Eight Perfect Murders is a murder-mystery set in the world of the historical mystery literature genre.   The main character is Malcolm Kershaw, a bookstore owner and a blogger who writes about murder mysteries.    One of his articles is called “Eight Perfect Murders”, a meta-analysis of the the most perfect murder methods found in famous mystery novels.   Each murder is different and each mystery requires some ingenious investigation methods.    Some years after writing the article, Malcolm is approached by an FBI agent who has been linking three crimes which may be mirroring three of the perfect murders that his blog listed.    Is there a modern copycat killer using the blog post as his guide?

This is a cleverly-written story, told in the first person narrative format, but the author chooses to provide a level of unreliability which makes the story more complex.    Malcolm turns from store owner and blogger to investigator, and we  hear about progress on the new murder mysteries through his words, but he has a secret that is not shared until later in the story.   The plot has solid characters, some twists and turns, and an wrap-up.    In many ways, it shares the legacy of plot elements and methods used by the eight authors in their novels, but ingeniously intermixed to provide a satisfying read for mystery lovers.

Recommended – 4.4 out of 5.0 stars4.4

An audiobook excerpt: