Nightlines: The First Alo Nudger Mystery (Alo Nudger Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

John Lutz (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: I Books (October 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743497899
• ISBN-13: 978-0743497893
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,439,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Lutz's work includes political suspense, private eye novels, urban suspense, humor, occult, crime caper, police procedural, espionage, historical, futuristic, amateur detective...virtually every mystery sub-genre. He is the author of more than forty-five novels and 250 short stories and articles. His novels and short fiction have been translated into virtually every language and adapted for almost every medium. He is a past president of both Mystery Writers of America and Private Eye Writers of America. Among his awards are the MWA Edgar, the PWA Shamus, The Trophee 813 Award for best mystery short story collection translated into the French language, the PWA Life Achievement Award, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Golden Derringer Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the author of two private eye series, the Nudger series, set in his home town of St. Louis, and the Carver series, set in Florida, as well as many non-series suspense novels. His SWF SEEKS SAME was made into the hit movie SINGLE WHITE FEMALE, starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and his THE EX was made into the HBO original movie of the same title, for which he co-authored the screenplay.
When Lutz isn't writing, he's reading, following baseball, dining out with friends, or going to movies. He's a serious movie buff.
Lutz and his wife, Barbara, split their time between St. Louis and Sarasota, Florida. His latest book is the suspense novel, SERIAL.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine and humane private eye yarn, October 15, 2007

By 

F. J. Harvey "Cricket ,country music and a go... (Birmingham England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nightlines: The First Alo Nudger Mystery (Alo Nudger Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Aldo Nudger must be the least healthy private eye in the history of the crime novel-delicate of stomach ,frail of constitution etc.This does not diminish the enjoyment of the series however ,unless you insist on the type of hero who can down copious amounts of booze ,wolf down a burger while on stakeout and live a generally unhealthy lifetsyle without detriment to his overall physical wellbeing
Here the St Louis based 'tec is hired by the wealthy Jeanette Boyington whose sister Jenine has recently been murdered.Jeanette believes the killer is still loose ,not a view endorsed by the local police,and she engages Nudger to look into the case .They come round to her and Nudger's way of thinking as other victims turn up ,killed in the same way as Jenine .The killer makes contact with his victims using the eponymous nightlines -they are used in the day as testlines but become chatlines in the nocturnal hours ,used by the lost and lonely to make contacts and set up meetings .
Jeanette proposes uising herself as bait -posing as a potential date/victim while Nudger trails them .The investigation is further complicated by the hostility of Jeanette's mother ,the fierce matriarchalAgnes who tries to dissuade him from remaining on the case and is not averse to sending in a brutish thug named Hugo Rumbo to "persuade"him to do so .Add his emotional involvement with a damaged and suicidal woman Claudio ,who is trying to get her life back on track ,and aldo has got his hands full .
The climax is tense and gripping as Jeanette spirals out of control and there is a blood drenched climax at her apartment as she confronts the suspected killer.There is a deft twist ending which I will not divulge .

I regret the end of the series in recent years as Aldo is a fine creation and the series always displyed a great degree of warmth and compassion without descending into sentimentality.

The book is tense and well plotted and recommended unreservedly to lovers of the crime novel in its "medium boiled" mode

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars John Lutz and Alo Nudger, July 8, 2007

By 

James W. Charlton "Windsorwiley" (Windsor, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nightlines: The First Alo Nudger Mystery (Alo Nudger Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm sorry that John Lutz got tired of Alo as a protagonist. His later novels are in a different vein of Mystery/Suspense and not quite as entertaining to me. Albeit, Lutz is still one helleva good writer!