I received this book for free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Kill Your Darlings: A Novel by Peter Swanson Published by William Morrow on JUne 10, 2025
Genres: Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
Pages: 288
Format: ARC
Source: Edelweiss
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Goodreads
"A feat of structural magnificence– the instant I turned the final page, I flipped straight back to the start to put it all together again." —Danya Kukafka, nationally bestselling author of Notes on an Execution
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing and Eight Perfect Murders comes an inventive, utterly propulsive murder-mystery in reverse, tracing a marriage back in time to uncover the dark secret at its heart.
Thom and Wendy Graves have been married for over twenty-five years. They live in a beautiful Victorian on the north shore of Massachusetts. Wendy is a published poet and Thom teaches English literature at a nearby university. Their son, Jason, is all grown up. All is well…except that Wendy wants to murder her husband.
What happens next has everything to do with what happened before. The story of Wendy and Thom’s marriage is told in reverse, moving backward through time to witness key moments from the couple’s lives—their fiftieth birthday party, buying their home, Jason’s birth, the mysterious death of a work colleague—all painting a portrait of a marriage defined by a single terrible act they plotted together many years ago.
Eventually we learn the details of what Thom and Wendy did in their early twenties, a secret that has kept them bound together through the length of their marriage. But its power over them is fraying, and each of them begins to wonder if they would be better off making sure their spouse carries their secrets to the grave.
Review
Ever wonder what happens when you play a train wreck backwards? Peter Swanson’s latest thriller does exactly that. His new novel, Kill Your Darlings, starts with a marriage in ruins and rewinds the tape, showing us how two people who once loved each other turned into strangers – and maybe something worse.
The story follows Wendy and Thom, a couple with enough secrets to fill a storage unit. Instead of the usual “who done it,” Swanson flips the script. We know where these two end up. The real mystery is how they got there.
The reverse storytelling is a gamble that mostly pays off. Each chapter peels back another layer of their relationship, revealing little lies that grew into big ones. It’s like watching a house being un-built, brick by brick, until you finally see the cracks in the foundation.
Swanson’s writing is clean and sharp, doing a lot with a little. He’s particularly good at showing how people can share a bed for years and still be mysteries to each other. The alternating perspectives between Wendy and Thom work like two unreliable narrators trying to outlie each other.
Fair warning: this isn’t a book for readers who need a murder on page one. The pacing is more slow burn than wildfire, especially in the first third. But patience pays off. What starts as a character study of a failing marriage gradually reveals itself to be something darker and more twisted.
The reverse chronology might give some readers a headache at first. It’s like trying to read a map upside down – disorienting until your brain adjusts. But that’s kind of the point. Sometimes you have to look at things backward to see them clearly.
Verdict: ★★★☆☆
Kill Your Darlings isn’t Swanson’s most gripping book, but it might be his most clever. If you like your thrillers with more psychological depth than car chases, and don’t mind taking the scenic route to murder, this one’s worth your time.
