A Talent for Murder is the third novel by Peter Swanson featuring Kimball & Kintner. Released 11th June 2024 by HarperCollins on their William Morrow imprint, it's 272 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. (Paperback due out from the same publisher in late May 2025). It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
This is a cleverly constructed atmospheric and highly character driven mystery/thriller. Although the actual plot works fine as a standalone, the main characters' relationship and background setup are spoiled for the earlier books if read out of order. They're fairly quick reads, so this would be a good choice for a long weekend binge read.
The pacing is taut and the story moves at an engaging pace at least in the first 50% of the book (which certainly isn't always the case with psychological thrillers). The second half does have some minor pacing issues with a surprising amount of re-hashing and characters evaluating earlier content, but overall, it's not too obtrusive.
The denouement and resolution are a trifle predictable but satisfying and complete. The author is undeniably talented and writes very coherently, readably, and well. It's a murder thriller, so there is graphic content and descriptions of violence (and sexual violence).
Four stars. It would be an excellent choice for public library acquisition, thriller fans, or a binge/buddy read.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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