Just as expected, this was so clever and twisted! We follow a librarian who believe her husband may be a murderer. Maybe you never truly know someone.

Peter Swanson can be very hit-or-miss, thankfully this was on the better side. I enjoyed the story, it flowed like a really fun movie. Fans of the genre will be happy.

The third book in the author's series but it could be read as a standalone. I enjoy every one of Mr. Swanson's books. His writing style grabs you and keeps you turning the pages. This was definitely another really good read.

A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson
Pub date: July 4, 2024

I’ve been reading Peter Swanson for a long time but none of his characters has captivated me quite as much as Lily Kintner. She’s a mystery and a hard nut to crack - her sense of justice is the chef’s kiss in every story.

Lily’s college friend, Martha, is newly married after thinking she’ll most likely spend her life alone. But when she meets traveling salesman, Alan, she marries him even though she doesn’t really know all that much about him. He makes her laugh and has a sweet nature about him even if he’s a bit odd at times.

When Martha notices a smear of what appears to be blood on the back of Alan’s work shirt, she begins to question if maybe he’s getting up to a little more at these conventions he attends six-months out of the year then just selling merchandise. Her suspicion leads her to a little digging and what she finds has her calling her old friend, Lily, to confide in.

Swanson leads the reader down a merry path of guessing with this one and I loved watching Lily work the case of a brutal serial killer who’s managed to go undetected for years. Told in multiple POV and in different timelines, it gives a unique perspective and varying narratives to give the reader a chance to formulate their own opinions but in true Swanson style, nothing is ever what it seems.

I’ll never tire of Lily and Henry working a murder mystery together. Ever. They’re peanut butter and jelly, Batman and Robin, cheese and crackers …. You get where I’m going, they’re good together.

I thoroughly enjoyed this suspenseful and thrilling story featuring two of my favorite literary characters. I hope to see them again!

Riveting, disturbing, and unforgettable!

I didn't realize this was another Lily Kintner book when I snagged it, but I wasn't upset to realize that. I've read the others and this one was definitely more of the same, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Another great book from Peter Swanson. I enjoyed the twists and turns, as well as the return of Kimball and Kitner. I wasn't entirely sold on this one at the beginning because I did not like The Kind Worth Saving as much as other Swanson books. I ended up being sucked into this story and curious to see if Alan really was as bad as Martha suspected. I look forward to recommending this to my patrons since it could be read as a standalone and would serve as a great introduction to this author. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.

This got better as it went along. I think people will enjoy it. Will recommend to library patrons. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

I am OBSESSED with jaw dropping twists and this book delivers in spades! Even when I’m totally expecting to be surprised, I’m still beyond shocked when they hit! Swanson has hit the jackpot with this series as every book is solid gold!!!

I have not read any other books by the author which felt like a disadvantage and fun challenge. Fun story. Great characters. Will be reading other books by the author.

Another great mystery from Peter Swanson. Lots of red herrings that will keep you guessing til the very end. Interesting characters and clever plot lines. Will always look forward to his mysteries. An easy sell and will highly recommend.
Thanks to Net Galley and Harper Collins for an advance read.

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC!
Synopsis: A newlywed librarian begins to suspect that the man she married might be a murderer.
My thoughts: I am probably TKWK & TKWS biggest fan! Getting more Lily in a Talent for Murder was all that I could ask for and MORE! A page turner that I devoured in just 2 days. Swanson always delivers on dark and twisted stories that shock me each and every time. This book could be read as a stand-alone but I definitely recommend reading in order to get all the character background. LOVED this and will 10000% be reading anything else Swanson gives us on Lily/Henry!

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing this book, with my honest review below.

I have read the previous books in the Henry Kimball/Lily Kintner series and continue to love Lily Kintner as a character and appreciate that Peter Swanson has stuck with the series. In A Talent for Murder we once again follow Lily as she navigates her life as a sociopath, trying to help her friend Martha suss out of her husband is a serial killer, as one does.

