thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to preview this title in exchange for my honest opinion. </I>

Have you read The Kind Worth Killing?

If the answer is NO, then I highly suggest you read it before picking up The Kind Worth Saving.

Peter Swanson’s highly anticipated sequel introduces new characters, but also continues with Henry Kimball and Lily Kintner’s story. It contains some recap, but will likely leave readers confused without knowledge of the previous book.

Joan Grieve hires private detective Henry Kimball to investigate whether her husband is having an affair with his co-worker. However, before he can verify this assumption, he becomes a witness for their deaths. Was it murder or suicide? Joan has a bombshell secret that Henry must unravel in order to determine what happened to Richard Grieve and his mistress.

I was one of the few who didn’t understand the cult following of Peter Swanson’s first book in the series. While I enjoyed some of the twists, it was a three star read for me. After reading the second book in the series, I have realized that the reason I struggled to enjoy it was because the plot glorifies murder and killing. Regardless of the fact that it is fiction, I just can’t get behind that. Additionally, one of the major plot points in this book is a school shooting. This is a hard no for me.

Those who enjoy books about serial killers will most likely enjoy this book. Unfortunately, I think this will be the last book that I will read about this topic.

3/5 stars

Trigger warning: School shooting

Expected publication date: 3/7/23

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow publishing for the ARC of The Kind Worth Saving in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to William Morrow for the copy of this ARC.

This sequel to The Kind Worth Killing (which you absolutely have to read first!) was a fun venture back to Henry Kimball and Lily Kintner. I loved the plot of this one and how Lily was incorporated into Henry’s newest case. Lily’s return and the ending of this book were absolutely the best part, but I did also love our villain’s journey as a serial killer from childhood to the present day. The middle of this dragged a bit for me and I definitely could’ve used more Lily because she’s the best, but still a story with an engaging plot line!