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The Kind Worth Saving

Henry Kimball #2 / 4
by Peter Swanson
The Kind Worth Saving (Henry Kimball #2) by Peter Swanson
not yet rated

In this spectacularly devious novel by New York Times bestselling author Peter Swanson—featuring the smart and complex Lily Kintner from his acclaimed novel, The Kind Worth Killing—a private eye starts to follow a possibly adulterous husband, but little does he know that the twisted trail will lead back to the woman who hired him.

There was always something slightly dangerous about Joan. So, when she turns up at private investigator Henry Kimball’s office asking him to investigate her husband, he can’t help feeling ill at ease. Just the sight of her stirs up a chilling memory: he knew Joan in his previous life as a high school English teacher, when he was at the center of a tragedy.

Now Joan needs his help in proving that her husband is cheating. But what should be a simple case of infidelity becomes much more complicated when Kimball finds two bodies in an uninhabited suburban home with a “for sale” sign out front. Suddenly it feels like the past is repeating itself, and Henry must go back to one of the worst days of his life to uncover the truth.

Is it possible that Joan knows something about that day, something she’s hidden all these years? Could there still be a killer out there, someone who believes they have gotten away with murder? Henry is determined to find out, but as he steps closer to the truth, a murderer is getting closer to him, and in this hair-raising game of cat and mouse only one of them will survive.

Also known as The Kind Worth Killing (Lily Kintner) Book 2.
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Updated 04/21/2025
Category: Thriller, Crime Fiction, Mystery
Release date: March 7, 2023

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Peter Swanson

Peter Swanson

It’s not every day a crime writer dares to peel back the tidy edges of the mystery genre, but Peter Swanson has made a career of doing just that—inviting readers into stories where the comfort of predictability is always just one twist away from unraveling. Known for psychological thrillers that relish in the sinister potential of the everyday, Swanson doesn't just craft plots—he toys with expectation, layering deceit, obsession, and dread into tales that feel disarmingly plausible.

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Before he was unsettling readers with novels like The Kind Worth Killing and Eight Perfect Murders, Swanson was a Massachusetts native who found his footing in poetry and short fiction. That early affinity for rhythm and brevity still lingers in his prose—tight, spare, and loaded with tension. His stories are often set in deceptively quiet New England settings, where suburban normalcy cracks to reveal something far darker underneath.

What sets Swanson apart in the crowded world of psychological suspense isn’t just his knack for plot twists—though readers know better than to trust anything at face value in his books. It’s his fascination with the psychology of murder, and the slippery moral territory that lies between justice and revenge. In The Kind Worth Killing, he invites readers into the minds of would-be killers and dares them to empathize. In Before She Knew Him, he examines obsession and complicity through an unsettlingly intimate lens.

A lifelong admirer of Alfred Hitchcock and Patricia Highsmith, Swanson brings a cinematic elegance to his storytelling. His thrillers are taut without being breathless, clever without showboating, and always driven by deeply flawed, often unreliable characters. That might be why his work has found fans around the globe—and why Eight Perfect Murders was chosen as a New York Times bestseller and earned widespread critical praise for its metafictional take on classic crime fiction.

Swanson’s writing journey is marked not by a desire to outsmart the reader, but by an interest in how we read stories, how we trust narrators, and how easily truth can be buried beneath well-constructed lies. It’s that subversion—not just of the whodunit, but of why we care in the first place—that keeps readers hooked, and perhaps, a little uneasy long after they’ve turned the final page.

Henry Kimball

Also known as Lily Kintner.

In the quiet spaces between guilt and justice, the Henry Kimball series lingers—watchful, patient, and unsettling. What begins as the story of a former English teacher turned reluctant detective gradually unfolds into something far darker and more introspective: a study in moral compromise, buried trauma, and the dangerous allure of understanding evil.

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Set in the shadowed corners of small-town New England, the series offers more than just neatly packaged mysteries. It probes the line between curiosity and complicity, asking what happens when the pursuit of truth becomes an obsession. Kimball is not your standard sleuth; he's haunted and quietly unraveling, drawn into cases that echo his own inner fractures. The tension builds not from action alone, but from the psychological dread that pulses beneath every interaction—characters who smile too easily, conversations that turn a shade too intimate, and pasts that refuse to stay buried.

Each book in the series tightens the noose a little more, with plots that twist not for spectacle but to reveal uncomfortable truths. Swanson’s signature style—clean, deliberate prose with an undercurrent of menace—gives the series its distinctive rhythm. There are no heroes here, just people trying, and failing, to escape the darker parts of themselves.

What makes these thrillers resonate isn’t just the clever plotting or slow-burn suspense. It’s the quiet way they hold a mirror up to human nature, asking the reader to sit with their own unease. If you’re drawn to psychological thrillers that leave you questioning every motive and suspecting every smile, this series offers a chilling, deeply satisfying descent.


Henry Kimball consists of three books — series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.

The Kind Worth Killing (Henry Kimball #1)
not yet rated
The Kind Worth Saving (Henry Kimball #2)
not yet rated
A Talent for Murder (Henry Kimball #3)
  ⧗ 8.00 / 1
Henry Kimball Book 4 (Henry Kimball #4)
  ⧗ 8.00 / 1


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