Peter Swanson says “Kill Your Darlings”

 

Here at Shots Magazine we’ve followed the work of Peter Swanson eagerly from his 2014 debut novel ‘The Girl with a Clock for a Heart’ right up to his latest, ‘Kill Your Darlings’ which is released on 3^rd July 2025 – a date to mark boldly in your diary.

We wrote about Swanson’s latest novel –

“Thom Graves is a tenured English Professor in his mid-fifties. His wife Wendy also works in academia, and was a published poet in her youth. She considers that her husband drinks too much, has a wandering eye and worryingly has started writing a novel – a murder mystery. Wendy can tolerate his drinking and even his flings with younger women at the University – but what she cannot accept is his writing.

At a dinner party she ponders what her life would be like without him so she decides to murder him.”

‘Kill Your Darlings’ is a difficult book to review without revealing spoilers, as the narrative unspools in reverse. I pondered upon Søren Kierkegaard’s assertion that “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

“I sat in silence when I put the book down, and have been pondering the narrative as Kill your Darlings provokes deep thought – contemplation of fate intertwined with free-will to form our lives and our deaths and that of others that we interact with.”

Read the full review [free from spoilers] HERE

So after putting down “Kill Your Darlings” I had a few questions for the author, which Peter kindly answered and which we now present for our readers -

Ali: Welcome to Shots Magazine

Peter: Hey, great to be here

AK: We were floored by your latest novel KILL YOUR DARLINGS so could you let us know where the kernel for this novel’s idea came from?

PS: It came from two places. One was the desire to write a novel in reverse. So much of crime fiction is about how the bad deeds of the past effect the present, so I wanted to explore that by going backwards. The second spark for this novel was really thinking about what would happen if the adulterous couple in Double Indemnity or Body Heat, or really any story in which a married woman talks her lover into killing her husband, got away with it. What would their lives look like in thirty years?

AK: I find your female characters so very intriguing and perhaps the adage that “the female of the species is deadlier than the male” to be especially applicable in your work, including in your latest – would you care to discuss?

PS: Maybe it’s because historically men are more violent than women that killer female characters are so interesting. They have to overcome their natures in order to kill, unlike men, who are overcoming their natures in order to not kill. I’m sure that’s reductive, but I think there is some truth in it. Anyway, I enjoy writing deadly females probably for the same reason people like to read about them.  

AK: There is complexity in your work, but it’s deft [in so far as the narrative appears effortlessly constructed to the reader]. So are you a plotter or do you just follow the muse and hope everything will turn out fine?

PS: In general, I’m a muse-follower, hoping for the best. However, in writing Kill Your Darlings I had to, by necessity, do a little more classic plotting. I needed to know what happened in the past, of course, in order to explore how these characters were acting in the present. That said, I never did an outline for this book, and there are some elements to the story that I discovered in the course of writing.

AK: The subtle details embedded in the narrative of KILL YOUR DARLINGS added nuance making it [deliciously] thought provoking. The mention / references of a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, Herge’s Tintin in Tibet, William Peter Blatty…..even the title of Wendy’s debut poetry collection…….   Did you plan these [and others] or did they appear naturally?

PS: A lot of the references appear naturally, in the sense that when I am working on a novel my mind is filled with favourite books and poems and movies that might have some relevance to what I’m working on. But, of course, there’s some manipulation. Once I knew that Jason, Thom and Wendy’s son, was a Tintin reader, it made sense for the story for him to be carrying around Tintin in Tibet, the book that Herge claimed originated from his middle-aged dreams of dying.

AK: Which of your previous novels did you enjoy writing the most and why?

PS: Well, it wasn’t Kill Your Darlings, which got very tricky to write for a period of time, so much so that I almost abandoned it. The book I loved writing was The Rules for Perfect Murders (Eight Perfect Murders in the States), mostly because I could spend so much time exploring the plots and intricacies of some of my favourite crime novels. As you’ve already mentioned I do love references, and I didn’t need to hold back with this particular book.

AK: I find your later novels to be particularly memorable especially, RULES FOR PERFECT MURDERS , A TALENT FOR MURDER and NINE LIVES as I still think about them from time to time. Do you find the writing process to have gotten easier than when you started over a decade ago or has each novel gotten harder to shape?

PS: All novels are hard to write, and it doesn’t get any easier. I do think that now that I have written a dozen novels maybe I’m allowing a little more quirk and personality into my stories than I did when I first started out. Maybe I trust my instincts (for better or worse) more than when I was a younger writer.

AK: I found your novella THE CHRISTMAS GUEST to be very dark, but told in an engaging manner – will we ever see a collection of shorter work from you?

PS: I think I have enough stories right now to be a collection, but I’m not sure they are good enough. However, I’d like to come out with a short story collection one day but maybe there would be only one. I find short stories really hard to write, and I’ve yet to write one that I am a hundred percent pleased with. I think I would be more likely to come out with a novella collection, since that is a length I am very comfortable working in.

AK: And any more information about film rights to your work as we heard Julia Roberts has expressed interest in KILL YOUR DARLINGS?

PS: She brought on James Gray to write the script and direct the film, if it gets made. That’s pretty much all I know. I suspect that the next element will be finding a male lead. They really keep the writers in the dark about this whole process, or maybe they just keep me in the dark. Regardless, it’s an exciting possibility, one I have very little to do with.

AK: And what Books and Films have you enjoyed recently?

PS: I liked Steven Soderbergh’s film Black Bag. It sold itself as a spy thriller but it was much more of a kind of classic who-dunit, a chamber piece book-ended by two dinner parties. I really loved Janice Hallett’s next book, Killer Question, all about a murder wrapped into a weekly pub quiz. Very clever. And I also loved William Boyd’s new book, Gabriel’s Moon, about a travel writer in the 1960s who gets recruited by the secret service.

AK: And would you care to share what are you working on currently?

PS: I’ve written another Christmas novella, and that will be coming out in the autumn of 2026. And now I’m getting ready to start a new novel that would come out in 2027.

AK: Thank you for your time to speak with our British readers.

PS: My pleasure, Ali.

Shots Magazine would like to thanks Sopha Cerullo and Angus Cargill of Faber and Faber [London] for their help in facilitating this interview with Peter Swanson.

If you’ve not read Peter Swanson, where’ve you been?

Bibliography

Henry Kimball / Lily Kintner Novels

The Kind Worth Killing (2015)      

The Kind Worth Saving (2023)     

A Talent for Murder (2024)

Standalone Novels

The Girl with a Clock for a Heart (2014)  

Her Every Fear (2017)        

All the Beautiful Lies (2018)         

Before She Knew Him (2019)      

Rules for Perfect Murders aka Eight Perfect Murders (2020) 

Every Vow You Break (2021)       

Nine Lives (2022)   

Kill Your Darlings (2025)   

Short Stories/Novellas

The Christmas Guest (2023)         

The Honeymoon Trap (2022)       

More information available > https://www.peter-swanson.com and HERE

 

Stav Sherez’s The Intrusions

I was delighted to receive an invitation to iconic British Publisher Faber and Faber’s Spring Literary Party.

I find the range of publications from Faber to be eclectic, with a focus on good writing, including poetry, music, film criticism and the unusual. I am fortunate to have known Publicist Sophia Portas and Publisher Angus Cargill, for some time; and they kindly keep me up to date on my reading, as Faber’s Crime Thriller List must never be underestimated.

A few years ago, I was sent a remarkable novel entitled A Dark Redemption by Music Journalist Stav Sherez. I was hypnotised by this very dark tale, which I reviewed excitedly here

We were delighted to see that his third in this police procedural series is even more remarkable, as Shots Magazine reviewer Les Hurst reported -

Carrigan and Miller are detectives in the Metropolitan Police, nominally part of a team, but each suffering their own demons and frequently having to work independently. In Carrigans’s case he is carrying the extra weight from an earlier case, described in the previous ELEVEN DAYS, in which he used some extra-judicial investigations in order to discover the truth; for which an unattractive superior is hounding him now using the cover of an internal complaint. This persecution looks as if it will raise its head again very soon, and in a much worse way.

What are the “intrusions” of the title? In one immediate sense it is the girl who bursts into the police station saying that her friend has been kidnapped. Miller begins to investigate the grotty clubs and back alleys of London where the girls went in search of a good time. When a dead body is discovered, drained of blood, but on a floor absent of blood - Carrigan becomes involved. When the two detectives realise that the missing girl and the murder victim are one and the same they realise they have a case of horrifying complexity, and previous victims.

Read More Here

So it was most generous of Faber and Faber to send me an invitation to their Spring Literary Party, held in The Crypt at Clerkenwell. Though not a Crime / Thriller Event per se; it was good to meet up with Stav Sherez and the wonderful NJ Cooper aka Daphne Wright [who is perhaps better known as Natasha Cooper, from her days as Chair for The Crime Writers Association before the Millennium].

The event was very well attended, and robustly organised, with an array of canapes and a well-stocked bar. The party allowed the guests to mingle with the Faber & Faber Editorial and Promotional Teams during the evening; and there were readings and talks, all hoisted in The Crypt on the Green, Clerkenwell, East London.

We have recorded some of the highlights for our readers below

We were welcomed to the event, which included Sebastian Barry reading a short passage from his Costa Book Awarded ‘DAYS WITHOUT END’, which is a wonderful novel, and which the BBC dramatized. Barry received this news last week, and is the only novelist to have won this prestigious literary award twice.

Then Stav Sherez took to the stage to introduce his latest work, the prescient and unsettling dark thriller ‘THE INTRUSIONS’

Kate Hamer spoke about her follow up to the bestseller The Girl in the Red Coat, and read a passage from her follow-up ‘The Doll Funeral’

After several other readings, Hanif Kureishi closed the proceedings with an extract from ‘The Nothing’.

So after more mingling, it was time to thank the Faber Team, and emerge back into the London Night, with a book bag, and memories of a most enjoyable literary gathering from one of Great Britain’s most iconic publishing houses.

Incidentally Stav Sherez kindly supplied Shots an intriguing essay about the linkage of Music and Serial Killers, and can be accessed here

Follow Stav on Twitter @stavsherez and remember Shots Bookstore have discounted copies of THE INTRUSIONS available here 

And if you haven’t discovered the dark imagination of this former music journalist’s Carrigan and Miller London based Police Procedural series, why not head to the beginning, A Dark Redemption [out in PB] as is the second installment Eleven Days – and then buckle-up for The Intrusions.

Pavone’s Accident in London

A thriller writer who is getting a great deal of attention is Chris Pavone. I first bumped into Pavone at Bouchercon Albany last autumn, where he was discussing his debut, the award-winning THE EXPATS, and tucked into our book bags was a proof copy of his follow-up THE ACCIDENT, which is a remarkable tale, and one that is a ‘one-sitting read’. As Bouchercon is always a blur of panels, events, and parties we only had a few minutes after his panel to discuss his debut THE EXPATS, so I was delighted to join my fellow literary critics to meet him in London, thanks to Faber and Faber.

At Shots, we are not alone in our admiration of Pavone’s talent. The New York Times reported -

Chris Pavone managed to turn his experience in book editing and living in Luxembourg into an Edgar-winning spy novel, “The Expats.” With “The Accident,” he matches that first novel’s nail-biting level of excitement while continuing to write about what he knows. “The Accident” is a thriller about publishing, and if that sounds like an oxymoron, Mr. Pavone is very good at rendering it wildly dramatic. He’s also good at diverting close scrutiny about where any holes in his story may be. He just keeps the shocks coming and leaves the head scratching for later.

Just take it for granted that “The Accident” is about a manuscript so earth-shattering that people in the publishing world would kill to get their hands on it. Mr. Pavone’s first deft move is to steer the red-hot manuscript, a biography, toward Isabel Reed, the glamorous New York literary agent who is the natural choice for dealing with a book of potentially nuclear impact. Isabel is renowned for her discretion. She knows how delicately the book needs to be handled.

Read More Here

The New York Times Interviewed Pavone in the lead-up to publication of THE ACCIDENT –

Mr. Pavone (pronounced puh-VOH-nee), who is 45, is not the typical suspense writer who speedily produces a book or two each year. But he does bring an unusual résumé to the task of making the publishing industry seem thrilling: He spent decades working as an editor, primarily at Clarkson Potter, an illustrated-book publisher, where he worked on nonfiction titles about interior design, dogs, cocktails and food, among other things. His first novel, “The Expats,” was published in 2012 and sold nearly 200,000 copies, winning critical raves and an Edgar Award.

He is also half of a formidable publishing power couple. His wife, Madeline McIntosh, is the president and chief operating officer at Penguin Random House and one of the industry’s most influential executives, often mentioned as a potential successor someday to Markus Dohle, the company’s chief executive.

