Eight Perfect Murders

The narrative of a bookshop who finds himself at the centre of an FBI investigation because a highly crafty murderer has begun utilising his list of fiction's most inventive murders is a dark tale of psychological suspense and a tribute to the thriller genre designed only for fans.

A. A. Milne's Red House Mystery, Agatha Christie's A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train, Ira Levin's Death Trap, Anthony Berkeley Cox's Malice Aforethought, James M. Cain's Double Indemnity, John D. Macdonald's The Drowner, and Donna Tartt's A Secret History are just a few of the nearly unsolvable murders in the genre that Malcolm Kershaw, bookseller and mystery enthusiast, assembled years ago under the title "Eight Perfect Murders."

However, nobody is more taken aback than Mal, who is now the proprietor of Boston's Old Devils Bookstore, when an FBI agent knocks on his door one chilly February day. She is searching for information on a string of unsolved homicides that have a striking resemblance to the deaths on Mal's previous list. Not just the FBI agent, but many other people are drawn to this bookstore who reads practically every night at home. The murderer is out there, observing everything he does. He is a cunning menace who has much too much knowledge of Mal's past, particularly the secrets he has never shared with anybody, not even his recently departed wife.

Mal, seeking self-defense, starts investigating potential possibilities and thinks everyone around him of being a murderer. Mal, however, does not anticipate that the probe will result in a death trail. More victims are suddenly killed in a sequence of stunning turns, and Mal's neck becomes so tightly bound that he may never be able to free himself.