Nine Lives

Peter Swanson

HarperCollinsPublishers


Nine strangers receive an envelope with a list of nine names, including their own. No one recognizes any of the other names on the list and they are curious about who sent it and what it means. One of the nine reads the list and is instantly murdered on the beach. And then there were eight.

Swanson’s thriller is well written, using multiple points of view, and short to-the-point chapters. I found it a quick read with well developed characters. I especially enjoyed the literary mentions including Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” and even “Peter Pan.” But, it was the more obscure references that impressed me.

75% into the book the author drops this mention into the story. It refers to Jay’s wannabe actor life and it’s unattainability. He’s sitting in a speakeasy bar in downtown LA. Her quote, “He got a corner booth, drank vodka and soda water with two limes, and watched the girls come and go, talking of Leonardo Caprio.” Love it! From "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," the lines "women come and go / talking of Michelangelo" symbolize the contrast between the idle chatter of Prufrock's everyday life and the unattainable magnificence for which he longs. Just like Jay.

Sense and Sensibility reference: “It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy—it is disposition alone.” About Ethan and Caroline planning to meet in Illinois.

Philip Larkin’s poem:
We met at the end of the party
When all the drinks were dead
And all the glasses dirty:
’Have this that’s left’, you said.
We walked through the last of summer,
When shadows reached long and blue
Across days that were growing shorter:
You said: ‘There’s autumn too’.
Always for you what’s finished
Is nothing, and what survives
Cancels the failed, the famished,
As if we had fresh lives
From that night on, and just living
Could make me unaware
Of June, and the guests arriving,
And I not there.

This book held so much promise, but unfortunately, the ending disappointed me.
Three stars

Thank to #NetGalley and #HarperCollinsPublishers for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review

Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the advance copy of Nine Lives in exchange for my honest review.

3 solid stars. In true Swanson style, this story starts as a slow burn and picks up the pace about half way through. Swanson is known for dropping big twists right up to the very last pages of his books and this one does not disappoint.

3.5
Nine strangers marked for death!

The "List-of-Nine case" as the Detective Sam Hamilton refers to it, wants to learn how nine names on a list are related and why the list is dwindling.

The author injects Agatha Christie throughout, which had me comparing this tale to And Then There Were None and added entertainment. There are also other books mentioned that pleased this bookworm. I love seeing characters bookshelves!

There are nine characters to keep track of, but no worries as they are quickly eliminated as the chapters help you countdown. And then there were .....8,7,6,5,etc...

An entertaining read, but as the characters were being killed off, I wanted more clues, more bread crumbs, a trail to follow. I like to play armchair detective.

I wasn't a fan of the conclusion/reveal. Boo!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Wm. Morrow publishing for an e-arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this mystery/thriller. Peter Swanson writes a good thriller and I especially enjoyed the way he incorporated various book titles into the novel.

I did find a few parts a little slow or unnecessary but all in all a good read.

I keep reading Swanson trying to find the magic that was in The Kind Worth Killing! These books sound so much like my thing on paper, but just like [book:Eight Perfect Murders|52225186], don't end up executing well. None of the characters have enough pages to become fully fleshed out and the killings themselves feel random, sporadic, and uneventful.

Full disclosure: I have yet to read an Agatha Christie (I know!). It seems that this book is heavily influenced by And Then There Were None? Is that novel as uneventful as this?

When Nine Lives came up as an option for the Scene of the Crime Book Club, I was thrilled--I've heard so many good things about this author, who, like Christie, I had not yet gotten to. And the premise sounded exciting: nine people, with seemingly no connections, receive a list of their names in the mail. The letter says nothing more, but soon, terrible things begin to happen to each person.

The best part? It was incredibly quick (I think in part because I began to skim late in the game).

Unfortunately, I was completely underwhelmed by this novel. It has about 1,000 (alright, I exaggerate) POVs, which switch so often, I not only could keep no one straight, but I was not invested in anyone's lives to care when they began to die. There was no tension, no suspense, and no characters are memorable (but they sure were generic and cliché: gay man with a Fox News-loving father who disowns him? Check). It was simply a bunch of snippets of day to day activities and then...oh, a gunshot. Which, as I saw another reviewer mention, at least it cut down on a POV. The big reveal was also underwhelming and dare I say, anticlimactic. On one level I could understand the motivation of the killer, but I also just didn't find it believable to be causing the misery of these people.

Very grateful to William Morrow to have given me an opportunity to read this book. I most likely will try this author again, because, as I mentioned, I've heard so many good things, so I'm hoping this was just a case of a subjective miss for me.

Nine people had each received a list of nine names printed on it, with theirs being one of them. The last name was Jessica Winslow, an FBI agent. When she received hers, she immediately began a search of the names, as none were familiar to her. Then one from the list was found murdered, Detective Sam Hamilton was called in but before he could get started, the state police took over. He still continued to follow the case and when two more died, the FBI now had a serial killer but what was the motive, since none of them knew each other.
A fast paced intense thriller that moved forward as told through each of the people on the list.
Thank you Harper Collins and NetGalley for this e-galley of "Nine Lives".

This book kept me guessing until the end. Nine complete strangers each receive a mysterious list of 9 names including their own, as the people on the list start to die, the FBI begins an investigation into the letters and its recipients. Swanson tells the story in a unique and interesting way, with a different character's perspective in each chapter as the book counts down the list. There aren't many clues in the story until the middle/end, so you are along for the ride for most of the story. It was a little difficult to keep track of the timeline throughout the story since it does hop around between the characters, while they are labeled and noted, it was difficult to visualize and follow.

