Nine Lives is a riff on the Agatha Christie concept behind And Then There Were None, a concept that has been heavily borrowed and copied in thriller books for the last couple of years. As much as I love Dame Agatha, that should really be the end of copying this particular book. The book is frequently referenced in Nine Lives, going so far as to call it by its original title and, in this audiobook, saying the N-word out loud, on multiple occasions. I know that Swanson never retreats from being provocative but this was unnecessary and I cringed upon hearing it.

In the novel, a type-written list of names is sent to a group of nine people with no other information or explanation. When people on the list begin dying under suspicious conditions, the FBI commences an investigation. There were a few twists and surprises in there, and I was moderately entertained, but by the time you reach the conclusion of the novel, the explanation is not really a surprise.

For those who have read/listened to this book, what did you think of the very end? Were you pleased or did you feel it detracted from the story? I would consider this to be a solid but not brilliant mystery, although I do not consider it a thriller.