The Plot-Twisty Novel That Will Leave You Breathless (Plus 5 Other Page-Turners)

As in Patricia Highsmith's classic, Strangers on a Train—a mystery in which a chance encounter leads to a murder plot—Swanson opens this blood-soaked novel with a man and woman meeting at an airport bar. Over drinks, Ted confesses that he fantasizes about killing his unfaithful wife; when the two later board the plane, moving their seats to continue the conversation, Lily ups the ante: "Truthfully, I don't think murder is necessarily as bad as people make it out to be. Everyone dies. What difference does it make if a few bad apples get pushed along a little sooner than God intended?" By the time they land, they are seriously making plans—and then things get really twisted. Lily's past is sinister (people who cross her don't live long) and Ted's wife turns out to be far more scheming than your garden-variety cheater. Every time you think you know where this murderously clever story is heading, you'll be—you guessed it—dead wrong.