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BOOKS ARE TIME TRAVEL. TRUE READERS ALL KNOW THIS. BUT BOOKS JUST DON'T TAKE YOU BACK TO THE TIME IN WHICH THEY WERE WRITTEN; THEY CAN TAKE YOU BACK TO DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF YOURSELF.
pages: 270
heard: 4/21-22/2020
book: 33 in 2020
SYNOPSIS
If you want to get away with murder, play by the rules
A series of unsolved murders with one thing in common: each of the deaths bears an eerie resemblance to the crimes depicted in classic mystery novels.
The deaths lead FBI Agent Gwen Mulvey to mystery bookshop Old Devils. Owner Malcolm Kershaw had once posted online an article titled 'My Eight Favourite Murders,' and there seems to be a deadly link between the deaths and his list - which includes Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders, Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train and Donna Tartt's The Secret History.
Can the killer be stopped before all eight of these perfect murders have been re-enacted?
"I don't trust narrators more than i trust the actual people in my life. we never get the whole truth from anybody."
its been a while since i read this one so this might be short.
i was really excited for this book but in the end, it didn't work for me. i ended up not being a huge fan of it.
once i finished it and i could see it for its entirety, i did appreciate it for what it is.
and now that i know what this whole story is about...okay cool. i like it. i think if i reread it again i might like it more. but honestly, i probably won't re-read it.
tbh, it was Malcolm that bugged the fuck out of me.
i dont know.
he just annoyed me.
and now knowing the whole story, it still doesn't help his case.
maybe it just wasn't my time with this book yet and i jumped the gun...but as of right now its my second last favorite book of his.
ill think about this one for a little while and see how i end up feeling about it later on but as of right now, eh. but i do love that cover tho. worth getting it from the UK.
and i should also mention that there is spoilers for 8 other books so beware if you do want to read any of them:
1. The Red House Mystery - A. A. Milne
2. Malice Aforethought - Anthony Berkley Cox
3. The ABC Murders - Agatha Christie
4. Double Indemnity - James M. Cain
5. Strangers on a Train - Patricia Highsmith
6. The Drowner - John MacDonald
7. Deathtrap - Ira Levin
8. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
yea that's a bit spoilery......but what would you rather spoil? the list of 8 books in one whole ass other book or the spoilers of 8 books, one of which maybe you wanted to read?
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uh....i couldn't give ya super detailed ones even if i wanted to so ill just do the basics.
Both Malcolm Kershaw & Marty Kingship committed the murders.
basically Malcolm Kershaw killed his wife because she kept having a repeated affair with Eric Atwell. he kills her by having her swerve off of a side thingamabober on the freeway (i dont wana go look back! sorry). its not so much the cheating that pushed him over the edge on this one, its more so that she continues to fuck up and she says sorry but she never wants to talk about it and face her mistakes. she just says sorry and keeps doing it. and he loves her but on new years when she sneaks off to go to Eric's, he knows where she is at and goes to her. he sees her being extremely happy (bc of the drugs but also something else) and thats when it clicks; she will continue to fuck up because she is never going to have to confront it. he did not want to be like his mother, putting up with his drunk ass father cause, what else is there to do?
Atwell hired her to film some sort of documentary and in turn got her hooked on drugs again. (she was a recovering drug addict. on and off)
Malcolm logs into this sorta dark web page where you can get whatever you please and trades a murder for a murder.
so this OTHER dude who they call Charlie in the story until its revealed who he is kills Eric Atwell for Malcolm and Malcolm kills Norman Chaney for him.
Malcolm also kills Steven Clifton because he raped Claire and other teenage girls.
it turns out that Steven Clifton is actually Gwen Mulveys father.
it got out what Steven did and he told Gwen that the reason he did that was because he didn't want to abuse her.
he packs his shit, divorces his wife and leaves.
Malcolm kills him by running him over.
Malcolm also kills CHARLIE.
all of the other murders are done of course Charlie.
who is Charlie?
Marty Kingship.
Malcolm killed Norman Chaney for Marty Kingship (you learn in the end that that is not his real name. he didnt want to use his real name to protect Marty's kids) and Marty's killing for Malcolm ignited something in him.
years ago, Malcolm wrote a blog post of a list of the 8 perfect murders; books that should be read.
perfect in the sense that the killers never get caught.
once Malcolm and Marty exchanged the info on who each one was supposed to kill, Marty did research on his target to make sure he wasnt to kill a good Samaritan.
once he did it, he gets hooked.
that's when he does more research and figures out that it was Malcolm that ordered the hit.
he finds his blog post where he was talking about the 8 perfect murders and notices that the murders they committed were based off a book so Marty goes and reads all the other books and then starts committing murders based off of those books.
Gwen came along to question Malcolm about the murders and for help based on his list.
Malcolm called Marty (before he knew he was the Charlie he and Gwen were looking for) and asked him to look into some other dude. and that's when Marty knew that he had finally gotten what he wanted.
all in all, Marty was a cop whose wife cheated on him (thanks to a book about being unfaithful that i think a Robin Callahan wrote...idk but he killed her too) he was going to kill himself and his wife but didn't because of his children.
he went to that dark web page, switched murders with Malcolm and got hooked.
he looked up Malcolm, became fascinated with him, retired, divorced his wife, moved to Boston to be closer to Malcolm and became obsessed.
he gets caught one night when Malcolm leaves Tessas & Brians home after dinner, goes home and gets a notification from Charlie.
