Customer Reviews

In for the Kill

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The city is frantic, especially the women as the Butcher dismembers females limb by limb and stacks each of them into eerie pyramids in their bathtubs. He is extremely precise with his human Lego's, but never leaves behind a forensic trace of any sort.

NYPD Deputy Chief Harley Renz knows he needs his best serial killer specialist to lead the inquiry; however the department's top gun is retired. Still Harley asks former NYPD homicide detective Frank Quinn to return to the field to stop The Butcher from killing anymore women. Police Officer Pearl Kasner, Frank's former girlfriend, is assigned to work with him. However, Frank is immediately stunned when he realizes the first letter of the surname of the five victims spell the proper noun Quinn.

John Lutz provides an exhilarating tense thriller using the old standby High Noon premise of a retired police detective in a cat and mouse struggle against a diabolical clever grandmaster killer. The cast is fully developed especially the hero, but it is the serial killer who methodically steals the story line. Readers will enjoy this chess game between two intelligent opponents with the falling pawns being women of the city while Frank's endangered queen might be his partner or perhaps his visiting daughter.

Harriet Klausner

Read the book in only a couple of sittings. Very compelling read, a real pageturner. Highly recommended and I look forward to reading the rest of Lutz's work.

A couple problems with this book though.

1) The whole back story of the serial killer is unbelievable.
2) The Pearl character is completely witless. I don't know how things work in the police world, but in my world if a detective has an affair during a case with the prime suspect and/or witness, she never works again. I saw Quinn's daughter as a target a mile before Pearl should have. Pearl never did, and only a dimwit wouldn't have thought of it.
3) It was never explained why the serial killer had a thing for Quinn. Maybe i just missed it. (I skipped a lot of the father-daughter interaction stuff.)
4) The evil mother, whom the police suspect is a little off, asks for a shotgun and they supply it without question, without discussion. A true rolling of the eyes moment.
5) Given the boys' background, who their mother and fathers were, the chances of them having these genius level IQs is about 0. Gimme a break. They grew up in a swamp, killing transients for a living.

There is quite a lot of stuff like this is the book. but it's a fun read, just don't think too deeply about it.

He was called The Butcher. He drowned his victims and then dismembered them. He was brilliant and had grown up dirt poor near the swamps in Florida. Subsequently he moved to New York His mother had taken in older boarders. They disappeared. Their body parts tossed into the swamp as alligator feed. His mother was his teacher. He ran away at age nine or ten. But the psychological damage had been done. Unknown to him his murdering mother conceived another child. A brother. Frank Quinn a retired detective was brought back to bring down the serial killer. Quinn reassembled his former team, both retired, consisting of his former live in girl friend Pearl Kasner and Larry "Feds" Fedderman. The story evolves as the murders continue. The mother and brother read about the killings and come to New York. Detective Quinn decides to use the mother as bait to reel in the killer. An interesting twist to the story is that the brother consumates a brief affair with Kasner and the killer begins to target Quinn's daughter Lauri who had come to New York to find herself. Other reviewers have suggested the story to be bordering on the unreal. Actually, I found it be an excellent page turner that did seem realistic albeit though there were a few parts that pushed the limit.

This was my first book by this author. Whew! Tense and exciting. I will have to go back and read his others.

As usual,John Lutz has his readers on the edge of their seat. Wonderful, fast read.

November has arrived and once again suspense reigns as a new John Lutz thriller hits the bookstores. In "In for the Kill", Lutz has created a serial killer who presents us with a fascinating psychological profile--and a new twist on mother/son relationships. Frank Quinn is back with his compadres, Pearl and Fedderman, and they are better than ever. Quinn must deal with a personal challenge from this psychopath, plus handle feelings and concerns about Pearl and his daughter Lauri who has returned from California. Lauri and her friend Wormy provide us with a plot layer which adds a level of humanity and humor which gives us a foil for the intensity of the macabre killings. Read this book--preferably not before bed--it could interfere with your sleep.
Lutz remains a master of the serial killer/thriller genre.

I truly enjoyed the first novel by Lutz so I quickly ordered 3 more and then 3 more. By the time I got the first 3 and read 2 of them, it was too late to cancel the other order. His books are boringly repetitious. My suggestion: Read 2 and then forget the rest. They are all gruesomely, repetitiously alike.

too much like 1993s "The Night Spider"
while Lutz is good at times lately it appears he's running out of ideas

someone that reads alot came to work one day and said they have the last two pages to read and can not wait to get to it. she said this was one of the best books she has read lately , so or course i couldnt wait to read it . i enjoyed the story line , i liked the characters and i didnt find myself skipping over alot of usless information , like so many other books. it was similar to the dexter story with the body dismemberment thing , so i kind of was more able to visualize it sinced im obsessed with dexter. i just wish the end was different , i do not want to give the story away to who ever reads this so i wont say much . i just wish the reason for the killings was clear to everyone else at the end .

The second in the Frank Quinn series, IN FOR THE KILL delivers. Retired detective, Captain Frank Quinn, is called back tio service again by Harley Renz to capture the "Butcher." This guy will be one of the worst killers you have read about! Good story. Quiin has his team back out of retirement too, Pearl and Feds are as good as ever and in this one, Quinn's daughter even gets into the action. Series Recommended and this book.