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48 pages 1 hour read

Peter Swanson

Eight Perfect Murders

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

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Chapters 8-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 8 Summary

Malcolm doesn’t tell Gwen about the comment on the blog post and ruins the dinner he cooks for himself. He realizes that the commenter’s name comes from The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and he finds his copy. Then, he thinks about his history with Claire Mallory. She started using drugs while at Boston University and flunked out. Then, she started working at the Redline Bookstore, where she met Malcolm. He fell in love with her immediately, but it was six weeks before he asked her out on a date. They talk about books over drinks, and she warns him that she has issues.

Malcolm thinks back on his two previous girlfriends and how he has trouble misreading women. He told Claire that he is “terrible at nonverbal cues” (70) and to tell him everything. She shared a story about being molested by her middle school science teacher. When they were in a similar intimate position, while she was drunk, he wondered if she thought about the abuse. They elope in Vegas and move to Somerville. Claire took a job at the cable access station, but she didn’t enjoy it, and she became a bartender while taking some classes at Emerson College. Malcolm read books at the bar while she worked. After some family drama, Claire got more tattoos and fell in love with Patrick Yates, a bartender.

Chapter 9 Summary

Malcolm tries to read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd but can’t focus. He decides to read some poetry, and he thinks about the poetry he’s been reading lately. Then, he thinks back on his wife’s infatuation with Patrick, and their emotional—and possibly also physical—affair. Eventually, Patrick stole money from the bar and ran off, leaving several women heartbroken. Claire dropped out of Emerson, worked at a restaurant in Back Bay, and made documentary films. Eric Atwell found her work on YouTube and asked her to come to an artist “incubator” (76) in Southwell. Because of Eric, Claire developed an addiction to cocaine and pills. Malcolm thought they were having a romantic affair, so he didn’t intervene. Once he found out it was drugs, not romance, he waited for Claire to quit or go to rehab. In 2010, police officers informed him that Claire died in a car accident, and no one else was harmed. A few months later, Malcolm found and read her journal.

Chapter 10 Summary

Malcolm considers modern mystery novels, like Gone Girl, having researched these books but never reading them. He doesn’t trust narrators or actual people. His wife’s journal contained information about her doing sexual favors for Eric in exchange for cocaine. After reading it, which he sometimes regrets, he threw it away, which he doesn’t regret. Malcolm kept some of her books, like a collection of poetry by Anne Sexton that Claire annotated. He talks to her spirit about Gwen and his list.

The next morning, while he is eating breakfast at a cafe, Gwen calls him asking about Strangers on a Train, which she just finished reading. Malcolm asks to call her back and goes into the bookstore. Emily has already opened and fed Nero. She tells him that a customer, David Popovich, has complaints about his latest shipment. Malcolm tells her to “cut him off” (84), or blocklist him. Then, Malcolm calls Gwen back. They discuss the differences in the movie and the book and how someone could pull off the murder in real-life. Gwen decides that one way would be to murder one person in a messy divorce and frame the other person. She reminds him to send her his flight information.

Emily is happy that she was able to send the email to Popovicj and expresses concern about Malcolm. He goes for a walk to the Public Garden and is baffled by parents taking pictures of their kids with the Make Way for Ducklings statue. He thinks about his guilt and that Gwen might discover it.

Chapter 11 Summary

Shortly after his wife died, Malcolm decided he wanted Eric dead, but he knew he would immediately be a suspect. Without the funds to hire a professional, Malcolm went on a site called Duckburg. He learned about the site from a former employee at Old Devils, who explained it was part of the dark web, or “darkish enough.” Malcolm made an anonymous account and posted on a section called Swaps about wanting to make a swap similar to the one in Strangers on a Train. He got a message from a fan of the book. They discussed when they would be out of town and who they wanted killed, then agreed to not talk again. Malcolm provided Eric’s information and was given information about Norman Chaney in New Hampshire.

While Malcolm was away at a conference in Florida, Eric was murdered. The press about the case didn’t include information about Claire or cocaine. A police officer questioned Malcolm, and he provided information about his flights to and from Florida. He also said he forgave Eric. However, Malcolm didn’t mention Claire’s diary or what he learned from it. He cried a little and talked about mystery books with the detective, Roberta James, who gave him her card.

