“Books are time travel…they can take you back to different versions of yourself.”

This started off well and had an interesting twist but it tended to drag and be repetitive. The references to the other books within the plot gave a lot of spoilers but that is to be expected. The characters lacked depth and interest so I wasn’t particularly invested in the protagonist being good or bad, alive or dead. I think I preferred the cat the most!

Personal irk, I hate it when authors constantly repeat surnames of only some of the characters. Most of us readers are not morons with short attention spans and it shows an annoying lack of consistency. ( )

This started off well even though I had no idea where the story was leading. The narrator is a mystery bookseller and created a blog post about eight well-known mysteries with the same title as the book. I have already read the books referenced so I wasn’t worried about spoilers, which was fortunate as there are many. My suspicions began before the FBI started showing an interest in the list and the list-maker. Repeated references to the plots and characters from books on the list gave the story a repetitive feel, compounded by the corresponding plot and characters in the story. A clever idea that got bogged down in details. Disappointing, especially with so many spoilers. ( )

I will admit that when I first started this book, I was not sure that I would finish it. What I perceived it to be more about literature books of the perfect murder, happily turned out to be so much more. I am relieved that I stuck with it. The book does follow many works of classic suspense books, but entwined with its own unique story. A story that held my interest right through to the end. It definitely has some neat interesting twists that you might not see coming. ( )

Murder

A masterful twist in murder mysteries. The story teller is a book store owner who once shared a list of his favorite mysteries with his clientele. Now it appears that someone is using that list to murder people without getting caught as did the killer in each of the stories. We learn that the bookstore owner used one of these stories to commit a murder himself. Now an FBI agent is knocking on his door and asking for his help in solving these new murders that appear to be based on the list he made. How does he help without becoming caught for his ?perfect? murder. Kirkus: A ghoulish killer brings a Boston bookseller?s list of perfect fictional murders to life�that is, to repeated, emphatic death.The Red House Mystery, Malice Aforethought, The A.B.C. Murders, Double Indemnity, Strangers on a Train, The Drowner, Deathtrap, The Secret History: They may not be the best mysteries, reflects Malcolm Kershaw, but they feature the most undetectable murders, as he wrote on a little-read blog post when he was first hired at Old Devils Bookstore. Now that he owns the store with mostly silent partner Brian Murray, a semifamous mystery writer, that post has come back to haunt him. FBI agent Gwen Mulvey has observed at least three unsolved murders, maybe more, that seem to take their cues from the stories on Mal?s list. What does he think about possible links among them? she wonders. The most interesting thing he thinks is something he?s not going to share with her: He?s hiding a secret that would tie him even more closely to that list than she imagines. And while Mal is fretting about what he can do to help stop the violence without tipping his own hand, the killer, clearly untrammeled by any such scruples, continues down the list of fictional blueprints for perfect murders. Swanson (Before She Knew Him, 2019, etc.) jumps the shark early from genre thrills to metafictional puzzles, but despite a triple helping of cleverness that might seem like a fatal overdose, the pleasures of following, and trying to anticipate, a narrator who?s constantly second- and third-guessing himself and everyone around him are authentic and intense. If the final revelations are anticlimactic, that?s only because you wish the mounting complications, like a magician?s showiest routine, could go on forever.The perfect gift for well-read mystery mavens who complain that they don?t write them like they used to.