The Kind Worth Killing

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Swanson tends to write very strong female characters into his tightly woven stories and this is no exception. Hooray! In this case, we have a kind of bumbling, sleepy protagonist, George Foss, who somehow has to get himself out of a messy entanglement with his ex-college girlfriend. There is indeed a mystery here. Can anything Liana says be believed? What is the truth of her tales, both now and in the past? What is the nature of her relationship with her erstwhile bf and with the thuggish Donnie Jenks?

First of all, I’m just not buying that there are TWO psychopathic killers who dated the same guy at the same time at the same school. That’s so far-fetched it’s ridiculous. And there are two other killers who don’t appear to be psychopaths. So I’m to believe there are FOUR killers (all inter-related) in one story? Really? A woman you sit next to on a plane convinces you to murder your wife, sure. (And it turns out you actually met her once.) And your girlfriend talks you into murdering her husband—sure, happens all the time.So what makes someone the kind worth killing? Swanson enjoys himself testing us on the question. How about a lascivious, drooling paedophile with designs on an under-age girl, the daughter of bohemian friends who he is staying with for the summer? As this is fiction, we may allow ourselves to give the Roman thumbs down on this one. Henry Kimball is an interesting character, although I didn't immediately warm to him. As an ex-high school English teacher he was involved in a school shooting. As a policeman he was accused of stalking a suspect. Now, as a PI, he has come full circle he finds himself employed by an ex-pupil to investigate her husband, another ex-pupil.

She needs help. She needs the kind of help that at first you laugh about and then she convinces you with glistening tears and a series of beautifully manipulated body signals that she is desperate. Thus, it became perfectly logical that George was going to return nearly half a million stolen dollars to her ex-boss, ex-lover for her.With numerous twists and welcome surprises to keep you at the edge of your seat. The story is about murder, revenge, and duplicitous characters. When Joan Whalen, (nee Grieve) an ex-student from his decades-old short stint as a high school English teacher which ended in a horrific tragedy, enlists his services to find proof of her husband’s infidelity Kimball has no idea what he is getting into. Joan is confident that her husband is cheating on her and also claims to be sure of who he is romantically involved with. All she wants is proof of the same. As Kimball begins to follow Joan’s husband and the woman he is supposedly having an affair with, he finds himself unwittingly drawn into a tangled web of murder, manipulation, deceit, lies and old secrets. It takes one to know one, so Henry turns to the only person he knows who can help him figure out what’s actually going on.

There are quite a few morally questionable and conflicted characters and choices in this one - it often gets one thinking deeper and that can be a sign of a good story IMO. Peter Swanson’s highly anticipated sequel introduces new characters, but also continues with Henry Kimball and Lily Kintner’s story. It contains some recap, but will likely leave readers confused without knowledge of the previous book. The alternating-chapters technique has been crazy popular in recent years, and it works well in this book. I especially enjoyed Lily's story. It turns out she has some experience with making people disappear, but she always has a good reason: It was an uncomfortable and tension filled ride, like when you can hear thunder, you just know the storm is coming soon. Henry Kimball is hired by his former student, Joan, to follow her husband who is having an affair with his secretary. She "knows" he is having an affair but wants "proof". Henry accepts the case but can't help remembering his and Joan's shared past, specifically the day that ended in tragedy. A day that haunts him, a day that he can never forget.Everyone dies. What difference does it make if a few bad apples get pushed along a little sooner than God intended? And your wife, for example, seems like the kind worth killing.” I am a teetotaller who doesn’t encourage others to drink. It might be due to seeing a lot of patients with alcohol-related complications. This novel shows how alcohol makes us lose our inhibitions and land up in trouble if we try to get drunk with strangers.

The story has great pacing, not too slow, not too fast. While I was reading, I thought that I knew every little detail and I didn't really know how it will end, since in the beginning Swanson tells the reader everything. Haha, I was wrong. The ending was so good. I didn't expect it at all. It was mind-blowing and at the same time it was creepy as hell. What I really want to do is kill her,’ he replies boozily, attempting a wink to show he isn’t serious.Private Detective Henry Kimball is hired by an ex-student from his days as a teacher at Dartford-Middleham High. Enter Joan Grieve, now Joan Whalen who reminds Kimball of an event he’d prefer to erase from his mind. Joan wants him to follow her husband Richard to prove that he is cheating on her. He takes the case, it seems a simple one but oh boy, is he ever wrong. It becomes clear he needs to revisit the past to discover the truth about the present. I have an even better crazy stalker story, but I’m not going to tell you about either one of them because George Foss has a better story, a tale of deceit, a yarn woven with woe, a first love that might have lasted forever, and murder most foul. A collection of unfortunate events, both in the present story and the past one, both kind of flat and emotionless, a laundry list of events and people. Even the central mystery seems unimportant.