Charlie lets him know that he just gave him 2 more victims and another story to cross off so Malcolm rushes to T & B's house and there he is confronted by Marty.
Marty tells him everything from beginning to end and then tells him that he needs to start helping pick up the slack and that he needs to shoot Brian so that they can then kill Tessa but make it look like she killed Brian and then ran away.
Malcolm agrees.
He looks at Brian and shoots Marty in the chest.
Malcolm leaves and calls Gwen and tells her about who Charlie is and what went down.
(but right after he shoots Marty, Swanson makes it seem like he called her right away - good twist!)
he goes home packs some shit, goes to the store to buy a weeks worth of food.
he then hides out in Elaine Johnson's home (Marty killed her by scaring her which caused her to die of a heart attack).
there we learn that he: a) is actually telling us the story. he is writing it all down to leave some accountability before he plans to b) kill himself by filling his pockets with shit and walking into the sea so that he can drown.
....just like in one of the books.
of course, there is a lot i left out and other people that were murdered but you get the gist of it.
uh....i couldn't give ya super detailed ones even if i wanted to so ill just do the basics.
Both Malcolm Kershaw & Marty Kingship committed the murders.
basically Malcolm Kershaw killed his wife because she kept having a repeated affair with Eric Atwell. he kills her by having her swerve off of a side thingamabober on the freeway (i dont wana go look back! sorry). its not so much the cheating that pushed him over the edge on this one, its more so that she continues to fuck up and she says sorry but she never wants to talk about it and face her mistakes. she just says sorry and keeps doing it. and he loves her but on new years when she sneaks off to go to Eric's, he knows where she is at and goes to her. he sees her being extremely happy (bc of the drugs but also something else) and thats when it clicks; she will continue to fuck up because she is never going to have to confront it. he did not want to be like his mother, putting up with his drunk ass father cause, what else is there to do?
Atwell hired her to film some sort of documentary and in turn got her hooked on drugs again. (she was a recovering drug addict. on and off)
Malcolm logs into this sorta dark web page where you can get whatever you please and trades a murder for a murder.
so this OTHER dude who they call Charlie in the story until its revealed who he is kills Eric Atwell for Malcolm and Malcolm kills Norman Chaney for him.
Malcolm also kills Steven Clifton because he raped Claire and other teenage girls.
it turns out that Steven Clifton is actually Gwen Mulveys father.
it got out what Steven did and he told Gwen that the reason he did that was because he didn't want to abuse her.
he packs his shit, divorces his wife and leaves.
Malcolm kills him by running him over.
Malcolm also kills CHARLIE.
all of the other murders are done of course Charlie.
who is Charlie?
Marty Kingship.
Malcolm killed Norman Chaney for Marty Kingship (you learn in the end that that is not his real name. he didnt want to use his real name to protect Marty's kids) and Marty's killing for Malcolm ignited something in him.
years ago, Malcolm wrote a blog post of a list of the 8 perfect murders; books that should be read.
perfect in the sense that the killers never get caught.
once Malcolm and Marty exchanged the info on who each one was supposed to kill, Marty did research on his target to make sure he wasnt to kill a good Samaritan.
once he did it, he gets hooked.
that's when he does more research and figures out that it was Malcolm that ordered the hit.
he finds his blog post where he was talking about the 8 perfect murders and notices that the murders they committed were based off a book so Marty goes and reads all the other books and then starts committing murders based off of those books.
Gwen came along to question Malcolm about the murders and for help based on his list.
Malcolm called Marty (before he knew he was the Charlie he and Gwen were looking for) and asked him to look into some other dude. and that's when Marty knew that he had finally gotten what he wanted.
all in all, Marty was a cop whose wife cheated on him (thanks to a book about being unfaithful that i think a Robin Callahan wrote...idk but he killed her too) he was going to kill himself and his wife but didn't because of his children.
he went to that dark web page, switched murders with Malcolm and got hooked.
he looked up Malcolm, became fascinated with him, retired, divorced his wife, moved to Boston to be closer to Malcolm and became obsessed.
he gets caught one night when Malcolm leaves Tessas & Brians home after dinner, goes home and gets a notification from Charlie.
Charlie lets him know that he just gave him 2 more victims and another story to cross off so Malcolm rushes to T & B's house and there he is confronted by Marty.
Marty tells him everything from beginning to end and then tells him that he needs to start helping pick up the slack and that he needs to shoot Brian so that they can then kill Tessa but make it look like she killed Brian and then ran away.
Malcolm agrees.
He looks at Brian and shoots Marty in the chest.
Malcolm leaves and calls Gwen and tells her about who Charlie is and what went down.
(but right after he shoots Marty, Swanson makes it seem like he called her right away - good twist!)
he goes home packs some shit, goes to the store to buy a weeks worth of food.
he then hides out in Elaine Johnson's home (Marty killed her by scaring her which caused her to die of a heart attack).
there we learn that he: a) is actually telling us the story. he is writing it all down to leave some accountability before he plans to b) kill himself by filling his pockets with shit and walking into the sea so that he can drown.
....just like in one of the books.
of course, there is a lot i left out and other people that were murdered but you get the gist of it.
thanks for the review,
ReplyDeletewe listened to the book on tape during a road trip and Malcolm bugged me to no end! I'm glad I wasn't the only one
ReplyDeleteim glad i wasnt the only one! i feel like so far i have been.
Deleteits been a while and he still bugs me. lol