Peter Swanson’s Nine Lives (2022) is an intriguing thriller that keeps you turning the pages.
The starting concept is not necessarily new – nine people receive a list consisting of nine names, including their own. That’s all. No explanation.
Then Frank Hopkins, the fifth on the list is found dead, murdered. The law find the list clasped in Frank’s hand.
Only when a second person with a name on the list dies do the authorities begin to worry. And the FBI gets involved – because special agent Jessica Winslow is also on that list…
The whole thing is cleverly done. We get to know the characters and soon realise that when the book breaks into parts – indicated by the complete list – the chapter before that will mean the demise of someone else on that list.
Not all the people on the list are pleasant, though none seem to deserve death. Certainly, it must have been hard for the author to kill off a few of the characters since they were so likeable!
Swanson keeps the suspense going virtually to the end.
Yes, the story is inspired by Agatha Christie’s (renamed) And Then There Were None (1939). Indeed, one character does allude to this book. Other books and authors are mentioned as well.
An enjoyable ‘whodunit’ with a dark side.
Note: Book titles are not copyright and there are a good number with this title. My comments on a non-fiction book with this title can be found at
http://nik-writealot.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-writers-research-cat-burglar.html
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