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Kill Your Darlings: A Reverse Murder Mystery Unraveling a Marriage's Dark Secrets, Twisted Vengeance, and a Deadly Pact in New England

“A dazzlingly clever murder mystery, told backwards, asking the question: why would this loving wife murder her husband?”—Gillian McAllister, New York Times bestselling author of Famous Last Words and Wrong Place Wrong Time

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing and Eight Perfect Murders comes an inventive, utterly propulsive murder-mystery in reverse, tracing a marriage back in time to uncover the dark secret at its heart.

Thom and Wendy Graves have been married for over twenty-five years. They live in a beautiful Victorian on the north shore of Massachusetts. Wendy is a published poet and Thom teaches English literature at a nearby university. Their son, Jason, is all grown up. All is well…except that Wendy wants to murder her husband.

What happens next has everything to do with what happened before. The story of Wendy and Thom’s marriage is told in reverse, moving backward through time to witness key moments from the couple’s lives—their fiftieth birthday party, buying their home, Jason’s birth, the mysterious death of a work colleague—all painting a portrait of a marriage defined by a single terrible act they plotted together many years ago.

Eventually we learn the details of what Thom and Wendy did in their early twenties, a secret that has kept them bound together through the length of their marriage. But its power over them is fraying, and each of them begins to wonder if they would be better off making sure their spouse carries their secrets to the grave.

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Published Jun 10, 2025

288 pages

Average rating: 6

9 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Andrea-The Shelf Life Books
Jul 03, 2025
8/10 stars
Thom, an English literature teacher in his mid-fifties, struggles with alcoholism and aspirations of writing a bestseller. His wife Wendy is a published poet who inherited wealth from her first husband. She does not partake in vices and dislikes the changes she sees in Thom. Recently, Wendy attempted to remove Thom from her life but was unsuccessful. Their relationship raises several questions: Why does Wendy want to end their marriage? Why is Thom heavily drinking? They were once childhood sweethearts. What led to their current situation? The book gradually reveals the answers, starting from their early years. Interestingly, readers will only understand their story by reading the last chapter, which details how they first met.

I loved the reverse storytelling, making it a real page-turner. Some readers may need patience with the narrative, but it is truly worth it in the end.

My thanks to William Morrow Publishing, The Author, Peter Swanson, as well as NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review an early copy of Kill Your Darlings.

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