This is a solid thriller and well written. My take for those unfamiliar with the series is to start with this book (you’ll be fine to do so despite this being part of a series) before you read The kind worth killing and The kind worth saving. My take for those familiar with the series, on the other hand, is that while we get more Lily in Book 3 we lose some of the complexity to the plot that results in such satisfying thrills in this book. I feel with every book in the series the plot dulls just a little, but I am hopeful we are being lulled into a false sense of complacency only to be savaged by Peter Swanson in a magnificent book 4. This is a solid thriller, but compared to the other books in the series and the expectations set it lets down a bit. If I were reading this as a standalone I might give more leeway, but as a reader of the phenomenal series, I am rating this a 3.2.

Martha is okay with her uneventful life; she is content with her work as a librarian and her husband offers companionship while also giving her space due to his job. Her predictable life is flipped upside down, though, when her husband returns home from a conference with a bloodstain on his shirt. Soon Martha finds herself questioning who she really married and wondering if her life is as safe as she thought. Will her old friend Lily be able to help her piece everything together in time to save herself?

Fans of Swanson will be happy with this book, as he remains true to form. The story starts off a bit slow and then gains momentum as the reader learns more about how each character is connected. There is a fairly unexpected twist in the first half of the book and it adds a lot to the plot.

This is book three in a series but could mostly be read as a standalone; there are certain elements regarding Lily's background a first time reader will be missing, but nothing too detrimental to the plot.

This book is a bit dark and none of the characters are 100% good, but the gray areas help keep it interesting. Fans of Hitchcock-esque plots will enjoy this one.

✨ My all time favorite book is THE KIND WORTH KILLING and Swanson didn’t let me down for the 3rd book! I loved it. I love how he writes Lily’s character. And of course, our favorite P.I. Henry is back!

This one is about a librarian that begins to suspect her husband is a serial killer 👀

You don’t want to miss it and if you haven’t read the other two, what are you even doing?!!! 😆❤️ Seriously, read them though!

I recently read A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson. I have read and reviewed several books by this author and have enjoyed them. This story is about a young woman, Martha, who has married Alan. Although Martha felt she didn't really know her husband when they wed, despite being a little controlling, she felt he was a good man who cared for her deeply. After approximately a year of marriage, she discovers what looks like blood on one of his shirts. Alan is a salesman and frequently out of town. Now Martha's mind is racing about the man she should know better and what happens when he goes to his conferences. Could he be a murderer or is she the owner of a vivid imagination? Martha enlists the help of an old college friend to help her investigate the possibility that she could actually be married to a serial killer.

This book frightened me. Peter Swanson has always been a sure thing, an auto-buy. This time I really had trouble getting into the story. I don't know why. The book was interesting from the first page. One thing is that for the most part, the story is told by a different person's perspective in each chapter. The chapters are not labeled, leaving the reader to figure out who is narrating. Originally, I found it annoying, it broke my reading cadence, broke the spell. After a while I realized it was being done on purpose and is part of the story. Don't be like me, appreciate the construction of the story right from the beginning. While the characters change with each chapter, they are all fully developed, interesting and often surprising. The plot moves along at a pleasant pace, often hitting the reader with shocking Hitchcockian twists. Once, about half-way in, I gasped so loudly my husband came running to see what was wrong. Not that I noticed him, I could not look away from the book. Now that is a good twist, and it was only one of many. I learned my lesson, to trust Peter Swanson. The novel I thought might be my nemesis, turned out to be a super fun, first class thriller.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advanced copy. Of course, my views are my own. (I'll try and channel someone else next time, if you want.)

This is the third book in what is now a full-blown series featuring former cop/current private detective Henry Kimball and the woman who stabbed him and ended his police career, killer, somewhat sociopath, and in the end hero Lily Kitner. When librarian Martha Ratliff becomes suspicious that her husband Alan, who makes a living selling kitschy education related shirts and items at trade shows, may be a serial killer, she contacts her old friend Lily, who once helped her out of a toxic relationship with a major narcissist and sociopath back in college. Lily, being sociopathic and a killer of those who really deserve it, agrees to look into the situation. While investigating the mysterious deaths of women near places Alan attended conventions Lily finds the most shocking surprise of all.
While the protagonists of these books, especially Lily, are not what you would expect to be the heroes, somehow they work in these somewhat unconventional thrillers. In this case, it's mostly a Lily adventure, as she's the one who does most of the legwork and has the novel tell things from her point of view. Henry has a much smaller supporting role in this story. But this one is full of surprises, with very unexpected twists and shocking reveals right up to the final pages.

