Book ~ "Nine Lives" (2022) Peter Swanson

From Goodreads ~ Nine strangers receive a list with their names on it in the mail. Nothing else, just a list of names on a single sheet of paper. None of the nine people know or have ever met the others on the list. They dismiss it as junk mail, a fluke - until very, very bad things begin happening to people on the list. First, a well-liked old man is drowned on a beach in the small town of Kennewick, Maine. Then, a father is shot in the back while running through his quiet neighborhood in suburban Massachusetts. A frightening pattern is emerging, but what do these nine people have in common? Their professions range from oncology nurse to aspiring actor.

FBI agent Jessica Winslow, who is on the list herself, is determined to find out. Could there be some dark secret that binds them all together? Or is this the work of a murderous madman? As the mysterious sender stalks these nine strangers, they find themselves constantly looking over their shoulders, wondering who will be crossed off next.

Nine people receive a list with their name on it. They include a busy suburban father in Massachusetts, an aspiring actor in California, a singer songwriter in Texas, an English professor in Michigan, a mistress of a rich old married man in New York, the owner of a worn down resort in Maine, a gay nurse in Massachusetts, a retired businessman in Connecticut, and an FBI agent in New York. What do all these people have in common and why are they on the list? The list starts getting smaller, though, as people are being murdered and it’s up to the police to find out why.

I liked this book. It seemed familiar to me but it’s new so I must have read something similar sometime over the years. It is written in third person perspective, depending on where the action is and who the focus is. We get to know these people before they are murdered. We find at out at the end what they had in common and why they were being killed. It’s a simple reason and the “whodunnit” was a bit of a twist and surprise but I was okay with that. As a head’s up, there is swearing.