A Talent for Murder

Book: 3.5⭐
Audio Narration: 4.5⭐

When librarian Martha Ratliff, begins to suspect her husband Alan Peralta, a traveling salesman by profession to whom she has been married for a little over a year, of being a serial killer, she reaches out to Lily Kintner, an old friend from graduate school, for help. When they were students, Lily had once helped Martha get out of a difficult situation. Lily, despite having lost touch with Martha after graduation, agrees to help her. The narrative follows Lily and Martha as they dig deeper into Alan’s life. When their “investigation“ takes a dark turn, Lily turns to P.I. Henry Kimball for assistance.

The Kind Worth Killing remains my favorite Peter Swanson novel to date, and I thoroughly enjoyed show more following Lily Kintner and Henry Kimball in The Kind Worth Saving. Needless to say, I was eager to read the author’s latest offering.

The narrative is presented from the perspectives of Martha, Lily and the killer. The premise is intriguing and the author deftly weaves all past and present threads of the story into a cohesive narrative. I loved the first half of the novel - a strong start and a dark and suspenseful vibe kept me immersed in the story until the midway mark . I was surprised by the twist (which is always a plus point). Lily is a fascinating character – shrewd, twisted and as devious as ever, but I would have liked it if Kimball had a larger role to play. There aren’t any major twists or reveals in the second half of the novel, which suffers from repetitiveness and uneven pacing with more telling than showing. However, the chilling finale more than makes up for the slow second half and I’ll say this much, Lily does not disappoint!

In my opinion, this installment would have made for a more intense read had it been condensed into a novella. Overall, I did enjoy this novel, just not as much as the previous installments in the series. I do look forward to reading more from Peter Swanson in the future.

I paired my reading with the audiobook, which definitely enhanced my overall experience with the novel. The incredible full-cast narration featuring Sophie Amoss, Stephen Graybill, Saskia Maarleveld, Graham Halstead, Kathleen Early and Keith Szarabajka made for an entertaining immersion reading experience.

I don’t think this book would work as a standalone and would recommend reading the previous installments in series order before this one. show less

Another New England book and so far one narrator is doing well - Piscataqua isn't an easy one if you're not from there. But she tripped over Worcester, MA, pronouncing it like Bertie's last name - WOO-stir. Nope. It's WUH-stir. And since when is that 1/2 way between Western Ma/CT and Portsmouth, NH? Seems a little out of the way for both. I think it's the "Martha" narrator who missed Gloucester. It does not rhyme with Plow-stir, but Claw-stir. Sigh.

Another nice swerve - the set up we think we're watching isn't quite it - I like it. Now I can only watch with hope that Lily does what she does best - taking out sickos and freaks.

She does, herself and with Henry's help when she's killed Ethan, but he doesn't have the handcuff key on his show more person so she's stuck. Henry follows clues she gave him and with his own common sense, finds Ethan's hideout under Brad Anderson's name. He finds the key and all is good. He even dug his own grave even though he'd planned to use it for Lily. A nice touch.

The only thing that's a little bit less than 100% satisfying is the relative few pages (if any) given to what's left behind by the bad guy's death or disappearance. As with Joan in the second book, Ethan just ends and even though Henry pleads the case of his victims' families, no dice. His brag book gets burned and he remains an undiscovered serial killer instead of a continually studied and documented one, which was his dream. Reminded me strongly of Joan's accomplice Richard in that aspect. Maybe it's common to them all. show less

It's been a while since I read one of Peter Swanson's books, and I have forgotten what a fabulous writer he is! "A Talent for Murder" is incredibly addictive and engaging, with dark and disturbing characters that hooked me from page one. Even though this book is part of a series, it stands perfectly well on its own, although now I'm definitely curious to read the earlier books!

Would you know if you married a murderer? Who wouldn't be a little suspicious of a spouse who spent most of their time working out of town? Alan is a wonderful husband and all-around nice guy, but something makes Martha uneasy about his time away. Martha suspects that he might be a serial killer. She relies on the help of her friend Lily to do some investigating. show more This is a must-read if you're a fan of psychological thrillers with layers of blissful and brutal twists.

