Staff Pick - The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

Inspired by Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train, The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson features married couple Ted and Miranda Severson, a couple who should never have married. Ted, a wealthy dot-commer, and his stunningly beautiful wife are building their dream home. Miranda supervises the work while Ted stays home in the city making more money. When Ted discovers that Miranda is having an affair with their hapless builder Brad, he plunges to a dark place vowing the most lethal form of revenge.

Enter Lily. Archivist Lily Kintner is another drop dead (pardon the pun) gorgeous woman whom Ted happens to meet in an airport in London and who also happens to be traveling on the same flight. Ted, loosened by alcohol, very quickly opens up to Lily about his desire to murder his wife. Apparently kindred spirits, Lily has a dark and shady past of her own that makes the leap to supporting his plans surprisingly easy.

Intricately plotted with sharp and fast turns, The Kind Worth Killy is a domestic psychological suspense thriller that makes excellent airplane reading as you will be engrossed from gate to gate. There is no one to like here. All the characters are flawed - sociopaths, bumblers, incompetents and just plain evil. The story is told from multiple viewpoints, sometimes with the same plot being told by multiple voices. In a similar vein to other recently published domestic thrillers, The Kind Worth Killing asks the reader to consider if they really truly know everything about their partner.

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