It was Ms. McIntosh’s ascending career that indirectly led Mr. Pavone to start writing fiction in the first place. In 2008, she took a high-level job at Amazon that required the couple and their twin sons, 4 years old at the time, to move to Luxembourg, where Amazon has corporate offices.

Read the full interview here

So with a solid publishing background, Pavone’s work was picked up by Angus Cargill of Faber and Faber for release in the UK and Ireland. To celebrate the launch of THE ACCIDENT, Faber and Faber invited a selection of London Literary Critics to meet Chris and discuss this startling novel over wine and canapés. The Shots team of Ayo Onatade and Mike Stotter were joined by Delores and Maxim Jakubowski, Lizzie Hayes, Barry Forshaw, Jake Kerridge of The Telegraph and many others.

Faber and Faber have organised a competition to win 3 signed copies of a sample chapter of THE ACCIDENT for Shots Readers. All you have to do is email your name to shotscomp@yahoo.co.uk with CHRIS PAVONE in the subject line, with a return Postal Address [UK and Ireland only we’re afraid as geographical restrictions apply] – three random emails will be selected as winners.

Terms and conditions for the Shots eZine / Faber and Faber competition

• Closing date for entries is Monday 14^th April  2014 12:00:00 AM
• All correct entries will be entered into a prize draw and the first three correct answer picked at random on 14/4/14 will be declared the winners.
• The winner will be notified by email within 14 days of the promotion closing date and is required to accept their prize by email or phone call within 14 days of notification.
• In the event of non-acceptance within the specified period, the promoter reserves the right to reallocate the prize to the next randomly drawn correct and valid entry.
• The winner will be notified within 28 days of the closing date. No responsibility can be accepted for lost or misplaced entries
• The prize is non-transferable and there is no cash alternative
• Only one entry per person
• Incorrect or illegible answers or entries received after the entry date will not be entered into the prize draw
• The judges decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into
• Sorry but geographical restrictions apply – Only readers from the UK and Ireland are eligible, [with postal addresses in the UK and Ireland]

Such is the intensity of Pavone’s THE ACCIDENT we are sure once the sample chapter is read, you will be desperate to read the novel, so Shots eZine Bookstore have discounted copies of Chris Pavone’s work available

The Accident in Hardcover can be obtained here

In New York City, Isabel Reed, one of the most respected and powerful literary agents in the city, frantically turns the pages of a manuscript into the early dawn hours. This manuscript - printed out, hand-delivered, totally anonymous - is full of shocking revelations and disturbing truths, things which could compromise national security. Is this what she's been waiting for her entire career: a book that will help her move on from a painful past, a book that could save her beloved industry... a book that will change the world?

In Copenhagen, Hayden Gray, a veteran station chief, wary of the CIA's obsession with the Middle East, has been steadfastly monitoring the dangers that abound in Europe. Even if his bosses aren't paying attention, he's determined to stay vigilant. And he's also on the trail of this manuscript - and the secrets that lie at its heart. For him, quite simply, it must never see the light of day.

As Isabel and Hayden try to outwit each other, the nameless author watches on from afar. With no-one quite sure who holds all the cards, the stakes couldn't be higher: in just twenty-four hours careers could be ruined, devastating secrets could be unearthed, and innocent people could die.

Gripping, sophisticated, and impossible to put down, The Accident is a masterful follow-up to one of the most acclaimed and striking debut thrillers of recent years.

The Expats can be obtained in paperback Here

Kate Moore is an expat mum, newly transplanted from Washington D.C. In the cobblestoned streets of Luxembourg, her days are filled with play dates and coffee mornings, her weekends spent in Paris or skiing in the Alps. Kate is also guarding a secret - one so momentous it could destroy her neat little expat life - and she suspects that another American couple are not who they claim to be; plus her husband is acting suspiciously. As she travels around Europe, she finds herself looking over her shoulder, terrified her past is catching up with her.

As Kate begins to dig, to uncover the secrets of those around her, she finds herself buried in layers of deceit so thick they threaten her family, her marriage - and her life.

Read More about THE ACCIDENT from the Chicago Tribune here and here’s Chris speaking in New York

Photos © 2014 Ali Karim and cover images © 2013 and © 2014 Faber and Faber