‘Do You See What I See? by Peter Swanson

Published by Faber,
24 September 2026.  
ISBN: 978-0-571-39400-5 (HB)

Nicholas, a struggling author, receives a rather strange commission: he's asked to spend the festive season helping Marco, a rather more successful author, to complete his next book, with which he is himself struggling. In the absence of other Christmas plans, or indeed any plans at all beyond trying to survive, Nicholas accepts, and moves into Marco's beachfront home, which is as luxurious as his lifestyle.

 

On the face of it the commission is something of a sinecure. It's a convivial gathering, with several guests as well as Marco's wife, sister and grandmother. The only downside appears to be that Marco himself is obnoxious; everyone has a reason to dislike him, including his own family. So, when he is found dead, his throat cut with a weapon from his own collection, and another body is recovered from the icy ocean, the police have plenty of suspects.  

At the request of the investigating detective, Nicholas sets out to write his version of events – an account of the last few days, the relationships and interplay between the various people in the house, their behaviour and demeanour. An obvious culprit emerges, and the police are happy to declare the case closed. But there's a lot going on under the surface, and Nicholas himself knows a great deal more than he's telling... 

It's a measure of Peter Swanson's deft hand with a plot that the truth doesn't emerge until a year later – and   the last page, in fact the very last line of the book. He is equally adroit with characters: self-possessed Maeve, Marco's wife; uncommunicative Cat, his sister; sullen drunkard Billy, his childhood friend who is more loyal than he deserves; charitable James, whose story Marco stole and who is desperate to impress Maeve; resentful Ben, whose wife Eve flirts outrageously with Marco. Then there's Marco himself, loud, offensive, selfish, careless of people's feelings. Even minor players like the detective, Marco and Cat's elderly grandmother, and his and Nicholas's agent have distinct personalities. 

The only person who doesn't emerge fully rounded is Nicholas himself, the narrator and storyteller, and even he has a past, and a trait or two, which make it plain why he is rather less successful than Marco. 

It's a short book, hardly more than a novella, but it contains more twists and turns than many twice its length. It had me hooked from the first page to the last; just when I thought I had it sussed, it threw another curve ball. Not a comfortable Christmas read – but then who reads a murder mystery for comfort?
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick 

Peter Swanson is the author of two novels, The Girl with a Clock for a Heart, and The Kind Worth Killing, available from William Morrow in the United States and Faber & Faber in the United Kingdom. His poems, stories and reviews have appeared in such journals as The Atlantic, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Epoch, Measure, Notre Dame Review, Soundings East, and The Vocabula Review. He has won awards in poetry from The Lyric and Yankee Magazine, and is currently completing a sonnet sequence on all 53 of Alfred Hitchcock’s films. He lives with his wife and cat in Somerville, Massachusetts. 

http://www.peter-swanson.com  

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.