While the premise of a mysterious list of people marked for death being sent to those people sounded cool, I DNF'd this at 20%. The first quarter of this book is all the people on the list getting the letter, and nothing happening. I can't keep the characters straight, and it seems like they were created with some sort of auto-generator like "actor who drives BMW and is an asshole," "English teacher with a lot of cats." I started to skip pages, which may be more of a reflection of my own horrible attention span, but I just couldn't find it in me to care.

This was pretty good. I was enthralled and I enjoyed the pacing but it wasn’t the authors best effort.

I enjoyed this book. Nine strangers receive a list of their names in the mail except one, he finds the list just before he is drowned. None of them no anyone else on the list. They live in different areas of the country and have different occupations. Jessica who is on the list, is also a FBI agent and is determined to find out the significance of the list. The story moves alone at a good pace and held my interest to the end. The resolution of the story was brilliant.

Imagine receiving a letter with nine names on it and one of them is yours. You don't recognize the other names and there is nothing else enclosed. None of the people who receive this letter are unduly concerned. After all, there is no message, so it just seems like some kind of computer-generated mistake or someone's stupid idea of a joke. Except one recipient wonders what it could mean. An FBI agent is on the list, and she knows that it must mean something, and it probably isn't something good. How hard will it be for the FBI to find these eight people? How common are these names?
After one of them is murdered, the FBI steps up their game to find and protect the remaining eight people. It is a race against time as it appears the killer does not want to wait between his kills.
What I wanted to know was would there be enough clues for an amateur sleuth like me to have a chance at figuring this mystery out. In this case, it was a no for me, but that might be because my little grey cells just weren't up to the challenge. Each short chapter gave you a glimpse into someone else’s life, and the number of narrators was reduced as the killer continued to strike.
I flew through Nine Lives as nine turned to eight and was certain that Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None would ultimately bestow the same fate on these characters.
Even though the chapters were short and the potential victims numerous, I felt as though there was enough detail to let me root for some and not mind if others were eliminated. I had zero ideas who was behind this plot, but maybe some other reader was a better detective than me. Not my favorite book by this author but still a quick read that made me want to go back and see if I missed any vital clues.

Nine people get a list of names in the mail. That is all that's on the paper just names. As people from the list are killed, can they figure out who is the killer and how to protect themselves? This was a good mystery but a little confusing to follow with all the different points of view. I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

As much as I love Peter Swanson this book left me wanting more and honestly a bit confused. The book opens with a list of 9 names who are the main characters of a book filled with twists and turns, all of the characters are somehow related and yet they don't know each other or how they are connected. For me it was too many characters to try and keep track of, chapters of the book would switch back and forth between the characters as we would learn more about them, the history and possible connection they all had. The book definitely held my interest as I was reading through and I do enjoy Peter Swanson's writing style. A special thank you to Peter Swanson as well as William Morrow and Custom House for this book to review.

Thank you to Netgalley, Peter Swanson, and Harper Collins for an E-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was one of my most anticipated reads of the beginning of the new year and it didnt disappoint. I felt drawn into the story right away by trying to understand how our 9 listed strangers were connected to each other. I think I would classify this one more as a mystery rather then a thriller. I enjoyed the ending and I think that Peter Swanson has easily become an auto-buy author for me. You can pick this one up on 3.15.22!

For some reason, this story did not hold my attention at all. I wanted to push through because I enjoy Swanson’s novels, but I just could not get into the storyline.

There were aspects that I enjoyed, such as the similarities to 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐖𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐧𝐞, the book that started my love of mysteries and thrillers. I felt that the wrap up and big reveal at the end was well done. The structure of the text, with the chapters further broken into the nine individuals whose names were on the mysterious list they all all received in the mail, was well done also.

I hope this is a hit for others!

This is the first book I've read by Swanson, and I found it to be an engaging and complex murder mystery that provided enough clues to keep the reader guessing throughout. Short chapters and alternating POVs create an active pace. I enjoyed how the chapters are written as a countdown, as characters are murdered while trying to determine the connection between the nine victims. The story may remind readers of an Agatha Christie novel, and that's definitely a good thing! I look forward to reading other books by this author.

Nine Lives is a propulsive, fast-paced thriller very much in the vein of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. So much so that Swanson name checks the book multiple times from the perspective of a classic mystery loving police officer that resides in the same community as the first victim. Each person marked for death receives a list with their name on it, as well as eight others they don't recognize. One of the people on the list is an FBI officer and they work quickly to try and protect others on the list with protection as they try and work out what a connection between the individuals might be. Connections are slim, most have nothing in common, and they're spread out all over the country and yet their numbers continue to dwindle. Will Jessica, the FBI agent, figure things out before her name comes up? Or will it be the police officer when there's no one left? From the way the first part of the book plays out I had my suspicions (and they weren't wrong!) but the book was still plenty of fun in trying to figure out the connection and who would be next to die. It doesn't impart the same sense of isolation and foreboding as Christie's masterpiece but is limited in graphic language or violence, making it perfectly suited to those who enjoy the Christie style of mystery writing. A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is Swanson's take on And Then There Were None. And it was fantastic.

A group of strangers, with no seeming link, is dying, one by one. Who is doing it and why?

It was a predictable story, due to the nod to the Christie novel, but it had an unexpected twist at the end.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #WilliamMorrow for the #ARC.

This book was sooo good. I loved the concept as it was something pretty unique. I thought all the characters were done well. I mean there were characters that i didn’t love as much as the others but i was still pretty invested in all of them. This book had me hooked from the beginning. I love Peter Swanson’s writing style and will be picking up more from him in the future! Highly recommend.