-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
Summary | Discuss | Reviews | More Information | Read-Alikes
A Novel
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.
What are you reading this week? (7/2/2025)
...oyce Carol Oates. Both are favorite authors and never disappoint. My public library tells me I have three holds ready: My Friends by Fredick Bachman, Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson and South of Nowhere by Jeffrey Deaver. I often wonder why all my holds come in at the same time! The chair on my back deck will see a lot of me in t...
-Linda_O_donnell
"As is typical for Swanson, there's plenty of shrewd sleight-of-hand, but the book's wily structure is often too clever for its own good, with certain surprises either deflated or overcomplicated by the demands of reverse chronology. The emotional impact, too, is often blunted. The author has done better before." —Publishers Weekly
"If Swanson can be said to be pinching from one of Thom's favorite film noirs, it's with total awareness and to sublime effect. A heady, allusive, tweedy-seedy slow burn." —Kirkus Reviews
"An addictive read brimming with jaw-dropping surprises. The unique timeline will intrigue fans of psychological thrillers." —Library Journal
"With a pair of deeply engaging characters, a unique story structure, and a powerhouse of an ending, the book is a sure-fire hit." —Booklist
"A fascinating exploration of the corrosive effects of guilt." —BookPage
"A dazzlingly clever murder mystery, told backwards, asking the question: why would this loving wife murder her husband?" —Gillian McAllister, New York Times bestselling author of Famous Last Words and Wrong Place Wrong Time
"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. Exhilarating and exceptionally clever, Kill Your Darlings zings with a singular sense of tension. Peter Swanson writes with the lyrical acuity of a literary master." —Danya Kukafka, nationally bestselling author of Notes on an Execution
This information about Kill Your Darlings was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Jim Ferguson
Peter Swanson is the New York Times bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing, winner of the New England Society Book Award and finalist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger; Her Every Fear, an NPR book of the year; and Eight Perfect Murders, a New York Times bestseller, among others. His books have been translated into 30 languages. He lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts, where he is at work on his next novel.
If you liked Kill Your Darlings, try these:
A Serial Killer's Guide to Marriage
by Asia Mackay
Published 2025
Two former serial killers trying to keep their past buried realize that old habits die hard in this "wildly original, razor-sharp thriller" (Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of All the Colors of the Dark).
by Laura Sims
Published 2024
From the author of Looker comes this "compulsive and unforgettable novel" (Mona Awad) of razor-sharp suspense about two local librarians whose lives become dangerously intertwined.
by Peter Swanson
Published 2021
From the hugely talented author of Before She Knew Him comes a chilling tale of psychological suspense and an homage to the thriller genre tailor-made for fans: the story of a bookseller who finds himself at the center of an FBI investigation because a very clever killer has started using his list of fiction's most ingenious murders.
A million monkeys...
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