Chapter 12 Summary

About a month after Eric was murdered, Malcolm traveled to New Hampshire to kill his victim, Norman. Prior to his trip, he researched Norman on public library computers and discovered Norman’s wife was dead and his children lived in other cities. Malcolm obscured his license plate information with mud and rang the door of Norman’s isolated home, holding a crowbar. When Norman answered, Malcolm hit him with the crowbar, and they fought. Malcolm ended up choking Norman until he died. However, Malcolm felt bad for Norman’s cat and took it with him. Malcolm named the cat Nero and gave him a home in the bookstore.

Chapter 13 Summary

In the present day, Malcolm thinks about how life is different from books. He has to deal with work and bills instead of quicksand and tracking someone. After he closes up the bookstore and gets something to eat and drink at Jacob Wirth, Malcolm feels like he is being followed. He thinks he sees a guy in a hat when he gets to his apartment. This causes Malcolm to wonder if the person who wanted Norman killed (and who killed Eric) found him and is using his list as a blueprint for serial murders. He connects this identity with the commenter on the store’s blog.

Gwen calls and invites Malcolm to go with her to Elaine’s house in Rockland and look at Elaine’s books. She says they might stay overnight, so he should pack a bag. This makes Malcolm determined to figure out who killed Eric before Gwen does.

Chapters 8-13 Analysis

This section introduces the theme of Memory and Omission. Here, Malcolm admits to the reader that he is guilty of arranging a murder swap, which leads the reader to believe he is confessing all his truths. He says, “It is time to tell the truth” (66) and proceeds to explain how he arranged the murder of Eric—a man Claire was having sex with to pay for drugs. However, for now, he omits that he also killed his wife. He recalls the moment when the police inform him of her death: “I knew she was dead before either of them spoke” (79). This is both true and misleading. At this moment, the reader could believe that Malcolm expected his wife to die, due to her drug use, and the arrival of the police confirmed his assumption. However, Malcolm knows Claire is dead because he ran her off the road and made it look like an accident due to driving while under the influence. He omits the information about killing Claire until the end of the novel.

The theme of Memory and Omission is connected to the theme of Reality and Fiction in this section. Malcolm addresses the reader throughout the book, commenting on changes he has made in his memoir. He claims that he uses Claire’s real name, as well as his own, in the book. Other names have been changed, he admits: “I’ve changed some names for the purpose of this narrative, but not my own” (66). Drawing the reader’s attention to names is potentially an early indicator that the reader should catch that Marty Kingship and Malcolm share the same initials—a fact Malcolm brings up at the end of the novel. Here, Malcolm and Gwen call the murderer Charlie, and Malcolm needs to find out Charlie’s true identity before Gwen does. He thinks, “I needed to find my shadow first” (111). In his search for Charlie’s real name, Malcolm asks for Marty’s help, completely unaware that Marty is Charlie until the end.

In this section, The Nature of Bookselling starts to take a backseat to the mystery surrounding Charlie and Malcolm’s blog post. The stress of Gwen’s investigation leads to Malcolm deciding to ban a problematic customer: “Banishing Popovich would probably hurt our bottom line in the end, but for the moment I didn’t care” (84). Not only does Malcolm make seemingly rash decisions about store business, but he starts missing work and becoming distant from his employees as the novel progresses.

As in the previous section, the murders are allusions to mystery novels. Malcolm used the Swaps section of a website called Duckburg to arrange the murder of Eric. His question is: “Any Strangers on a Train fans out there? Would love to suggest a mutually beneficial swap” (91). The reference to the novel is enough for Charlie (Marty), an avid reader, to understand Malcolm wants to commit murder. Other allusions are clues that Malcolm killed his wife. For instance, when he sees a comment on his blog post from a Doctor Sheppard, Malcolm recognizes this as an allusion to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, a novel in which the “narrator is the actual murderer” (65). At the end of the novel, Malcolm admits he might have gotten drunk and left the comment on his own blog. This is supported by the fact that he creates aliases for the Duckburg site, so probably created one to comment on his blog.

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