Customer Reviews

The Night Spider

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The serial killer murdered his third high rise victim with the same MO of tying up his prey with sheets so tight they dig into the skin before he stabs her thirty-six to thirty-seven times. The wrappings are so tight that little blood seeps to the floor in spite of the multiple stabbings. NYPD Detective Paula Ramboquette is assigned lead as her senior partner Roy Bickerstaff nears retirement. Still both are amazed at the crime scene as it appears a spiderman climbed up thirty floors on the side of a building before entering the apartment of Sally Bridge through a window.

Assistant Chief Roland Larkin worries that this case will need a special hand so he persuades disability retired former homicide captain Thomas Horn to lead the inquiries. He looks at the crime scenes especially the last one and shows that the killer did not go up, but came down the shorter distance from the roof. However, the Night Spider welcomes the challenge of Horn as he has no doubt that the retired cop or perhaps his wife will become his next victim.

THE NIGHT SPIDER is an exciting police procedural thriller that starts at an incredible pace and for the most part maintains the action until the end. The tale is incredibly gripping when the killer takes center stage during the novel. A subplot involving Thomas' personal relationships unnecessarily horns in on the prime cat and mouse scenario that makes the book worth reading. Sub-genre fans will be elated with John Lutz's strong Manhattan police procedural.

Harriet Klausner

THE NIGHT SPIDER is a tense and original novel. John Lutz draws the portrait of a serial killer with a penchant for enshrouding his female victims in their bedsheets, then stabs them and lets them bleed to death. He manages to get into their high rise apartments without being detected, and gets away too. Detective Thomas Horn is called out of an early retirement to assist NYPD in capturing this maniacal killer. He is assisted by Cajun Paula Ramboquette and almost retired Roy Brickstaff. Horn also has a lovely wife, Anne, head of the radiographic department at Kingdom Hospital, who is being sued over the anesthesia-induced coma of a four year old boy, whose parents John and Cindy Vine, are hellbent on making the hospital pay.
Lutz' characterizations are sharp and there are several twists in the intriguing plot. Two areas bothered me though: one--little is given to justify the hasty estrangement of Thomas and his wife; and there's a lot of scenes involving a sculptor that don't seem to have anything to do with the plot and could have been left out and the book would not have suffered in the least.
However, this is my first Lutz book and I enjoyed it enough to seek out others.

I thought this was a really good book, however there were a few things that kept it from being a great book. I thought the detectives were very believable, especially Thomas Horn. I'm confused (and I don't know if this is the fault of the author or his editor) because in a flashback on page 100 it is 1982 and the killer is seven yrs. old. Then in another on page 198 it is 1978 and the killer is 12 yrs. old. I couldn't figure out if we were dealing with two different people, maybe brothers, or what was going on. This kept me very confused and I kept waiting for more to be revealed to let me know if there were indeed two killers. There were two or three other points in the book where things just didn't make sense. It's a shame because otherwise this could have been a five star book in a league with (not to beat a dead horse) Silence of the Lambs. Hey Pinnacle Books, do you need a proofreader??

First book I've read by this author, and i'm very satisfied. Definately a writer to look out for.

This is the first time that I have read anything by Mr. Lutz and I was not let down in the least. This is really a page turning story that will keep you glued to the spot you park yourself until you read the very last sentence.

Mr. Lutz has managed to create very vivid and "stay with you" characters that are as unique and dynamic as the case that they are working. This is a multi-layered story but done in such a way that you will be drawn into it and find yourself wondering just how things will turn out for the various characters involved. Again if you're a fan of the suspense murder genre then add this author to your list of must read authors.

The first half of this book is fast paced and enjoyable.The characters are believable and the villian is mysterious and terrifying.But when the story is neatly and naturally resolved the author seems to have realised the book wasn't long enough,so he restarts the story in a different direction,has the main characters behave completely out of character in order to add a romantic angle and add a few action packed but completely unbelievable chapters in order to pad out the story.It was promising enough for me to check out another of his books,but I'm more than a little leery.

John Lutz is a master at surprise endings. You will think you know where this book is going. You will not know.

Minor inconsistencies annoyed throughout though. Anne, or Ann? Decide. Horn or Horne? Decide.

Alot of very very weird sentence structures that made me wonder if anyone proof read for fluidity. I am an AVID reader and read 2-4 books a week and there were several sentences in this book I had to read out loud several times to understand the meaning.

Why the sculptor in the garage? Man he wasted a ton of time with that guy. He was boring and a waste of space. He seemed important for like a paragraph when he went out through the hole in the wall under the AC. Then he wasn't.

The very ending was awesome, I just wish we could have had more details. It seemed hurried.

Over all I really enjoyed the book way more than I thought I would. I loved it, actually. The general rough draft feel of the book is the only reason I didn't rate it 5 stars. When I spend money on a book, no matter how much or how little, I expect a polished finished draft with no plot holes and an author who remembers whether or not he put an E on the end of his main character's names.

John Lutz weaves an intricate tale; taking us in twists and flashbacks that to me symbolize the jumbled confusion in the mind of a person that would be a serial killer. His narrative makes me want to double-check my doors windows and security system, and open my closets and peak under the beds.
I have read several of his books, and I think Mr. Lutz gets better with every new release. He seems to catch the essence of detective work, and often sneaks in some subtle humor in the process.

As the tag-line suggests--"All wrapped up and ready to die"--this thriller from suspense novelist John Lutz is about a killer who actually "wraps" up helpless women in their beds, violates them, and then kills them as they try to squirm out of their web of death.

Retired cop Thomas Horn is teamed with detectives Paula Ramboquette and Roy Bickerstaff to solve the case, but everywhere they turn they are befuddled by the clues. As the Night Spider kills more victims, Horn realizes that he is not dealing with a normal killing machine--but a military-trained expert who has the tools to claim any woman as his next victim--perhaps even Horn's wife.

The story is very fast-paced and enjoyable; however, the overall payoff is a little to be desired. Lutz is certainly coming into his own as an author, but what he needs to improve upon is his climax and resolution. Horn is a very believable character, but the novel really succeeds because of the strong, bold Ramboquette (excellent choice for the last name) and the chubby, sarcastic Bickerstaff. It is characters such as these that will allow Lutz to create even better novels in the future and perhaps become one of the better suspense writers over the next decade or so.

Lutz's work has never *really* impressed me, but I do enjoy his books when I don't have much else to do.

I thought The Night Spider was a decent read, at best. I found myself skimming quite a few sections, and I still can't figure out why he introduced us to the character in the garage.

I really liked Horn's character, and I loved what Lutz did with Marla's character, but I found that the other charaters lacked substance and personality.

A good book, but not great.