Libraire spécialisé en littérature policière, Malcolm reçoit la visite surprise du FBI. L'agent Gwen Mulvey sollicite son avis sur deux affaires étranges : une série de meurtres tout droit sortie d'un roman d'Agatha Christie et un "accident" rappelant un livre de James M. Cain. Or Malcolm, quinze ans plus tôt, a publié sur son blog une liste intitulée "Huit crimes parfaits", où figuraient ces deux intrigues. Serait-il possible qu'un tueur s'en inspire aujourd'hui ? Très vite, l'angoissante certitude s'impose : le coupable rôde déjà à proximité. Malcolm sent un noeud coulant se resserrer autour de son cou.
Abigail n'aurait jamais imaginé épouser un millionnaire. Jusqu'à ce qu'elle rencontre Bruce, séduisant homme d'affaires new-yorkais. Certes, ce n'est pas la grande passion, mais Bruce est gentil, rassurant et attentionné au point d'organiser lui-même son enterrement de vie de jeune fille en Californie. Là, passablement éméchée, Abigail passe la nuit dans les bras d'un parfait inconnu, Scottie. Une erreur sans conséquence, pense t-elle non sans remords. Sauf que l'amant intempestif réapparaît juste avant la cérémonie et supplie Abigail de tout annuler. Pire, il la suit sur l'île privée où se déroule sa lune de miel. C'est là qu'Abigail commence à paniquer. Qui est Scottie ? Comment lui échapper sur cette île déconnectée du reste du monde ? Heureusement que Bruce est là, il saura la protéger et tout va s'arranger... N'est-ce pas ?
Peter Swanson se joue des codes de la romance, du thriller et de la terreur dans ce pageturner aux accents hitchockiens.
Illustratrice talentueuse mais psychologiquement fragile, Hen, soutenue par son mari Lloyd, a enfin trouvé son équilibre grâce à un nouveau traitement. Le couple déménage dans une petite ville proche de Boston et sympathise avec ses voisins, Mira et Matthew. Mais à l'occasion d'un dîner chez eux, Hen repère dans le bureau de Matthew un objet lié à un ancien meurtre non résolu qui l'avait obsédée par le passé. Maintenant, Hen sait qui est le tueur. Pire encore, elle comprend très vite que Matthew sait qu'elle sait... À moins que tout cela ne soit le symptôme d'un nouvel épisode psychotique... ou alors une simple coïncidence ?
'' Deliciously ingenious'' Daily Mail ''Smartly entertaining'' Washington Post If you''re on the list you''re marked for death... The envelope is unremarkable. There is no return address. It contains a single, folded, sheet of white paper. The envelope drops through the mail slot like any other piece of post. But for the nine complete strangers who receive it - each of them recognising just one name, their own, on the enclosed list - it will be the most life altering letter they ever receive. It could also be the last, as one by one, they start to meet their end. But why? What readers are saying: ''It gripped me from start to finish.'' ''Prepare to be blown away.'' ''Another fast paced edge of your seat masterclass.'' ''What an absolutely wild ride.'' ''Best Peter Swanson murder mystery I''ve read.'' ''An absolute winner . . . A must read for lovers of a good thriller.''
From a master of suspense... Eight classic murders. A single crime obsessive. Countless thrilling twists. 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?
After a whirlwind, fairytale romance, Abigail Baskin marries freshly-minted Silicon Valley millionaire Bruce Lamb. For their honeymoon, he whisks her away to an exclusive retreat at a friend''s resort off the Maine coast on Heart Pond Island. But once there, Abigail''s perfect new life threatens to crash down around her as she recognises one of their fellow guests as the good looking, charismatic stranger who weeks earlier had seduced her at her own Bachelorette party... ''[Swanson is] in the ranks of the killer elite alongside Tana French and Gillian Flynn. He''s the real deal.'' Joe Hill
Londres-Boston, vol de nuit. Ted Severson rencontre la superbe et mystérieuse Lily Kintner. Ils bavardent, boivent des cocktails et, peu à peu, démarrent un jeu de la vérité où Ted se dévoile à Lily. Il en est certain, Miranda, sa femme, le trompe. Il en vient même à confier qu'il tuerait bien l'épouse volage. Pour Ted, bafoué, l'idée semble même presque raisonnable. D'autant que Lily déclare le plus sérieusement du monde qu'elle est prête à l'aider. Après tout, des tas de gens méritent de mourir : parce qu'ils mentent, trompent l'aimé ou blessent les autres sans remords...
