The Kind Worth Killing

The Kind Worth Killing is the first book in the Henry Kimball/Lily Kintner series by award-winning American author, Peter Swanson. On his way back to Boston from London, Ted Severson is still stewing about his wife's recently-discovered infidelity. Flight delayed, he's in the business-class lounge filling up on martinis when he shares his anger with a stranger. After all, he won't see this woman again after today.

But the discussion is interesting: he admits to Lily that he'd like to kill Miranda, and she agrees that Miranda deserves to die. And she's prepared to help him do it. Eventually, he's satisfied that she's not a cop wearing a wire, that she's serious and genuine.

She tells him "The way to commit murder and not get caught is to hide the body so well that no one ill ever find it. If there was never a murder, then there can't be a murderer. But there are many ways to hide a body. You can leave a body out in the open but make it look like the opposite of what actually happened." Lily Kintner would know: she has first-hand experience.

The first half of the story is told through narratives alternating between Ted and Lily: Ted's in the present day, while Lily's begins when she was thirteen, from which it soon becomes quite clear what her attitude is to murder.

Thereafter, the first of several excellent twists (pre-book a chiro appointment?) precludes revealing further details without spoilers. Other characters take up the tale, one of those being Boston PD Detective Henry Kimball. When he eventually talks to Lily, he's sure that she's lying about something, and he's unwilling to let it go.

Henry amuses himself (and the reader) writing dirty little limericks about those involved in the cases he's investigating, something that turns out to be his undoing. And the ending? Well, who knows quite what is going to happen there. Readers who enjoy this brilliant crime thriller will be very pleased to learn there's a sequel, The Kind Worth Saving.