Book Review: "The Kind Worth Killing" by Peter Swanson

"The Kind Worth Killing" by Peter Swanson
First published in 2015
311 pages
My rating: 3.5 out of 5
Image from Goodreads

The Short Of It:
This book has a bit of the twisty psychological thriller about it, but while it was a fast and intriguing read I wasn't blown away. Not bad, but not quite as spellbinding as I expected.

The Long Of It:
Two strangers, a handsome, rich businessman and a mysterious red-headed archivist, meet at a bar in London's Heathrow Airport. The man, thinking he'll never see the woman again, tells her he discovered his wife has been cheating on him. The woman kindly offers to help the man kill his adulterous wife.

Why would someone volunteer to help carry out a murder -- a murder of a possibly innocent stranger -- for a man she met by chance encounter a few minutes before? Lily Kintner, our beguiling archivist/murderess, has quite an interesting story to tell.

This thriller is full of ups and downs, twists and turns, lies and misconceptions, shifting allegiances -- all of which kept me on my toes. It also raises some thought-provoking questions about morality and death. Does killing a bad person make murder acceptable? Lily thinks so. And at parts of this novel, you -- who wouldn't hurt a fly -- might start to understand her point of view.

"The Kind Worth Killing" was a decent read that kept my interest. I'm not quite sure what held me back from liking it more than I did -- maybe the fact that there really wasn't anyone to root for? Our protagonists are equal parts likeable and crazy, though maybe part of the book's cachet is that the author can make you sympathize with a sociopath. I'm not going to shout from the rooftops to read this book, but if it's already on your radar you might as well give it a try.

"...survival was everything. It was the meaning of life. And to take another life was, in many ways, the greatest expression of what it meant to be alive."