Mais Lily n'a pas tout dit à Ted. Elle s'est bien gardée de lui révéler son passé de tueuse et d'experte en tromperies. Les conspirateurs se retrouvent ainsi vite pris dans un jeu du chat et de la souris des plus dangereux.
Mortellement addictif. Marc Fernandez, Metronews.
TWO''S COMPANY, THREE''S FATAL ''Do you remember me?'' she asked, after stepping into my office. When private detective and former teacher Henry Kimball is hired to investigate an ex-pupil''s cheating husband, he senses all is not quite what it seems, and before he knows it he''s gotten far too close to the other woman. As the case gets ever stranger, he turns to the only person he can trust, Lily Kintner, someone with dark secrets of her own... With its ingenious clockwork-like plot, and twists aplenty, The Kind Worth Saving is a crime novel to savour from a modern master.
A Sunday Times and Observer Thriller of the Month 'Deliciously good . . . Swanson's best thriller yet.' Observer 'Gripping, twisty . . . I could not put it down.' Alafair Burke When Hen and Lloyd move into their new house, they're relieved to meet another childless couple in their neighbourhood, Matthew and Mira. But when they're invited over for dinner, Hen thinks she sees something suspicious in Matthew's study. Could this mild-mannered schoolteacher really be hiding a dark secret, one that only Hen might know about? And even if she's right, who would believe her?
" Avec ce troisième roman, Peter Swanson fait sortir un délicieux monstre du placard et, inexorablement, grâce à des personnages superbement campés, l'angoisse monte. " Booklist, critique étoilée Lorsque Kate Priddy se voit proposer par son cousin Corbin Dell d'échanger leurs appartements de Boston et de Londres, la jeune femme, récemment victime d'enlèvement, accepte avec joie, pensant que cela l'aidera à remonter la pente.
Mais dès son arrivée à Boston, elle apprend qu'Audrey, la voisine de Corbin, a été assassinée. Questionnée par la police, Kate commence à sérieusement douter de son cousin : elle découvre la vérité sur un locataire certes sympathique mais qui passait son temps à épier la victime, et rencontre l'ex-petit ami de la jeune femme qui, lui, n'a plus aucun doute sur l'identité du coupable. Corbin a en effet laissé des indices troublants dans l'appartement d'Audrey avant de disparaître...
Très clairement hitchcockien, ce thriller psychologique au climat étouffant rappelle Fenêtre sur cour et Seule dans la nuit. Voyeurisme, trahison, menaces, meurtre : tous les ingrédients sont réunis pour faire perdre son sang-froid à l'héroïne. Jusqu'à l'effroyable final. Chacune de ses peurs s'inscrit dans la grande tradition littéraire de Patricia Highsmith, James M. Cain, Paula Hawkins et Gillian Flynn.
