The Kind Worth Killing
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4.2 • 249 Ratings
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- £6.49
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- £6.49
Publisher Description
THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER
A RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB CHOICE
BEST THRILLER, iBOOKS BEST OF 2015
SHORTLISTED FOR THE IAN FLEMING SILVER DAGGER, 2015
SUNDAY TIMES, TATLER, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING AND GOLDSBORO BOOK OF THE MONTH
You should never talk to strangers
With his flight delayed, Ted Severson meets Lily Kintner, a magnetic stranger, in an airport bar. In the netherworld of international travel and too many martinis, he confesses his darkest secrets, about his wife's infidelity and how he wishes her dead. Without missing a beat Lily offers to help him carry out the task.
'Gripping, elegantly and stylishly written and extremely hard to put down.' Sophie Hannah
'A work of lovely violence and graceful malevolence, it slips into your life like a stiletto in the ribs.' Joe Hill
'Gone Girl on speed.' Daisy Goodwin
'Chilling and hypnotically suspenseful ... an instant classic.' Lee Child
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
American writer Peter Swanson first came to our attention with his impressive debut thriller, The Girl with a Clock for a Heart. His dark and elegant follow-up grabbed us from page one. After two strangers named Ted and Lily exchange martinis and candid conversation in a Heathrow lounge, they hatch a plan to kill Ted’s cheating wife, Miranda. Switching among the perspectives of his main characters—Ted, Lily, Miranda and an obsessive detective—Swanson keeps up an electrifying pace, luring us in with pulpy details and gasp-worthy reveals. Fans of Gone Girl will appreciate Lily, a femme fatale who casually quotes T.S. Eliot.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Revenge has rarely been served colder than in Swanson's exceptional thriller, his second standalone after 2013's The Girl with a Clock for a Heart. When Ted Severson, a wealthy Boston entrepreneur, and Lily Kintner, an attractive archivist at Winslow College outside Boston, meet by chance in a Heathrow airport lounge, they trade intimate secrets: Ted wants to kill his unfaithful wife, Miranda and Lily, who's about Miranda's age, wants to help. Unbeknownst to Ted, Lily has made a career of dispassionate homicide, at one point musing, "to take another life was, in many ways, the greatest expression of what it meant to be alive." While Ted and Lily hatch their devious scheme back in Boston, police detective Henry Kimball tries to untangle the web of deceit that surrounds Lily. With scalpel-sharp prose, Swanson probes the nature of cold-blooded evil. Few will be prepared for the crushing climax.
Customer Reviews
Slowburner with an explosive second half
The Kind Worth Killing is the story of a chance meeting between Lily and Ted and what ensues after this rendezvous. They met in an airport and share martinis whilst waiting for a delayed flight to Boston. Their conversation both in the airport bar and on the plane sets the scene for the tale as Ted discloses he's found out his wife Miranda is having an affair with their building contractor. Little does Ted know the conversation with redhead Lily will change his life forever.
The chapters start off by alternating between Ted in the present and Lily in her past. The book didn't hold my attention to start with but I was urged to keep going by my Facebook book club. And I'm glad I did - along came a twist half way through the book that I didn't see coming!
From here to the end it's a rollercoaster with twists and turns galore and you understand Lily's actions a lot better. I just wanted to keep reading to find out the unravelling tale.
The book is a little slow to start but the game changers half way through start the characters down paths with no turning back.
I received an Advanced Reader copy from Netgalley in return for an honest review.
the book that got me into crime and thrillers
i love this book with my whole heart it is so well written and the twists within it are completely unexpected like the title says this book literally began my reading obsession everything about it is truly perfect ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Really good
I really enjoyed this book, I found the characters really interesting and I loved the ending it really tied the whole thing together while still creating a sense of longing to find out what happens next. I would deffo recommend!