Following on from Eight Perfect Murders we now have Nine Lives, nine names on a list sent to each one. An entertaining read, but as the characters were being killed off, I wanted more clues, more bread crumbs, a trail to follow. The addictive new thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author that 'keeps you guessing right to the end' (Peter May).

It has definite allusions to the Agatha Christie story “And Then There Were None” without feeling like a direct lifting, and while acknowledging that there are some tweaks here and there. An honest reviewer who loves book discussions, she is here to help you find a book you'll love to read AND give you a place to talk about it and ask questions. The author makes each character distinct enough to remember them, plus one by one they die, so as you read, there are less people to remember 😉 Each person gets a POV, and the short chapters keep things moving along at a brisk pace.I have read And Then There Were None, but of course can’t remember what happened except that it was a book about a group of people killed one at a time. All in all, I enjoyed getting to know this eclectic cast of characters and was chomping at the bit to find out what would happen next.

This is a book which sets your brain whirring, trying to stay one step ahead of the killer, is a real page turner and a whole lot of fun too. I absolutely love the frequent book references especially to Agatha Christies ‘ And then there were none’ and here the role of Sam Hamilton plays a key role via his grandmother in North Yorkshire (👍! Again, no idea how it compared to the source material, but this was engaging and well-paced for the most part.

Undoubtedly one of my favourite books of 2022 so far, and highly recommended for fans of Peter Swanson’s previous thrillers, fans of classic mysteries, and readers looking for an outstanding page-turner to get sucked in to. But my main issue with the characters is that because there was so many, I didn’t end up connecting with all of them. Swanson honors genre traditions by arousing expectations only to subvert them—and then subvert them again. It's thoroughly entertaining and a marvelous homage to one of the most famous mysteries of all time.