Nine Lives by Peter Swanson is the third book of his that I’ve read, and it’s another one that I’ve enjoyed.

There were numerous characters in this one and many chapters were told in their various voices. While Swanson did a great job with developing the characters so quickly, at times I had to stop and remind myself who was who, since lots of things were going on and we don’t spend a lot of time on many of the characters. I didn’t think this style of writing took away from the story, I just needed to slow down a bit and really focus on what I was reading.

I really enjoyed it when one character dies in about the middle of the book. I didn’t think they would since they seemed very important to the story, so when they did I was amused. But… then the ending happened, and while it was okay, it took away a bit of the amusement I had had.

Swanson did fantastic when it came to red herrings in this book. And it was another book that I found myself wanting to continue to read to see what was going to happen next. I am looking forward to reading more from him. ( )

I don’t know— I guess I just like the way this author goes through all the details of the character’s daily lives. It’s mundane, but somehow he makes me interested in it? It’s definitely a talent because I usually hate alllll the unnecessary details.

At times I could not keep all these characters straight— the audio probably didn’t help with that because I couldn’t flip back to check on things. I also haven’t read And Then There Were None (although I’ve read enough retellings to get the gist), so I don’t know if that tells you how this book will go because I believe this to be a pretty near retelling. But despite those things, I just really love the way this author lays out his mysteries. I love the unreliable narrators, I love the starkness and no-nonsense way of the deaths. There’s just something about this author’s storytelling that grabs me.

So, not perfect, but 5 ⭐️s because I loved it— even that kind of blah ending. ( )

Good mystery. I enjoyed the read. ( )

The serial murderer in this book reminds me of the serial killer in the author's earlier novel, Before She Knew Him: both individuals view their murders almost like restorative justice. Their moral characters, however, are not identical. In the older book, the killer is remorseless and truly believes he is improving women's lives by murdering their problematic partners. In the newer book, the murderer recognizes that his actions are "wrong" (or at least illegal), but he feels driven to continue by his amoral logic. He notes more than once that he does not want to kill his victims, he just wants them to be dead.

The killer's focus is on nine deaths, because the end point of each victim's life is a source of meaning to him. The author, on the other hand (as shown by the title), chooses to highlight the nine lives of the victims to show readers what/who is lost when someone dies. In most cases that strategy makes for poignant narrative (except for one victim whose latent psychopathy makes it a relief when he is killed before he can do more harm to others). This book would have been even better, and more aligned with its killer's motives, if it also showed how the victims' deaths impacted their parents.

Recommended for all libraries. ( )

Author Peter Swanson is known for paying homage to great mystery writers in his novels, which are sometimes reimaginings of the originals. In Nine Lives, he draws from Agatha Christie's classic, And Then There Were None, to craft an intriguing and absorbing story of nine perfect strangers, all of whom find their names on a cryptic list delivered to them via mail. None of them recognize the other names and they are all baffled as to the list's origin and meaning, and why their names have been linked with the others on the list. Swanson's diverse cast of characters are Matthew Beaumont, a suburban father in Massachusetts; Jay Coates, an aspiring actor in Los Angeles; Ethan Dart, a singer-songwriter in Texas; Caroline Geddes, an English professor in Michigan; Frank Hopkins, the owner of the Windward Resort in Kennewick, Maine; Alison Horne, a married man's paid mistress in New York City; Arthur Kruse, an oncology nurse in Massachusetts; Jack Radebaugh, a retired businessman who recently returned to his childhood home in Connecticut; and Jessica Winslow, an FBI agent in New York.

The story opens with the death of Hopkins at his Windward Resort in Maine. When his body is discovered, he is holding a torn envelope addressed to him and containing the list of names. Detective Sam Hamilton, Kennewick's only police officer, knew Frank for many years and immediately begins investigating his suspicious death. A few hours later, Jessica learns about Frank's death and his possession of the same list she received the prior day. Swanson devotes short, successive chapters of the book to introducing his characters and describing their respective receipt of the list. Some of them simply toss the list into the trash without giving it another thought, convinced it is just junk mail, while others immediately begin searching for any available clues about its significance. Swanson details Jessica's contact with or efforts to make contact with them in an attempt to piece together any possible connections. Some characters are immediately more sympathetic than others. Caroline Geddes, the lonely, unattached professor who lives alone with her cats in a two-bedroom cottage in Ann Arbor, immediately thinks, "It's a list of death. Someone has marked us for death," just as she thinks every telephone call will bring news of a tragedy. She allows for "personal interpretations of literary works" in her own life. But then there's Jay Coates, a would-be actor going to auditions and callbacks in Hollywood, but having little success in the entertainment industry. He is jealous and spiteful about his friend's success, and stalks random women, fantasizing about abusing or killing them.

Arthur Kruse's name rings a bell with Jessica. She seems to remember that her father, Gary, had a friend named Art Kruse whose lake house he visited. Arthur is still mourning his husband, Richard, and has had no relationship with his father since Art rejected him when Arthur came out. Even so, she asks Arthur to question his father about that tenuous connection. Jessica has a very personal stake in the outcome of the case, obviously, and works to learn more about Frank Hopkins and identify each person listed. The Windward Resort also sounds vaguely familiar to her, perhaps because her family vacationed on the southern coast of Maine when she was thirteen years old.

The recipients of the list also search for any connection they might have to the others. Ethan and Caroline can only discern that their grandparents came from the Boston area, but they strike up a friendship born of the presence of their names on the list, as well as their mutual love of the works of a particular poet. For Caroline, it is exciting and breaks up the monotony of her solitary existence and Ethan finds himself drawn to Caroline, as well. They soon make ill-fated plans to meet.

When the second murder occurs, it is no longer possible to write the list off as a coincidence. Rather, Jessica likens it to the morning of September 11. "I remember watching the news after the first plane hit, and the world just thought it was a terrible accident. Then the second plane hit, and everything changed." She and her supervisor agree that the second murder is the equivalent of that second plane, and it is time for the FBI to provide protection to everyone on the list. But one by one, the nine continue dying, their deaths coming about in distinct and sometimes horrific ways, despite the security measures employed. Sam and Jessica proceed with their investigations, and Sam also becomes convinced that there is nothing accidental or coincidental about the order in which the deaths are occurring. Frank received the list first and was the first to die, and Sam suspects that finding out about his past is crucial to solving the crimes. Sam turns to his grandmother's collection of Agatha Christie books, and recalls reading And Then there Were None with its original, racist title as a child. He still has that valuable edition of the book that he re-reads yet again, convinced that Frank Hopkins and the other "unlucky souls" on the list somehow resemble the characters and plot of that novel.

At one point, Swanson injects an anonymous hit man into the mix, further complicating matters with a pulse-pounding game of cat and mouse. But who hired him? And why?

Swanson's telling of the story is meticulous and methodical. As it proceeds, the substance of his imaginative plot gradually comes into focus, and he reveals more details about his characters' backgrounds and histories at expertly-timed junctures while he accelerates the story's pace. He endears some characters to readers, making their inevitable demise nothing less than crushingly disappointing. Swanson returns to And Then There Were None as Sam closes in on the truth and the killer's identity is revealed, along with the motive, via an old-fashioned, full explanation, delivered by the killer. It's a description of a decades-long obsession with retribution and revenge in response to grievous behavior that resulted in unspeakable loss and a lifetime of guilt. The conclusion is satisfying, especially given that readers will most likely be unable to pull together all the threads of Swanson's complex and intricate plot on their own.

Nine Lives is an entertaining and masterfully constructed homage to Christie's original work that will keep readers guessing up to the very last chapter, and rewards them with a shocking but delightful ending.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book. ( )