48 pages • 1 hour read
Peter SwansonEight Perfect Murders
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Snow
Content Warning: This section contains references to sexual assault, addiction, and death by suicide, in addition to descriptions of murders.
The symbol of snow runs throughout the novel, which is set in Boston during the winter. The very first line includes snow: “The front door opened, and I heard the stamp of the FBI agent’s feet on the doormat. It had just begun to snow, and the air that rushed into the store was heavy and brimming with energy” (1). Snow can be read to symbolize energy and/or a beginning, and different kinds of snow take on different meanings in the narrative. For example, Malcolm walks through “shin-high snow” (53) while thinking about Gwen asking him to call her by her first name. Malcolm hopes this is a sign that she doesn’t consider him a suspect, symbolically linking drifts of snow with hope. Another example is when Malcolm drives, drunk, to Brian’s house, knowing that Marty is attempting to kill the couple, it was “snowing harder than it had been all night” (230). The snow represents the struggle that Malcolm faces in getting to them. At the end of the novel, as he plans to die by suicide, Malcolm notices that “It is snowing outside” (270). This causes him to take the risk of lighting a fire, which could lead to him getting caught. Generally, the snow reflects Malcolm’s moods and thoughts, as well as sets the scene and tone of the novel. The snow shows how difficult it is for Malcolm to move through the world.
Birds
Birds are another symbol that appear multiple times throughout Swanson’s novel. Rather than use initials with the same letters, as in the A.B.C. Murders, Marty uses bird names because his intended victim is named Robin. He kills other people with bird names to hide who he is most interested in killing: the “other murders were cover” (200). Here, birds represent a scheme to avoid detection. To build upon this falsehood, Marty taunts the police by sending them bird feathers (121). Birds can also be connected to the previous symbol, snow. They appear together on the cover of Brian’s new mystery novel. It has a bird “lying on a snow-covered field. Presumably dead” (225). Tess gives Malcolm an advance copy of this book after trying, and failing, to seduce him, with Brian’s blessing. This can be connected to the bird murders, developing the theme of Reality and Fiction.
Books
Books are an important motif developing the theme of Reality and Fiction, as well as the theme of The Nature of Bookselling. Malcolm’s list of books on the bookstore blog inspires Marty to commit murders. When Gwen takes Malcolm to Elaine’s house, he sees that “All the books were there—all eight from my list—in order” (128) on Elaine’s bookshelf. These represent Malcolm’s labor, creating the list for his job, as well as turning their fictions into reality. Books also inspire Gwen to go into law enforcement. She tells Malcolm that Brian’s “Ellis Fitzgerald” novels (132) heavily influenced her. Books remain the backbone of the narrative, present not only in the bookstore, but, in the list, as a plot device driving the conflict in the novel.
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By Peter Swanson
