Nine Lives: 'I loved this.' Ann Cleeves

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Thank you so much to Peter Swanson, William Morrow, and NetGalley for my electronic copy publishing on March 15, 2022. Nine names. Nine random people receive a sheet of paper - a list with just nine names on it - nothing else, no clue as to what the list signifies. None of the nine know the other names on the list, some throw it in the trash, others just dismiss it as some kind of joke. and you're really gonna hide your confession in a ████ in a ████ in the ████? that's the culmination of your painstaking planning and execution? (no pun intended)

When the first person dies, it’s not certain that it wasn't an accident. However the second person was most definitely murdered and the FBI and police begin asking questions. Then they take notice. 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. There were definitely clever moments, and I can’t wait to see what the author comes up with next. 3.5 stars rounded up. The storyline unfolds from the perspective of all nine characters as well as the police. Yikes! The thought of keeping all those POV’s straight had me shaking in my shoes! Pacing kept up and there didn’t seem like too much downtime to drag. The action started off the bat and stayed that way. THE AUTHOR: A graduate of Trinity College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Emerson College, Peter Swanson lives in Somerville, Massachusetts with his wife and cat.Nine individuals receive a list of nine names printed on a sheet of paper in the mail. One of the names on the list is their own and the remaining eight are names of random strangers - the present owner of a family-owned inn, an FBI agent, the mistress of a rich man, a struggling actor, a suburban dad, an English professor, a retired businessman, an oncology nurse and a singer-songwriter- two of whom are female and the remaining seven male, each of whom reside in different locations across the country and have no apparent connection, either personally or professionally. seriously, we're going with ████████? first of all, the math on that doesn't wash: how does murdering nine innocent people ████████████? is this inflation? The characters are not all that important as this book is focused on the mystery of how these strangers are linked and why they are being targeted. I had fun trying to figure out how the strangers were connected and trying to identify the killer. I found the reveal behind what was linking these people together a bit of a letdown, and the killer’s motive was lame, but I was surprised by one twist. Nine strangers receive the most puzzling piece of mail: an identical list with their names on it. What could it possibly mean? They each chalk it up to nothing, and move on. But soon, bad things start happening to them, one by one, and they can no longer dismiss it as coincidence.

Nine Lives involves a list with nine names on it. Every person on that list is marked for death, and they all get sent a copy to their homes. As people start being killed there is a race to try and find out what they have in common, and who is behind this. if you're going to catch the reader off-guard by ████████████ - the only one taken out by a contract killer - earlier in the book than would typically be the case, don't ruin that win by ████████ When nine strangers receive an anonymous letter listing nine seemingly random names, some recipients are alarmed, whereas others choose to ignore it…until they start being killed off, one by one. What also bothered me was that despite the FBI taking over the investigation, there really isn't much mention of the FBI's investigative efforts directed towards catching the culprit beyond a certain point, with the narrative focusing mostly on the lives of the victims and the acts of murder. If you carefully follow the narrative from the very beginning, you'll notice some not-so-subtle hints that are very revealing, even before the first murder takes place. It wasn’t difficult to guess the identity of the culprit and the logic linking the murders was not quite convincing. This was my first Peter Swanson novel and while it has its merits, overall I found it to be an average read and a tad disappointing in the suspense department.

I did like how Detective Hamilton’s knowledge of Christie’s books-delivered us the answers in the end.

I am definitely hit or miss with Swanson’s works. ‘The Kind Worth Killing’ was incredible and I keep giving Swanson chances looking for that gold mine again. Although Peter Swanson has written a book which I mostly enjoyed, unfortunately the ending was an unsatisfying anticlimax for me. It must not be easy to write a book that riffs off of such a famous work. You have to appeal to two different audiences, those who have already read the original work and those who haven't. I think Swanson does a good job balancing the two and appealing to both. This is a wholly self-contained story if you haven't read the original (although, what are you waiting for?) but it's still surprising and fun if you have. If you're thinking that sounds a bit familiar, you're right. It's a nod to And Then There Were None, arguably Agatha Christie's most well-known and beloved mystery. But rest assured that Swanson has put his own spin on it with this tale. And the end result is fresh and exciting.Things that didn’t work: (some of these sound a bit critical I’m sure but, I would be more lenient had this been an ARC. These are rough draft mistakes.) There were 7 too many POVs for me (2-3 is a sweet spot for me). My biggest fear was that we would go through all 9 characters…and it did, plus a few extras. At least when a character gets wiped out there are less POVs. We get a very high level overview of each one so it's not enough for me to connect, I don’t remember their significance and therefore I couldn’t care less about all of them. She frowned and pressed the sheet of paper flat onto the coffee table, telling herself that she'd show it to Jonathan. A shiver went over her skin, and she shook out her limbs to make it stop. There was something vaguely threatening about receiving a list of names with no explanation. I was greatly entertained and intrigued by Nine Lives, which kept me guessing and theorizing throughout. I enjoyed the ending. The next section is EIGHT- The FBI gets the case when one of their own, Jessica Winslow from the Albany field office finds out she is one of the NINE…what are the others doing when they are told?

strangers receive a letter containing 9 names including their own. Then, when those very people start to die, there is a clear target on that list. But why?

The story is told via the points of view of all nine people on the list, plus the investigating officers. Sam is an absolute honey.