Beware the dark-hearted devotee of lists

No secret: I love a mystery.

The detective story, to be effective, requires atmosphere and surprise. Also, creative villainy. Very satisfying.

Author Agatha Christie (18901976) was — and remains, even in death — the dark angel of misdirection, the mistress of surprise in all matters murderous.

Gone, but by no means forgotten, she has departed from this life, but her canny storytelling endures. Her wily work remains a presence in bookstores and libraries all over the world.

Now, make way for “Eight Perfect Murders,” a novel by Peter

Swanson (William Morrow, 291 pp., $29.99). In an interview for the Los Angeles Public Library blog, Swanson confided, “my inspiration truly was my love of reading. And specifically, my love of crime fiction. The idea for ‘Eight Perfect Murders’ came to me as I was mentally cataloging some of my favorite murders from books I’ve read. I imagined a fictional character compiling this same list, then imagined another fictional character using that list to commit actual crimes. And that was how the book was born.”

Main character Malcolm Kershaw owns the Old Devils Bookstore on Bury Street in Beacon Hill in Boston. It’s a good headquarters for a reader who once wrote a blog list of a cavalcade of crime mysteries that served up eight unsolvable mysteries. On this list of Kershaw’s favorite eight mystery authors are Agatha Christie, Patricia Hightower and John D. MacDonald.

The blog list seemed like a good idea at the time, before the FBI showed up.

Later, FBI agent Gwen phones Kershaw after looking into yet another death to tell the bookseller, “I spoke with the police detective who was attending the scene, and she told me that the house was absolutely packed with books.”

Always a dangerous sign. In sheer firepower, Dame Agatha still rules. But Swanson has enduring surprises of his own that provide not only the sly energy of street prose but also the dark, twisted world of murder most foul.

The wrapper of the book taunts, “How do you get away with murder? Make it look impossible.”

Bookstore owner Kershaw: “There have been many nights in the past few years when I don’t know what is real and what is a dream.” (Just don’t go on the overpass with him.)

Kershaw again: “For my last book, I am reading ‘And Then There Were None.’” He professes the Agatha Christie novel is pretty much his favorite book. And “appropriate for the circumstances.”

Amid the chaos, villainy rules: “Maybe they’re wondering if it was suicide after all.” So easy.

Meanwhile, sleep well. But leave a light on, even if you do.

So what becomes of Kershaw? I won’t tell you, but it’s worth the reading.