The Kind Worth Killing — Peter Swanson

A dark and devious literary suspense novel about a random encounter, sex, and a conversation that quickly turns to murder--a modern reimagining of Patricia Highsmith's classic Strangers on a Train--from the author of the acclaimed The Girl with a Clock for a Heart

On a late flight from London to Boston, Ted Severson meets the stunning and mysterious Lily Kintner. Over one too many martinis, the two strangers play a game, one in which they begin revealing more and more intimate details about themselves. Ted talks about his wife, Miranda--how his marriage has gone stale, how a week ago he caught her in a serious betrayal. . . . Maybe they were a mismatch from the start, he the rich businessman, she the beautiful artist. But what begins as playful banter between Ted and Lily takes a swift turn when Ted claims, half-seriously, that he would like to kill his wife for what she's done. Then Lily surprises him by saying that she'd like to help. After all, everyone dies, what difference does it make if a few bad apples get pushed along a little sooner than life intended?

Back in Boston, Ted and Lily forge an unusual bond and talk about the ways Ted might get out of his marriage. But Lily has her own dark history she's not sharing with Ted, a legacy of murder that stems from childhood. And Ted is keeping something from Lily as well--so as they move their plan forward, his motivation becomes less about getting Miranda out of his life and more about getting Lily into it. But as Ted begins to fall in love with Lily, he grows anxious about any unseen holes in their scheme that could give them away. And suddenly the two are pulled into a very lethal game of cat and mouse, one in which there may be more than one loser and more than one of them left dead when it's all over.