Kill Your Darlings

LoveReading Says

Kill Your Darlings is a sharp and psychologically charged domestic thriller that asks: what if the person closest to you used your darkest secrets as inspiration for a murder novel?

Starting at the end and ending at the beginning we uncover the years chapter by chapter. Set in Goose Neck in New Essex, the story begins with a seemingly innocent dinner party, which results in the first time Wendy considers killing her husband. After decades of slow marital decay, Wendy and Thom are shadows of the couple who first kissed in Georgetown 40 years ago. 

Then Thom announces he’s writing a book. A novel about a murder. When she goes digging, Wendy instantly recognises the plot. It’s their story. The past they vowed to bury. The sin they swore never to share. Now, she’s furious. 

Swanson masterfully draws a portrait of a long marriage rotting from the inside. Wendy starts to dream of escape. What it would be like if she was free to do what she wants: eat more fish, the house to herself, remote control freedom, find a better man, or no man at all. The bad dreams. The black moods. The affairs. The drinking. Loathing simmers beneath the surface. 

Laced with Swanson’s signature wit and layered with emotional complexity, Kill Your Darlings is a slow-burning thriller full of psychological nuance and moral ambiguity. It’s a cracker of a page-turner and I couldn’t put it down.

With a washed-up detective, a vengeful wife, and a husband who may finally be getting what he deserves, this is a novel about guilt, punishment, and how far someone will go to finally feel free.

A must-read for fans of domestic noir, psychological thrillers, and anyone who’s ever fantasised about revenge. And then plotted it. Juicily dark and deliciously satisfying. 

Deborah Maclaren

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