Content Warning: This section contains references to sexual assault, drug addiction, and death by suicide, in addition to descriptions of murders.

Malcolm Kershaw opens Old Devils Bookstore, which he owns, on a cold Boston day. He tells his employees to stay home, and he feeds the store cat. A regular customer, Margaret, comes in and buys a Ruth Rendell novel. Then, an FBI agent named Gwen Mulvey comes in to ask him some questions. They discuss a series of murders in which the victims all have bird names and compare it to Agatha Christie’s The A.B.C. Murders. Mulvey mentions another murder of a man named Bill Manso and tells Malcolm she’s here because of a blog post he wrote called “Eight Perfect Murders” (9) that’s on the store’s website.

Malcolm reflects on his work history in Boston bookstores after graduating from college. He started at Borders and then worked at Redline Bookstore. The owner of the latter, Mort Abrams, lost his wife to cancer and offered to sell the store to Malcolm. Malcolm turned him down and started working at Old Devil. His boss there, John Haley, asked him to start a blog for the bookstore. The list of perfect murders was Malcolm’s first post.