Eight Perfect Murders

Eight Perfect Murders describes the plots of the mystery books with supposedly undetectable crimes that Malcolm lists on the Old Devils Bookstore blog. Other novels are also discussed in varying degrees of detail. One important author in Swanson’s novel, and in the genre of mystery generally, is Agatha Christie. Her novel The A.B.C. Murders is the model for the first murder that FBI Agent Mulvey discusses with Malcolm. The last book Malcolm reads before dying by suicide is And Then There Were None, also by Christie. Christie is a popular mystery author from the early 1900s whose work has been performed in theaters, as well as adapted for movies and television. Much of her extensive oeuvre features the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, who has been portrayed by actors such as Kenneth Branagh, David Suchet, and John Malkovich. The latter acted in a 2018 miniseries of The A.B.C. Murders, which can offer context for Swanson’s novel. Malcolm also rereads and considers Christie’s Murder of Roger Ackroyd before his death.

The history of the mystery genre can be traced to “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe, published in the mid-1800s. His detective, C. Auguste Dupin, influenced the creation of the most famous literary detectives, Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, who was created by Arthur Conan Doyle. Poe’s story has been adapted for films, television, and even a video game. Sherlock has also had many adaptations in various forms of media, including being portrayed by Robert Downey, Jr., Benedict Cumberbatch, and Jonny Lee Miller. Eight Perfect Murders includes other mystery novels that have been adapted into films, such as Double Indemnity, which is discussed at length in Swanson’s book. Another book that has been made into a film, but is not described extensively by Swanson, is Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca, adapted by Alfred Hitchcock. Swanson’s unreliable narrator, Malcolm, mentions how the narrator of Rebecca “never even gave the readers her name” (81). Her love story—loving the man who murdered Rebecca de Winter—alludes to Malcolm murdering his wife.

The frequent adaptation of mystery novels into films speaks to their accessibility. The genre of mystery is sometimes considered to be both lowbrow and highbrow—both literary and accessible. Malcolm stops reading mystery novels after becoming a killer but never develops a love for reading literary fiction. He does frequently read poetry, specifically poets Sylvia Plath, Philip Larkin, and Ted Hughes. At one point, Malcolm quotes Anne Sexton: “A line of poetry went through my mind—someone is dead, even the trees know it” (184). Malcolm believes that poets and mystery writers are similar artists and are unlike the authors of literary fiction. Poets also frequently write memoirs and other works of creative nonfiction, such as poet Audre Lorde authoring Zami, a biomythography, or memoir. Malcolm claims he is writing a memoir and addresses the reader directly at various points in Eight Perfect Murders.