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. Is there any connection between the victims? Is this the work of a serial killer? Will they be able to catch the perpetrator before he/she is successful in accomplishing what he/she has set out to do or will it be too late? will be the most life altering letter they ever receive. It could also be the last, as one by one, they start to I was greatly entertained and intrigued by Nine Lives, which kept me guessing and theorizing throughout. I enjoyed the ending.

The plot progression was dull and disjointed. There was barely any active investigation, we were teased briefly but it was so insubstantial it did not pique my interest whatsoever. Instead we jump all over the place to different POVs and meander through their mundane lives. In between the deaths it felt like absolutely nothing was progressing. 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 story is told via the points of view of all nine people on the list, plus the investigating officers. Sam is an absolute honey.

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. Nine people receive a typed list of nine names, their own name plus eight others that they have never heard of or met before. FBI agent Jessica Winslow receives a list and while she wants to ignore it, something inside of her makes her decide to investigate. Then one person on the list is murdered. Then a second. Citing what she calls the "second plane" (referring to 9/11 when the first plane could have been considered an accident, but when the second plane hit there was no denying they were connected), Jessica realizes that they might all be targets and searches for the connection between the nine people.This is a fast-paced, entertaining story that kept me intrigued from start to finish. I enjoyed some of the characters and enjoyed hating other characters. The mystery itself is intriguing, and Swanson does a fantastic job balancing multiple POVs and keeping the reader hooked from one short chapter to the next. 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.

But their game turns a little darker when Ted jokes that he could kill Miranda for what she’s done. Lily, without missing a beat, says calmly, “I’d like to help.” After all, some people are the kind worth killing, like a lying, stinking, cheating spouse... Swanson lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts. He is married to Charlene Sawyer and has a cat. [5] Books [ edit ]Although Peter Swanson has written a book which I mostly enjoyed, unfortunately the ending was an unsatisfying anticlimax for me. 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. i'm not gonna talk about the plot, i'm just gonna talk about my reaction to the motive, and i'm going to be as courteous as possible, so i don't spill too many beans. 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.