Peter Swanson is the author of several standalone psychological thriller novels. He is a recent author with the first book out in 2014 titled The Girl with a Clock for a Heart. Since then he has been releasing around a book every year. He has by now several works out, not only in terms of standalone novels but also series like Henry Kimball and Malcolm Kershaw.
Here is the list of the Peter Swanson books in order for his series and standalone novels.
New Peter Swanson Books
A Talent for Murder, 2024
Henry Kimball Series in Order
- The Kind Worth Killing, 2015
- The Kind Worth Saving, 2023
Malcolm Kershaw Series in Order
Standalone Peter Swanson Books in Publication Order
- The Girl with a Clock for a Heart, 2014
- Her Every Fear, 2017
- All the Beautiful Lies, 2018
- Before She Knew Him, 2019
- Every Vow You Break, 2021
- Nine Lives, 2022
- A Talent for Murder, 2024
Novellas and Short Stories
- The Honeymoon Trap, 2022 (Bibliomysteries / Death Sentences)
- The Christmas Guest, 2023
Collections and Anthologies
- Sherlock Holmes: A Detective’s Life, 2022 (edited by Martin Rosenstock)
Omnibus Editions
- Peter Swanson 4 Books Collection Set, 2020 (includes The Kind Worth Killing, All the Beautiful Lies, Before She Knew Him, Every Vow You Break)
Peter Swanson Books Synopsis
The Girl with a Clock for a Heart
George Foss and Liana Decter have been an item back in college. But something happened that made him lose her for good. Or so he thought. Ever since he’s been alone, spending his boring life going through the motions and wasting his evenings at the local tavern drinking and talking about Red Sox. But when one night she appears once again 20 years later, his surprise is even bigger when she turns to him for help saying that he’s the only one who can help her.
Even though he is in his 40s already, now George has a purpose in life once again. He is no longer the wuss that life happens to him. He now has once again control. He initially knew the girl as Audrey Beck, but back in the day when Audrey committed suicide and he saw her photo in parents’ house, he realized she was not Audrey. Then he discovered that she was, in fact, Liana Decker. And Liana now is desperate. But is now Liana a dangerous black widow who sheds her skin every time it suits her or is she really a misunderstood damsel in distress?
The second Peter Swanson book is a reimagined tale of Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith. Ted Severson is on a flight from London to Boston when he meets Lily Kintner, a rather intoxicating mysterious woman. As they get to know each other over one too many Martinis, they start playing a game of truth where they are compelled to reveal secret things about themselves to the other. Ted is at the part where he talks to her about his marriage to Miranda, a wife he no longer loves (did he ever?), especially when he has cheated on him Brad Daggett, a guy he has been paying to build his dream house.
Ted even mentions that if he could kill her to get her out of his life, he would. Lily, not missing a beat, she reveals, “I’d like to help.” Once back in Boston, Ted and Lily continue to know each other better and plot to kill Miranda. But while Ted has been pouring his heart out to Lily, she, in return, has kept some serious things from him, including the fact that she is no stranger to killings.
Kate Priddy has been having a serious case of PTDS, anxiety, and panic attacks ever since her ex-boyfriend once kidnapped her and almost killed her. So when her cousin from Boston, Corbin Dell, asks her to switch apartments for six months, Kate, who is in London and wants nothing more than to forget her past, readily accepts. But once she gets to Boston, he learns that the woman in the neighboring apartment has been murdered.
Cops being to investigate, and soon all fingers point to Corbin as her killer. Could be that that’s why Corbin wanted the apartment switch, and is he really in London? Kate starts to investigate as well and the more people she meets who knew Corbin (like Alan, the murdered girl’s father, and Henry), the crazier things get. Told from several points of view, the story becomes more and more convoluted, and the suspense and intrigue builds up with every layer of the onion Kate begins to reveal.
Harry Ackerson is in college but has to return home after his stepmother, Alice, notifies him that his father committed suicide. He goes home to attend the funeral, and while he always had a young-boy crush on Alice, he now starts to feel weird when Alice herself gives hints of wanting more from him than just helping her through the horrible time.
And when a young woman, Grace McGowan, also comes into his life, he begins to suspect some foul play.
Did his father actually kill himself or was something more sinister at play here? The book has several flashbacks showing bits and pieces of Alice’s prior life as a young girl and all the events that made her who she is now. The more Harry investigates, the deeper he finds himself sinking into the cruel web of deceit.
Henrietta is bipolar, so she needs peace and quiet to live a balanced life. She finds this in her suburban life with Lloyd, both living just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, in a new house. She works as an illustrator, and she seems to have finally found her peace and quiet that she so craved. Until she meets Matthew and his wife, her neighbors, at a block party. One day as the couples are dining in Matthew’s apartment, Hen (as she calls herself) notices a fencing trophy that seems somehow familiar to her.
Hen was very absorbed in the case of a brutal murder of a man a fwe years ago, and this trophy she’s just seen seems identical to the one that was belonging to that murder victim. That old case has never been solved, and now Hen strongly suspects that Matthew did not only kill that man but he might also be preparing to commit a new crime. But what if all is a lie and nothing more than Hen’s delusions, just like she used to have them back in the day? After all, she is no bipolar for nothing. Still, Hen is more and more convinced that she lives right nextdoor to a murderer…
A bride’s dream honeymoon becomes a nightmare when a man with whom she’s had a regrettable one-night stand shows up in this electrifying psychological thriller from the acclaimed author of Eight Perfect Murders.
Abigail Baskin never thought she would fall in love with a millionaire. Then she met Bruce Lamb. He’s a good guy, stable, level-headed, kind—a refreshing change from her previous relationships.
But right before the wedding, Abigail has a drunken one-night stand on her bachelorette weekend. She puts the incident—and the sexy guy who wouldn’t give her his real name—out of her mind, and now believes she wants to be with Bruce for the rest of her life. Their honeymoon on a luxurious, secluded island will be the beginning of their blissful lives together.
Then the mysterious stranger suddenly appears—and Abigail’s future life and happiness are turned upside down. He insists that their passionate night was the beginning of something much, much more. Something special. Something real—and he’s tracked her down to prove it.
Does she tell Bruce and ruin their idyllic honeymoon—and possibly their marriage? Or should she handle this psychopathic stalker on her own? To make the situation worse, strange things begin to happen. She sees a terrified woman in the shadows one night, and no one at the resort seems to believe anything is amiss… including her perfect new husband.
If you’re on the list, someone wants you dead.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Eight Perfect Murders comes the heart-pounding story of nine strangers who receive a cryptic list with their names on it—and then begin to die in highly unusual circumstances.
Nine strangers receive a list with their names on it in the mail. Nothing else, just a list of names on a single sheet of paper. None of the nine people know or have ever met the others on the list. They dismiss it as junk mail, a fluke—until very, very bad things begin happening to people on the list.
First, a well-liked old man is drowned on a beach in the small town of Kennewick, Maine. Then, a father is shot in the back while running through his quiet neighborhood in suburban Massachusetts. A frightening pattern is emerging, but what do these nine people have in common? Their professions range from oncology nurse to aspiring actor, and they’re located all over the country. So why are they all on the list, and who sent it?
FBI agent Jessica Winslow, who is on the list herself, is determined to find out. Could there be some dark secret that binds them all together? Or is this the work of a murderous madman? As the mysterious sender stalks these nine strangers, they find themselves constantly looking over their shoulders, wondering who will be crossed off next…
A private eye starts to follow a possibly adulterous husband, but little does he know that the twisted trail will lead back to the woman who hired him.
There was always something slightly dangerous about Joan. So, when she turns up at private investigator Henry Kimball’s office asking him to investigate her husband, he can’t help feeling ill at ease. Just the sight of her stirs up a chilling memory: He knew Joan in his previous life as a high school English teacher, when he was at the center of a tragedy.
Now Joan needs his help proving that her husband is cheating. But what should be a simple case of infidelity becomes much more complicated when Kimball finds two bodies in an uninhabited suburban home with a FOR SALE sign out front. Suddenly it feels like the past is repeating itself, and Henry must go back to one of the worst days of his life to uncover the truth.
Is it possible that Joan knows something about that day, something she’s hidden all these years? Could there still be a killer out there, someone who believes they have gotten away with murder? Henry is determined to find out, enlisting help from his old nemesis Lily Kintner—but as he steps closer to the truth, a murderer is getting closer to him, and in this hair-raising game of cat and mouse only one of them will survive.
