Reviews with content warning for Vomit - Eight Perfect Murders

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Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

6 reviews

sandysmith's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Not my favourite Peter Swanson read but it's likeable enough. It's based on a blog, written by book shop owner Malcom (Mal) Kersha, whereby he chooses 8 book "perfect murders". This book does contain spoilers for these 8 books if you haven't read them, but this is necessary for the storyline as it appears that there is a person copying these books and murdering. So, the ABC murders is used, but the killer uses bird themes as an example. Mal is not particularly likeable, but how the story develops is interesting. It's great,
cleverly plotted murder mystery, but unfortunately, not one of Swansons' finest.

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kbenavidez44's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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ireadinbed's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

First book of 2024!

In many ways this book reminded me of Paul Tremblay's Pallbearers Club, but if it had been executed well.

I suppose that is because there is this untrustworthy, mostly unlikable, but somewhat sympathetic pov character. But somehow in this one I just had more fun reading.

If I'm honest I couldn't put it down! Very compelling mystery.

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lomahongva's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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uchihas's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.0

i honestly never expect anything from the books i'm reading, but especially when the recommendations come from tiktok. i'd heard people rave about this one and despite not expecting anything i was still disappointed. i kept waiting for something interesting to happen. the protagonist is insufferable. absolutely could not stand him. the ONLY plus sides were that the minor characters weren't too bad, and there was a cat who stays safe and sound throughout the entire novel. 2 stars for the cat.

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novi's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

3.0

I enjoyed it. It's not a fast action-packed thriller, but I'd say it's a pretty cozy read because it's set in the winter time, there are a lot of talks about mystery books in it, it's also set in a book store, and it's not very suspenseful. I never really felt that the stakes were high, even after we know the villain. So yes for me it's a bit anti-climatic, but it makes a pretty cozy read (and I already watched a review that said that the villain wouldn't be satisfying, so my hopes were not high). I recommend this for mystery book lovers just for all the books discussions and homages in this book.

But let me rant a bit here:

I already guessed the killer before it was revealed because even after 70% of the book, there is still no other character introduced. There is no way the killer would be someone that wasn't introduced to the readers. There's Tessa, but she's too unlikely. Gwen was already so weird since the beginning but she's also very unlikely. And our main character was already quite sinister so I wasn't surprised when he revealed that he also killed his wife. And I didn't even care about his wife!! So when he revealed that, as if he was hoping he'd be seen as the supervillain, I was just like, "okay..."

I think it's worth repeating that this book spoils the plot of many mystery/thriller books, beside the "eight perfect murders", there were also other books that were spoiled here, so make sure to do some googling about it if you don't wanna get spoiled.

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