Nine Lives: 'I loved this.' Ann Cleeves

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Nine names. Nine random people receive a sheet of paper - a list with just nine names on it - nothing else, no clue as to what the list signifies. None of the nine know the other names on the list, some throw it in the trash, others just dismiss it as some kind of joke. Nine strangers receive a list with their names on it in the mail. Nothing else, just a list of names on a single sheet of paper. None of the nine people know or have ever met the others on the list. They dismiss it as junk mail, a fluke—until very, very bad things begin happening to people on the list. Thank you so much to Peter Swanson, William Morrow, and NetGalley for my electronic copy publishing on March 15, 2022. The envelope drops through the mail slot like any other piece of post. But for the nine complete strangers who receive it - each of them recognising just one name, their own, on the enclosed list - it will be the most life altering letter they ever receive. It could also be the last, as one by one, they start to meet their end. I feel like Peter Swanson really outdid himself with this one. It's thoroughly entertaining and a marvelous homage to one of the most famous mysteries of all time.

Pacing kept up and there didn’t seem like too much downtime to drag. The action started off the bat and stayed that way.The book even mimics Christie's style. It's pretty common for her to introduce all her characters in one go while providing a list at the beginning for easy reference. And so we have the same here. I found it useful reading a physical copy of the book and being able to flip to the character list whenever I needed it. If you're reading an ebook, I recommend taking a snapshot of the character list or just copying it out beforehand. It'll make for a much more pleasant reading experience.

One of the named people who received the list is FBI agent Jessica Winslow, who has a distinctly bad feeling about it, and she begins a search trying to identify the others, trying to find some connection, some common thread, no matter how tenuous, but she comes up with nothing. However, when one of the names meets an untimely death, Jessica realises that the bad feeling she had, has been confirmed. As a couple more deaths follow, the hunt is on to find a killer, but with nothing to go on, no connection, no motive, it’s looking increasingly impossible!

Sam continues to work the case locally-he cannot help but notice the similarities between this case and the Classic Agatha Christie novel, “And, then there were None”. Ten strangers, who have never met, brought together because they have all been targeted for death. The reason behind the letter and the killings was so anticlimactic. Unless I missed some details that flew by my head due to struggling to concentrate, you can’t figure out who or why because the information is simply withheld (so I’d be interested to know if anyone actually figured it out! If so, you are a wizard!). Also, the reason wasn't explored or fleshed out whatsoever, I was simply told why rather than shown and slowly build up to it.