"Swanson rips us from one startling plot twist to the next... A true tour de force." --Lisa Gardner "Fiendish good fun." --Anthony Horowitz From the hugely talented author of Before She Knew Him comes a chilling tale of psychological suspense and an homage to the thriller genre tailor-made for fans: the story of a bookseller who finds himself at the center of an FBI investigation because a very clever killer has started using his list of fiction's most ingenious murders. Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of the genre's most unsolvable murders, those that are almost impossible to crack--which he titled "Eight Perfect Murders"--chosen from among the best of the best including Agatha Christie's A. B. C. Murders , Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train , Ira Levin's Death Trap , A. A. Milne's Red House Mystery , Anthony Berkeley Cox's Malice Aforethought , James M. Cain's Double Indemnity , John D. Macdonald's The Drowner , and Donna Tartt's A Secret History . But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, when an FBI agent comes knocking on his door one snowy day in February. She's looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that look eerily similar to the killings on Mal's old list. And the FBI agent isn't the only one interested in this bookseller who spends almost every night at home reading. There is killer is out there, watching his every move--a diabolical threat who knows way too much about Mal's personal history, especially the secrets he's never told anyone, even his recently deceased wife. To protect himself, Mal begins looking into possible suspects . . . and sees a killer in everyone around him. But Mal doesn't count on the investigation leaving a trail of death in its wake. Suddenly, a series of shocking twists leaves more victims dead--and the noose around Mal's neck grows so tight he might never escape.
'Hello there.' I looked at the pale, freckled hand on the back of the empty bar seat next to me in the business class lounge of Heathrow airport, then up into the stranger's face. 'Do I know you?' Delayed in London, Ted Severson meets a woman at the airport bar. Over cocktails they tell each other rather more than they should, and a dark plan is hatched - but are either of them being serious, could they actually go through with it and, if they did, what would be their chances of getting away with it? Back in Boston, Ted's wife Miranda is busy site managing the construction of their dream home, a beautiful house out on the Maine coastline. But what secrets is she carrying and to what lengths might she go to protect the vision she has of her deserved future? A sublimely plotted novel of trust and betrayal, The Kind Worth Killing will keep you gripped and guessing late into the night.
On the eve of his college graduation, Harry is called home by his step-mother Alice, to their house on the Maine coast, following the unexpected death of his father. But who really is Alice, his father's much younger second wife? In a brilliant split narrative, Peter Swanson teases out the stories and damage that lie in her past. And as her story entwines with Harry's in the present, things grow increasingly dark and threatening - will Harry be able to see any of it clearly through his own confused feelings?
Rowan LeCompte (1925-2014) was a world-renowned stained-glass artist best known for his work in Washington National Cathedral that spanned an unprecedented 70 years of artistic commission. Rowan LeCompte: Master of Stained Glass celebrates LeCompte's artistic inspiration, distinctive technique, and unique perspective on a medieval decorative art, which he transformed into a fine art for modern times. The book traces his fascinating trajectory, from a determined teenager to a charming octogenarian with a clear vision of what stained glass can do within and beyond cathedral walls. More than an artist biography, this book illuminates the essence of human nature and its balance of light and darkness.
Catching a killer is dangerous--especially if he lives next door From the hugely talented author of The Kind Worth Killing comes an exquisitely chilling tale of a young suburban wife with a history of psychological instability whose fears about her new neighbor could lead them both to murder . . . Hen and her husband Lloyd have settled into a quiet life in a new house outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Hen (short for Henrietta) is an illustrator and works out of a studio nearby, and has found the right meds to control her bipolar disorder. Finally, she's found some stability and peace. But when they meet the neighbors next door, that calm begins to erode as she spots a familiar object displayed on the husband's office shelf. The sports trophy looks exactly like one that went missing from the home of a young man who was killed two years ago. Hen knows because she's long had a fascination with this unsolved murder--an obsession she doesn't talk about anymore, but can't fully shake either. Could her neighbor, Matthew, be a killer? Or is this the beginning of another psychotic episode like the one she suffered back in college, when she became so consumed with proving a fellow student guilty that she ended up hurting a classmate? The more Hen observes Matthew, the more she suspects he's planning something truly terrifying. Yet no one will believe her. Then one night, when she comes face to face with Matthew in a dark parking lot, she realizes that he knows she's been watching him, that she's really on to him. And that this is the beginning of a horrifying nightmare she may not live to escape. . .
