The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson
This suspenseful novel had me caught up in the story, about a seemingly random encounter that has far-reaching consequences. The jacket says it is a modern reimagining of Patricia Highsmith's classic Strangers on a Train, a book that I haven't read.
It begins at Heathrow, where Ted Severson, a wealthy businessman, is waiting in a bar for his plane to leave. Arriving to sit next to him is Lily Kintner, a woman travelling back to her home in the U.S. after visiting her elderly father. They begin talking, and continue the conversation on the plane, the sort of conversation one occasionally has with someone that you don't expect to meet again. The two only know each other's first name, but they share things that they haven't shared with other people.
Ted talks about the recent discovery that his wife was cheating on him. and how he isn't sure what to do next, joking that he feels the urge to kill her for her betrayal. When Lily offers to help, the conversation takes a previous turn.
Back home in the Boston area, the two meet again, and talk about possibilities. Ted is intrigued by Lily, and her beauty and intelligence, quite different from that of his wife. Ted's wife Miranda has been the primary contact for a new house they are building on the coast, in a spot they discovered on a romantic holiday. She's been staying in a hotel near the building site, and has been very involved in the building process, and with their general contractor. Ted, as he considers the possibilities in his future, is having thoughts about other, more traditional, responses to his marital issues.
Lily, however, has a darker past than first seen, and as we gradually learn her story, we see a pattern of behaviour that is disturbing.
There were many surprises along the way in this novel, and my sympathies changed a few times over the course of the book.
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