A newlywed librarian begins to suspect the man she married might be a murderer—in this spectacularly twisty and deviously clever novel by Peter Swanson, New York Times bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing and Eight Perfect Murders.
Martha Ratliff conceded long ago that she’d likely spend her life alone. She was fine with it, happy with her solo existence, stimulated by her job as an archival librarian, constantly surrounded by thought-provoking ideas and the books she loved. But then she met Alan, a charming and sweet-natured divorcee with a job that took him on the road for half the year. When he asked her to marry him, she said yes, even though he still felt a little bit like a stranger.
A year in and the marriage was good, except for that strange blood streak on the back of one of his shirts he’d worn to a conference in Denver. Her curiosity turning to suspicion, Martha investigates the cities Alan visited over the past year and uncovers a disturbing pattern—five unsolved cases of murdered women.
Is she married to a serial killer? Or could it merely be a coincidence? Unsure what to think, Martha contacts an old friend from graduate school for advice. Lily Kintner once helped Martha out of a jam with an abusive boyfriend and may have some insight. Intrigued, Lily offers to meet Alan to find out what kind of man he really is . . . but what Lily uncovers is more perplexing and wicked than they ever could have expected.
Peter Swanson Biography
Peter Swanson was born in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1968. He grew up on a chicken farm. He graduated from Trinity College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Emerson College, and then he worked as a bookseller, a teacher of special education kids, and at the odd time, also a bartender, and a blogger.
He had his debut novel, The Girl With a Clock For a Heart, published in 2014, which became an LA Times Book Award finalist. His next book, The Kind Worth Killing, received the New England Society Book Award, and it was also a finalist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger.
Peter Swanson began thinking of writing books while he was in his mid-thirties, but back then he would only write short stories and poems. Eventually, he did complete a novel which was never published, and that gave him the push to go for more. He got his first publishing deal when he was in his forties after a long list of rejections. When an agent contacted him and mentioned that if the author could turn one of his short online stories into a whole book, it could be sold. Thus the first Peter Swanson book was born, and it sold, indeed.
His books have been so far translated into over 30 languages. When Peter Swanson is working on his books, he aims to write around 1000 words every day in the morning, which leaves his afternoon for other activities like doing promotion for his book, walking, and reading. Part of the author’s research process is him going to the locations of the settings of his various books. An interesting tidbit the author mentioned in an interview is that often the way he finds his characters surnames is by him walking in the cemetery and reading the names on the headstones. Quite ingenious.
Currently, the author Peter Swanson lives in Somerville, Massachusetts with his family, where he is working on his next book.
Peter Swanson Awards and Nominations
- The Kind Worth Killing was nominated for the CrimeFest: eDunnit Award in 2015
- Nine Lives was shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award in 2023
Praise for Peter Swanson Books
Filled with double-timers and double-crossers, cold-eyed stalkers and cold-blooded murderers, The Kind Worth Killing paints a riveting, disturbing picture of marriage gone horribly awry, with no shortage of startling surprises. If you’re engaged to get married, by all means read something else. (Chris Pavone)
Gripping, elegantly and stylishly written, and extremely hard to put down! (Sophie Hanna on The Kind Worth Killing)
“In Peter Swanson’s expert hands, one woman’s discerning observation at a quiet suburban dinner party unfolds into a gripping, twisty, psychologically complex thriller. I could not put it down. (Alafair Burke)
The book has pace to burn. It feels like a throwback to Ross MacDonald’s flawed but relentless work . . . glimmers with bright and original moments. (USA Today on The Girl With a Clock For a Heart)
An explosive mix of seductions, obsessions, and dark secrets. (New York Journal of Books on All the Beautiful Lies)
References
Books Reading Order » Thriller Authors »
I just finished the most recent book of Peter Swanson ” Before she knew him ” ( “vis à vis ” , in French , borrowed from the media library of Vendée ) an excellent suspense with an amazing ending and as a bonus , the athmosphere of a Boston suburb in autumn , my favourite season . Since then I’ve been very keen to read his other books ! Thank you Mr Swanson , for this very good psychological thriller