Eight Perfect Murders

Malcolm reflects on his work history in Boston bookstores after graduating from college. He started at Borders and then worked at Redline Bookstore. The owner of the latter, Mort Abrams, lost his wife to cancer and offered to sell the store to Malcolm. Malcolm turned him down and started working at Old Devil. His boss there, John Haley, asked him to start a blog for the bookstore. The list of perfect murders was Malcolm’s first post. He struggled to write it but eventually settled on the crimes committed in the novels The Red House Mystery, Malice Aforethought, The A.B.C. Murders, Double Indemnity, Strangers on a Train, The Drowner, Deathtrap, and The Secret History. Malcolm hoped it would take off like the “Julie and Julia” blog, the work of food writer Julie Powell, whose accounts of her year of cooking her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking led to a bestselling book and a film adaptation in the early 2000s. Unfortunately, his blog got only two comments. His next post, about his favorite mystery books of that year, was much easier to write.

Mulvey and Malcolm discuss the ways that the New England murders she is investigating appear to use his blog post as inspiration. One murder is staged to look like a man jumped out of a train, as in Double Indemnity. Mulvey found Malcolm’s blog by Googling that title and The A.B.C. Murders together. She tells him that he is probably not a suspect—she is interviewing him and seeking his advice. Every victim seems to be a “less-than-stellar person” (23). They discuss a murder victim whose heart attack was triggered intentionally, as in Deathtrap. Mulvey gives Malcolm summaries of the cases connected to his list. He gives her all the books on the list that he has in stock, except one, which he has only a rare, expensive edition of. They arrange to meet the next day for breakfast at her hotel.

Malcolm closes up the bookstore and walks to his apartment. On the way there, he picks up some food and drinks and gets his mail. Once in his apartment, a studio in an attic, he looks over Mulvey’s list and wonders if she is seriously considering him as a suspect. Malcolm potentially connects one of the murders to The Secret History, and he makes notes to ask Mulvey about drug overdoses and drownings. He does not plan to tell her that the victim who died of a heart attack, Elaine Johnson, was his customer.

Malcolm lies in bed with his copy of The Drowner. He recalls buying it at Annie’s Book Swap in Middleham and reading it as a preteen. After he finishes the book, he thinks about his wife. Then, he falls asleep and dreams about people running after him.

In the morning, he meets Mulvey at the restaurant in The Flat of the Hill hotel. She says she read The Red House Mystery the previous night. They discuss how a murder based on it would include two murders. One of the victims would be framed for the other’s murder and appear to go missing. They consider what rules the murderer might be following to adhere to or test Malcolm’s list. They decide to refer to the suspect as Charlie, after a cat of Mulvey’s. When she asks about Elaine Johnson, Malcolm admits he didn’t read Deathtrap before putting it on his list. Mulvey says she thought he might admit that he knew Elaine.

Now caught withholding information, Malcolm admits to knowing Elaine and tells Mulvey that she was a customer at the bookstore, as well as an unpleasant person. They discuss Elaine’s bigoted comments and her history of heart trouble. On the night of Elaine’s death, Malcolm was in London. Then, he answers Mulvey’s questions about his two employees: Emily Barsamian and Brandon Weeks. The former is shy, the latter is outgoing, and they’ve both worked for Malcolm for several years. Next, they talk about his co-owner, the writer Brian Murray. When Mulvey asks about exes, Malcolm admits his only ex is his dead wife. They discuss his thoughts from the previous night about the connections between novels and murder cases, focusing on The Drowner, since he reread it. He gives it and Malice Aforethought to Mulvey. They exchange emails, and she asks him to call her Gwen.

When he gets to the store, Malcolm sees Emily, his employee, locked out. She thought he had opened the store, and she waited for 20 minutes until he arrived. Malcolm remembers talking to Emily about horror movies and thinks about her work processing the store’s online sales. He looks through the store’s blog, which has over 200 posts in 10 years. He reminisces about the events that happened around the time specific blog posts were made, such as what he posted shortly before his wife, Claire, died and around the time he discovered her affair. More generally, he thinks about the list format as a way of forming identity.

A couple from Minnesota who are mystery fans come into the store, excited to see Nero and buy signed copies of books. After they leave, Brandon begins his shift. Malcolm worries that Brandon will leave the store when he finishes his business degree. Brandon talks to Emily about The Hunter by Richard Stark after hugging her, and Malcolm thinks about trying to get comfortable with hugging. Then, he sees a new comment was left on the “Eight Perfect Murders” post within the past day. The commenter “Doctor Sheppard” (63) says they are halfway through the list and wonders if Malcolm knows who they are.