3.5 ⭐

After enjoying Peter Swanson's book The Kind Worth Killing (but admittedly never getting around to reading the 2nd book of the Lily Kinter series), I decided to pick A Talent for Murder as one of my Book of the Month selections. The premise sounded like the makings of a perfect thriller... Martha, a librarian finds a strange blood stain on her husband's shirt, and her curiosity morphs into suspicion after researching crimes in the cities her husband (a traveling salesman) has visited. Could she possibly be married to a serial killer? Feeling lost, Martha contacts an old college friend, Lily, and the two of them set forth to untangle the truth. What they discover, however, is far more perplexing and sinister than they could have imagined. ⁣
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I will forewarn you that it's hard to deep dive into my thoughts on this thriller without giving anything away, and since this is a spoiler-free zone, I'm keeping it purposefully vague. The first half of this book had me completely gripped, and I was sure I was holding a 5-star suspense in my hands. About halfway through, however, there was a twist - a really good and clever twist actually, but it kind of changed the trajectory of the book. After that point, I struggled to stay engaged and interested, and I also found that I was having to suspend disbelief just a little too much. I still enjoyed it overall, but it did fall a bit flat for me. ⁣