Why are the murders in every town her husband visits this his job? Martha doesn't feel like she really knows her husband and especially when he returns with blood on his shirt after one convention. Who can she ask for help? Her friend Lily from college that helped her out of a bad situation before. Peter Swanson keeps the twists and turned coming making you turn the page long after you should to find out it a murderer can be stopped before it's too late.

A Talent for Murder reminded me why Peter Swanson is one of my favorite thriller authors because just when I think I know where the story is going, he does a 180 and makes me question everything I thought I knew. When I saw this was continuing the stories for Lily Kintner and Henry Kimball, introduced in one of my all-time favorite books, The Kind Worth Killing, I knew I was in for a treat of a new cat and mouse game. While Henry plays a smaller part in this book as compared to the recently released sequel, The Kind Worth Saving, Lily gets more of the spotlight and does what she does best, which is investigate and attempt to seek out justice.

When a college friend of Lily's suspects that her husband may be behind a number of murders that coincidentally have happened in towns he has been at for trade shows, she shares her suspicions with Lily, who can't let the case go and needs to get involved. But once she gets involved, every lead she was following might not be what it seems when someone from her past has her questioning things.

The story drew me in right away and even though I've learned my lesson in Swanson's books before and to not trust my initial suspicion, he once again made me fall for it when a twist came about. The pacing of the book for me was perfect, the story sped along while still teaching the reader all of the backstory they needed to know for the characters involved. The story is told in present day and flashbacks that helped in introducing the new characters. Lily is someone you feel weird about liking because of how her mind works and how dangerous she can be, but I really liked her in this story and feel like I got to know her best and why she is the person that she is from this book.

Highly recommend reading this series in order so that nothing is spoiled, but this book can also be read as a standalone. If Swanson wants to keep writing about Lily and Henry, I'll gladly keep reading books about them!

𝐖𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐱 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝.

The book I recommend to thriller lovers over and over is THE KIND WORTH KILLING, and I was beyond thrilled to see Lily Kintner return for a third installment. I guess you could read this book as a standalone, but I highly recommend reading the first two to get her full backstory, which is only given in bits and pieces here.

What would you do if you thought your husband was a serial killer? Soft-spoken, introverted Martha Ratliff grows concerned when her husband Alan returns home from a convention selling wares to educators and other groups with a small smear of blood on his shirt. This mid-mannered librarian decides to investigate, cross-referencing the cities her husband has traveled to over the past year and finds something that gives her pause--five murdered women. Martha has a problem--if she confronts her husband and she's wrong, she's going to lose her marriage; but if she's right and keeps quiet, she knows that more women will die.

Martha has a friend from her past, a friend who once helped her get away from a sadistic and controlling boyfriend. She calls Lily Kintner who is intrigued enough to investigate, and what she finds is something so explosive, so shocking, you will be glued to this story until the final page.

I love the detached, almost formal third person narrator, who appears to comment dryly on the cast of characters. My heart went out to Martha, described as such a plain, unremarkable woman that she was shocked when Alan asked her to marry him. She ponders if she loves him or is just glad for the company. A lot of people don't know what to make of Lily, and here's my input. I don't see her as a sociopath; instead, I see her more as a harbinger of justice. There is no malice behind her actions. There is another character that I won't comment on as it's a spoiler, but wow...the attention to detail bringing this one to life was unmatched.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and William Morrow Books for the early copy. This title will publish July 4, 2024.

I really enjoyed this and flew threw it! Loved the premise of a mousey librarian suspecting her traveling salesman husband of being a serial killer. The twists and turns were good and mostly unexpected. The cat and mouse aspect had you on edge.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow books for the advanced ecopy in exchange for my honest review.

*Note* This book contains Lilly Kitner and Henry Kimball as characters and is listed as a book 3 in series (The Kind Worth Killing), but I do also think it could be read as a stand alone. If you read this first, go back and read TKWK too. You’ll thank me later!