Nine Lives is an addictive reimagining of Agatha Christie's classic And Then There Were None. Peter Swanson recreates the classic while still managing to keep the story fresh and unpredictable. Filled with twists and a captivating plot, this one is sure to keep readers hooked from start to finish. With well-developed characters and a fast pace maintained throughout, it'll be hard for readers to put this one down. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys unpredictable locked room whodunnits. Be sure to check out Nine Lives today.

Not the best mystery/thriller. Not the worst. I enjoy Swanson's books so I will keep reading whatever he puts out.

I loved this book! Peter Swanson is one of my favorite authors because he does a fantastic job of the final twist, and in this book he accomplished just that. I would have never been able to predict it, but it was a good one. I highly recommend this book.

FINALLY A Peter Swanson book I enjoyed! I see so many glowing reviews for him and I just haven't vibed with any of the books I've read. However - are all of his books loosely based off Agatha Christie novels? Or some other old murdery author? Either way, this one finally worked! Yay!

This book was SO intriguing, I had to know more. I had to know what the list meant, who it was from and what the hell was happening. While I guess the concept isn't original, I loved the idea behind this plot line - a list of 9 peoples names shows up at each of their doors and they start dying, one by one. BRILLIANT. I listened to this one on audio, and I think that helped me keep track of all the characters POV's and their story-lines, as it was a lot to keep up with. Anyway, bravo, I have renewed faith in Swanson's work and might continue reading more.

Nine Lives was excellent! Love Peter Swanson and this book did not disappoint! Loving the Agatha Christie tie-ins and the audiobook was excellent as well.

Very good for die hards of Riley Sager, not 100% what I wanted from a thriller, but they're not my genre of choice generally. Second Purchase for most collections

This book was great! Loved the unique setup and the twist at the end! Definitely one of my favorites of Peter swanson’s books.

Nine Lives was not my cup of tea. I thought I would enjoy reading the story based on the synopsis. It didn't grab my attention as I thought it would.

The list of nine names. Intriguing. It is twisty and engaging. Peter Swanson is a fun author to read. I enjoyed this book and look forward to the next one. Recommend!

Wow! First book I've read by this author, but not the last.

Very similar in concept to Ten Little Indians (which I have not read but will be doing so) except with fewer people and instead of being on an island, nine people get a list of names in the mail. The list includes their name as well. One of the names belongs to an FBI investigator and she starts looking into this. Most of the names get police protection but not all of them. Then the murders start happening and local police and the FBI are struggling to find connections between the names. They range from young to old and all walks of life so there is no obvious connection.

Story is neatly wrapped up and the chapters are short and alternate between each of the 9 names on the list and a local police detective. It was a pretty quick read (took me 2 days) and I really enjoyed it.

Nine people receive a list in the mail. On the list there are nine names. Their's and the names of eight other people. What do these nine individuals have in common to have them all on one list?

Like other Peter Swanson books there are references to Agatha Christie books that add dimension to the story. I love books about books. 

This is a fast read that will keep you turning the pages.

And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie's murder mystery has inspired many authors to write a similar book. Peter Swanson is able to do this with success. His characters all receive a blank piece of paper with a list of nine names, including their own. And, then they begin to die. Fortunately, one of the people is an FBI agent who, along with a very sharp policeman following his own set of skills start to unwind the mystery. This is an entertaining summer read.

I’m a huge fan of Peter Swanson, but this one just didn’t do it for me. The book felt slow and the big reveal didn’t wow me, unfortunately.

Author Peter Swanson is known for paying homage to great mystery writers in his novels, which are sometimes reimaginings of the originals. In Nine Lives, he draws from Agatha Christie's classic, And Then There Were None, to craft an intriguing and absorbing story of nine perfect strangers, all of whom find their names on a cryptic list delivered to them via mail. None of them recognize the other names and they are all baffled as to the list's origin and meaning, and why their names have been linked with the others on the list. Swanson's diverse cast of characters are Matthew Beaumont, a suburban father in Massachusetts; Jay Coates, an aspiring actor in Los Angeles; Ethan Dart, a singer-songwriter in Texas; Caroline Geddes, an English professor in Michigan; Frank Hopkins, the owner of the Windward Resort in Kennewick, Maine; Alison Horne, a married man's paid mistress in New York City; Arthur Kruse, an oncology nurse in Massachusetts; Jack Radebaugh, a retired businessman who recently returned to his childhood home in Connecticut; and Jessica Winslow, an FBI agent in New York.

The story opens with the death of Hopkins at his Windward Resort in Maine. When his body is discovered, he is holding a torn envelope addressed to him and containing the list of names. Detective Sam Hamilton, Kennewick's only police officer, knew Frank for many years and immediately begins investigating his suspicious death. A few hours later, Jessica learns about Frank's death and his possession of the same list she received the prior day. Swanson devotes short, successive chapters of the book to introducing his characters and describing their respective receipt of the list. Some of them simply toss the list into the trash without giving it another thought, convinced it is just junk mail, while others immediately begin searching for any available clues about its significance. Swanson details Jessica's contact with or efforts to make contact with them in an attempt to piece together any possible connections. Some characters are immediately more sympathetic than others. Caroline Geddes, the lonely, unattached professor who lives alone with her cats in a two-bedroom cottage in Ann Arbor, immediately thinks, "It's a list of death. Someone has marked us for death," just as she thinks every telephone call will bring news of a tragedy. She allows for "personal interpretations of literary works" in her own life. But then there's Jay Coates, a would-be actor going to auditions and callbacks in Hollywood, but having little success in the entertainment industry. He is jealous and spiteful about his friend's success, and stalks random women, fantasizing about abusing or killing them.

