Peter Swanson's novels include The Kind Worth Killing, winner of the New England Society Book Award, and finalist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger; Her Every Fear, an NPR book of the year; Before She Knew Him, and Eight Perfect Murders.
[My Book, The Movie: The Kind Worth Killing; The Page 69 Test: The Kind Worth Killing; Writers Read: Peter Swanson (February 2015)]
His new novel is The Kind Worth Saving.
At the Guardian Swanson tagged ten favorite criminal duos in fiction, including:
Killshot by Elmore Leonard (1989)Read about the other entries on the list.
There are numerous criminal partnerships in Leonard’s novels, probably because Leonard loved writing dialogue and it takes two to talk. He also loved writing less-than-brilliant criminals, especially ones with high opinions of themselves. Richie Nix is just such a character, a motormouth hitman tasked with killing a married couple in the witness protection programme. Richie’s partner is Blackbird, who is as calm as Richie is hyper. Their scenes together, especially their dialogue, propel this funny, scary book.
Killshot is among five of the dumbest of Elmore Leonard’s many, many dumb criminals.
--Marshal Zeringue
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