Breakaway Books

Authored by Peter Swanson; Published 2015; Mystery

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️

There’s something satisfying about a thriller with absolutely no who-dun-it aspect, and that is what The Kind Worth Killing is. From the beginning, the murderers are clear—the only question is whether they will get away with it.

There are, of course, twists and turns throughout the novel, but the suspense builds as we look on to see whether Ted and Lily, two strangers who meet on a flight, will end up getting away with the murder of Ted’s cheating wife. I followed their plotting with a gruesome sort of curiosity which escalated into a fascination with the characters’ mindsets. The pages turned more and more quickly and suddenly, the book was finished.

It is a rare murder mystery where I don’t necessarily feel like I’m on the detective’s side; rarer still when they take a backseat to the criminal completely. I enjoyed the unique perspective, a new spin on the classic retelling of an affair that leads to murder. Lily is a strange heroine, clearly not an average woman, almost what one might call a sociopath. In spite of this fact, hearing the story unwind from her perspective made her, if not sympathetic, at least understandable.

I hesitate to give much more away about how the story unfolds, but it did not end up where expected it to. I am eager to read the next book in the series and discover more about these fascinating characters!