Arthur Kruse's name rings a bell with Jessica. She seems to remember that her father, Gary, had a friend named Art Kruse whose lake house he visited. Arthur is still mourning his husband, Richard, and has had no relationship with his father since Art rejected him when Arthur came out. Even so, she asks Arthur to question his father about that tenuous connection. Jessica has a very personal stake in the outcome of the case, obviously, and works to learn more about Frank Hopkins and identify each person listed. The Windward Resort also sounds vaguely familiar to her, perhaps because her family vacationed on the southern coast of Maine when she was thirteen years old.

The recipients of the list also search for any connection they might have to the others. Ethan and Caroline can only discern that their grandparents came from the Boston area, but they strike up a friendship born of the presence of their names on the list, as well as their mutual love of the works of a particular poet. For Caroline, it is exciting and breaks up the monotony of her solitary existence and Ethan finds himself drawn to Caroline, as well. They soon make ill-fated plans to meet.

When the second murder occurs, it is no longer possible to write the list off as a coincidence. Rather, Jessica likens it to the morning of September 11. "I remember watching the news after the first plane hit, and the world just thought it was a terrible accident. Then the second plane hit, and everything changed." She and her supervisor agree that the second murder is the equivalent of that second plane, and it is time for the FBI to provide protection to everyone on the list. But one by one, the nine continue dying, their deaths coming about in distinct and sometimes horrific ways, despite the security measures employed. Sam and Jessica proceed with their investigations, and Sam also becomes convinced that there is nothing accidental or coincidental about the order in which the deaths are occurring. Frank received the list first and was the first to die, and Sam suspects that finding out about his past is crucial to solving the crimes. Sam turns to his grandmother's collection of Agatha Christie books, and recalls reading And Then there Were None with its original, racist title as a child. He still has that valuable edition of the book that he re-reads yet again, convinced that Frank Hopkins and the other "unlucky souls" on the list somehow resemble the characters and plot of that novel.

At one point, Swanson injects an anonymous hit man into the mix, further complicating matters with a pulse-pounding game of cat and mouse. But who hired him? And why?

Swanson's telling of the story is meticulous and methodical. As it proceeds, the substance of his imaginative plot gradually comes into focus, and he reveals more details about his characters' backgrounds and histories at expertly-timed junctures while he accelerates the story's pace. He endears some characters to readers, making their inevitable demise nothing less than crushingly disappointing. Swanson returns to And Then There Were None as Sam closes in on the truth and the killer's identity is revealed, along with the motive, via an old-fashioned, full explanation, delivered by the killer. It's a description of a decades-long obsession with retribution and revenge in response to grievous behavior that resulted in unspeakable loss and a lifetime of guilt. The conclusion is satisfying, especially given that readers will most likely be unable to pull together all the threads of Swanson's complex and intricate plot on their own.

Nine Lives is an entertaining and masterfully constructed homage to Christie's original work that will keep readers guessing up to the very last chapter, and rewards them with a shocking but delightful ending.

In the vein of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, Nine Lives kicks off with nine people each receiving a letter in a blank envelope with nine names. None of the names are familiar to each person, but when people from the list start dying, the FBI is in a hurry to figure out the connections.

I read the book in one sitting, and stayed fairly engaged, but I felt like overall the book was just okay. There was nothing largely unique or different about the story that will make it stand out to me in the future, so for that reason I rated the book 3 stars.

The reveals really didn't come until the end of the book, so it felt like things wrapped up pretty neatly there, with the exception of the last chapter, which felt a little out of place. I liked the concept of what happened in the final chapter, but felt like there could have been a few loose ends tied up more nicely to make it more meaningful.

Additionally, I felt like the why behind the murders could have been stronger. If the goal is to send a message to specific people, I wish the killer would have made it more clear to the people the message was meant for - essentially telling them who was responsible and why. Without that component, it felt like the intention/message behind the murders wasn't really coming across very well

Overall, while this wasn't my favorite book of his, I still really enjoy Peter Swanson's work and can't wait to see what he writes next!

I received an eARC of this one, but finding out that there were NINE POVs made me wait until I could have a physical copy to read! It took a bit to get my head straight about all the characters, but once I did, I really enjoyed it!

Nine Lives tells the story of nine strangers who all receive a letter with the same list of nine names, including their own. No one can make sense of the list or the connection between then, however they all begin to be killed one by one.

Even though I enjoyed it, the thing I found the most bizarre, is how often Swanson referenced the fact that this is basically the plot of an Agatha Christie novel. This isn’t the first book that he’s done it in either. Maybe I wouldn’t have enjoyed this book at all if I had read And Then There Were None, but I hadn’t so it really didn’t bother me (however it did spoil the Christie novel so I won’t be reading that!)

I’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews but I thought this was an entertaining, quick read. The “why” was a bit of a stretch for me, but overall I really liked it

I enjoyed Nine Lives, and didn’t guess the ending until near the end. The timelines were well done and kept me interested until the end of the book.

I am grateful to the publishers for allowing me to read and review this book. I really enjoyed this one! I loved all the references back to Agatha Christie novels and Peter Pan. What a cool idea! It definitely kept me guessing and I really liked the way it ended. Good, quick summer murder mystery read!

Ohhhhhh Peter Swanson!! Why is it that I either absolutely LOVE your books or I loathe them?!?! I think Peter is such a great storyteller, however, once again, his newest book just did not do it for me!!! This was a no for me! Yikes he used the N word not once but twice and then tried to justify it. Do better sir!! Although I didn’t enjoy this one, Peter Swanson is still an author I’m willing to try out another book of his because of his unique storytelling.

I read And Then There Were None in junior high and it kicked off my love of locked room/puzzle mysteries. I greatly enjoyed Swanson's Eight Perfect Murders and went into this book with high expectations. I was not disappointed---a perfect ode to the mistress of murder, Ms. Christie.