A review by audreysy
Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson
mysterious
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
hmmm honestly quite meh for the premise. it was a decent read and you could feel the love for mystery novels emanating from the text, but the actual mystery which should have been compelling in theory was stunted by this jerky storytelling pace which, as this is my first peter swanson work, i do not know if it’s intentional or not. a lot of the plot points felt glaringly obvious, there wasn’t enough of a lead up to the reveal of the murderer likely because he didn’t play much of a role in the story at all in the first place to make it shocking enough, and reveals were explained as if to a child.
actually, the entire book was written as if to reason with a child. “this is what happened, and as explained in the previous chapter, this is what i did next.” was the vibe of the reveals. mysteries are best leaving the reader clutching behind the author piecing together point after point as pieces fall into place, not spoonfed as it was here. there was also a lot of “clever” “self-aware” statements from the main character where he references a specific mystery novel and point-blank tells you how that related to what he has said or done.
there was also a disconnect between the writing and the main character. i cannot be made to believe that this tone of voice arises from a supposed 40 year old man. also, all characters felt incredibly flat and inconsistently characterized (especially the main character like he was not mentally unstable enough to be doing all that…) and their motivations were all… unrealistic? in fact, even taking the story with a grain of salt, i just can’t get behind how fantastical the coincidences occurring in this book are.
still, i did enjoy this book and finished it fairly quickly, if only for the fact that i love murder mysteries.
actually, the entire book was written as if to reason with a child. “this is what happened, and as explained in the previous chapter, this is what i did next.” was the vibe of the reveals. mysteries are best leaving the reader clutching behind the author piecing together point after point as pieces fall into place, not spoonfed as it was here. there was also a lot of “clever” “self-aware” statements from the main character where he references a specific mystery novel and point-blank tells you how that related to what he has said or done.
there was also a disconnect between the writing and the main character. i cannot be made to believe that this tone of voice arises from a supposed 40 year old man. also, all characters felt incredibly flat and inconsistently characterized (especially the main character like he was not mentally unstable enough to be doing all that…) and their motivations were all… unrealistic? in fact, even taking the story with a grain of salt, i just can’t get behind how fantastical the coincidences occurring in this book are.
still, i did enjoy this book and finished it fairly quickly, if only for the fact that i love murder mysteries.