Peter Swanson Books

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Peter Swanson is an American author that writes crime fiction. A graduate of Trinity College, he has a wife and a cat. His books are not written with any particular gender in mind. He enjoys telling stories that will keep people up at night reading, possibly even scaring them.

His mysteries are the result of the years he spent reading crime fiction. He enjoys the works of Kingsley Amis, Ruth Franklin, Ira Levin, PD James and the like. Despite spending so much of his time around books, the author keeps an eye on politics.

Dangerous political movements around the world have always worried him, not to mention the destruction of the environment. While he enjoys writing and thinks fondly of the hours he spends at his desk listening to film soundtracks as he translates his ideas into sentences, the notion of owning and managing a used mystery bookstore excites him.

In fact, it is the one thing he would spend the rest of his life doing if he could not write. This won’t come as a surprise to the people that know him. After all, Swanson spent years working in bookstores. He loved every second he spent selling books. It also gave him an excuse to read.

Writing entered the picture much later than he would have liked. He was already in his 30s when he finally decided to pen his first novel. And he was over 40 when he landed an agent. This was after receiving several rejections.

The author persevered because he loved to write and that passion encouraged him to keep at it. This is the one piece of advice he gives to aspiring novelists. He is convinced that anyone who spends enough time doing something will eventually become good at it.

If aspiring authors refuse to surrender, their hard work will bear fruit. Swanson is living proof of this philosophy. A former student at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) and Emerson College, Swanson eventually became a fulltime writer that publishes stories set in New England where he grew up and studied.

He spends his mornings writing and his afternoons taking long walks to places. These walks are not leisurely. They afford him the opportunity to brainstorm, developing new ideas and crafting his characters and plots.

His reading habits enable him to keep his stories fresh. Even though the writer produces crime fiction, he reads novels from a variety of genres. He has compared his stories to the works of Hitchcock.

The author was quite young when he came across books like ‘Coma’ and ‘Jaws’ and realized that he enjoyed darker stories. He also writes poetry.

Peter Swanson Awards

The author was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and CWA Ian Flemming Steel Dagger Award. He won the New England Society Book Award.

Best Peter Swanson Books

Swanson enjoys writing about ordinary people that unexpectedly stumble into criminal activities, with some of the best books in his bibliography including:

The Kind Worth Killing: Ted was not searching for a connection. It was by mere chance on his flight from London to Boston that he met the stunning Lily. After a few drinks, the pair started divulging their deepest darkest secrets to one another, with Ted revealing that his marriage was stale and his wife was probably cheating on him.

Ted wasn’t serious when he said he wanted to kill Miranda. He was just venting. But Lily did the absurd. She offered to help him commit the murder. Ted doesn’t know it yet but there is more to Lily than meets the eye.

Before She Knew Him: Henrietta was bipolar but she had finally discovered the right medicine for her condition. Once she migrated to a new house with her husband Lloyd, the illustrator was certain that she had found the stability she always sought.

But then the couple met the new neighbors and everything changed for the worse. It all began when Henrietta saw a sports trophy that reminded her of a young man that was killed two years earlier. A similar trophy had gone missing from his home.

Any other person might have glossed over this detail. But Henrietta couldn’t ignore it because she’s always had a fascination with murder. Now that fascination is becoming an obsession.

When Does The Next Peter Swanson book come out?

The next book by Peter Swanson is Kill Your Darlings and will be released on June, 10th 2025.

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