#ATalentForMurder #PeterSwanson #PsychologicalThriller
#ATalentForMurder #PeterSwanson #BookSeries #HarperAudio #HarperCollins #WilliamMorrow #PsychologicalThriller show less

First off, I loved the straightforward murder mystery aspect. This relatively slim novel hooked me right away and was a fast paced read. This was the third in the series, I had no read the previous two, but the story was still easy to follow. Martha Ratliff, a sedate librarian living in Maine has begun to suspect that her husband is up to no good when he travels the coast selling his wares. She doesn't think it's infidelity, but she does think it involves murder. Is her charming husband a serial killer?! Marth enlists the help of Lilu Kintner, a former college friend to help her dig deeper, she doesn't want to come out and accuse her husband, what if she's wrong? What Lily and her partner Henry discover goes much deeper than anyone show more thought. Chilling and dark, I need to check out the rest of the books in this series. show less

In Peter Swason's "A Talent for Murder," the lives of two women who met in graduate school—Martha Ratliff and Lily Kintner— are destined to intersect in unexpected ways. Martha is a librarian who, having previously resigned herself to never marrying, accepts the proposal of a salesman, Alan Peralta. However, Martha is perturbed by the fact that, after a year together, there are aspects of her husband's personality that remain a mystery. Meanwhile, back in their grad school days, Lily helped Martha extricate herself from a toxic relationship with the arrogant and manipulative Ethan Saltz, Ethan is not one to forgive a slight, and he is furious at Lily for meddling in his business.

Years later, Martha decides once again to request show more Lily's assistance. She wants Lily to help her find out what Alan is up to when he is away on business. Martha has found blood on one of Alan's shirts, and in some of the places where he has been selling novelty items, the bodies of murdered women have been found. The cases remain unsolved. Lily, who is tough and adventurous, agrees to look into what Alan is doing during his lengthy absences from home.

There are few characters to root for in this bleak tale. Martha is indecisive and weak-willed. Lily is determined to take matters into her own hands when the police fail to mete out justice. Ethan is a sociopath. Since Swanson clearly lays out his characters' motivations and flaws, the suspense is minimal. In addition, the author relies a bit too much on coincidences, and he throws in a few too many contrived twists. "A Talent for Murder" is an engrossing, fast-paced, but depressing work of fiction about sick people who believe that they can kill with impunity. show less

Fast and clever mystery thriller.

Shortly into their marriage, librarian Martha Ratliff starts to suspect that her husband, Alan, is a serial killer. He travels a lot as a salesman, but he'd never given her a reason to become suspicious. Then she finds a streak of blood on one of the shirts he had worn on a recent trip to a conference in Denver. Martha is good at research, and she starts to investigate any links between crimes that happened in the cities her husband had gone. What she discovers, 5 suspicious deaths, leads her to turn to her old college friend, Lily Kintner. Lily had previously helped her with a difficult situation involving a man and Martha needs her again.

This went in an unexpected direction, but I enjoyed it show more tremendously as the twisty plot unfolded. I liked the main characters of Lily and Henry as always because they are so different to the normal hero types in this genre. The pacing was good and the writing was excellent. Easy to read in a single sitting because it is hard to put down.

I was able to listen to the audiobook while following along in the e-book ARC (provided by the publisher) and the 6 different narrators really added to the production quality as their voices gave life to each of the characters. I love it when different narrators are used in audio making it easy to listen as one can easily figure out which character is speaking.

Note - this is the third in a series featuring Lily Kintner and Henry Kimball. I've read the previous ones and feel that this is a series that should be read in order. Can't wait for Swanson's next book. show less

The Librarian is Deadlier than the ...?
A review of the HarperAudio audiobook (June 11, 2024) released simultaneously with the William Morrow & Co. hardcover/ebook.

I snapped up A Talent for Murder as an Audible Deal of the Day for $1.99 on November 3, 2024. I'm always curious when a recent book is so quickly discounted. I didn't realize at first that this was part of a series, following the earlier The Kind Worth Killing (2015) and The Kind Worth Saving (2023). You should know then that there are spoilery elements about the earlier books, in case you also start with this one.

The premise is well described in the GR synopsis, so there is no point in repeating it. In brief, Lily Kintner is called on by an old friend from her school days to show more help investigate the friend's husband whom she suspects of being a serial killer. Kintner proceeds to follow through and discovers something that is even more diabolical than that. Kintner is revealed to be a vigilante and has a level of cunning and ruthlessness which may just be more than the culprit is prepared for. Meanwhile, private investigator Kimball plays only a small cameo role as he attempts to discover where Kintner has disappeared to during her hunt.

There was certainly a build up of suspense until the reveals started coming, then it just played out in an expected way until the final twist. Overall this felt rather desperate and depressing though.

The narration by a multiple cast of voices was fine, although it seemed unnecessary to have that many performers. show less