In this spectacularly devious novel by New York Times bestselling author Peter Swanson--featuring the smart and complex Lily Kintner from his acclaimed novel, The Kind Worth Killing--a private eye starts to follow a possibly adulterous husband, but little does he know that the twisted trail will lead back to the woman who hired him.
There was always something slightly dangerous about Joan. So, when she turns up at private investigator Henry Kimball''s office asking him to investigate her husband, he can''t help feeling ill at ease. Just the sight of her stirs up a chilling memory: he knew Joan in his previous life as a high school English teacher, when he was at the center of a tragedy.Now Joan needs his help in proving that her husband is cheating. But what should be a simple case of infidelity becomes much more complicated when Kimball finds two bodies in an uninhabited suburban home with a "for sale" sign out front. Suddenly it feels like the past is repeating itself, and Henry must go back to one of the worst days of his life to uncover the truth. Is it possible that Joan knows something about that day, something she''s hidden all these years? Could there still be a killer out there, someone who believes they have gotten away with murder? Henry is determined to find out, but as he steps closer to the truth, a murderer is getting closer to him, and in this hair-raising game of cat and mouse only one of them will survive.
**AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW** ''Fiendishly good. . . Swanson goes from strength to strength.'' Observer ''One of the world''s best crime writers. Nobody writes psychopaths like Swanson.'' MARK EDWARDS I hope I''m describing this to you properly, dear diary.
December, 1989, and Ashley Smith - a bright-eyed American studying in London - has unexpectedly been invited by her classmate Emma Chapman to spend Christmas at her family''s Cotswolds manor house, Starvewood Hall.
The holiday is a true English fantasy: woodland walks, charming pubs and elaborate dinners at the manor, with the added romantic potential of Emma''s twin brother, Adam, who feels like Ashley''s wildest dreams come true.
But is there something strange about the old house, both stately and rundown; what could the true motives of the mysterious Chapman family be; and what may lie beyond the pages of her diary?
Swept up in her own story, can Ashley see the horrors that may be about to play out?
''Superb, elegant crime writing with more than a nod to the genre''s past.'' Daily Mail ''In the killer elite, alongside Tana French, Gillian Flynn, and Lauren Beukes. Swanson''s the real deal.'' JOE HILL
Un vendredi soir comme les autres, alors qu'il sirote un verre dans son bar de prédilection, George Foss voit son existence bien rangée et prévisible voler en éclats : il vient de remarquer une très belle femme assise au bar. Cette femme, Liana Decter, a disparu de sa vie vingt ans plus tôt après lui avoir brisé le coeur. Premier amour de George, qui ne l'a jamais oubliée, cette femme est aussi une énigme des plus dangereuses, une tueuse potentielle recherchée par la police. Et elle a besoin que George lui rende un service : celui de restituer une somme d'argent considérable à un homme qu'elle a trompé et volé. Liana aurait décidé de rentrer dans le droit chemin ? À moins que ça ne soit parce que certains individus sont prêts à tout pour récupérer cette somme. George comprend qu'il va au devant de graves ennuis mais. comment résister à la mystérieuse et ensorcelante Liana ?
Following a brutal attack by her ex-boyfriend, Kate Priddy makes an uncharacteristically bold decision after her cousin, Corbin Dell, suggests a temporary apartment swap - and she moves from London to Boston. But soon after her arrival Kate makes a shocking discovery: Corbin's next-door neighbour, a young woman named Audrey Marshall, has been murdered. When the police begin asking questions about Corbin's relationship with Audrey, and his neighbours come forward with their own suspicions, a shaken Kate has few answers, and many questions of her own. Jetlagged and emotionally unstable, her imagination playing out her every fear, Kate can barely trust herself. so how can she trust any of the strangers she's just met? In the tradition of such greats as Gillian Flynn and Harlan Coben, Patricia Highsmith and James M. Cain, Her Every Fear is a scintillating novel, rich with the chilling insight and virtuoso skill for plotting that has propelled Peter Swanson to the highest ranks of thriller writing.
