Review: "In for the Kill" by John Lutz
There was a time not so long ago when serial
killer police procedurals were everywhere. From film to television to fiction. Perhaps
it began with the success of the film, The Silence of the Lambs (1991), inspired
by Thomas Harris’s novel, and continued with James Patterson’s early Alex Cross
bestsellers—Along Came a Spider, Kiss the Girls, etc. Whenever
and whyever the serial killer craze began, one of its best practitioners was
John Lutz.
Lutz’s
first serial killer romp, Final Seconds with David August, arrived in
1998 and over the following 17 years he wrote another 15 slash and burn procedurals
about detectives chasing demented killers through labyrinthine urban
landscapes. Lutz’s thrillers resemble Lawrence Sanders’s Deadly Sins
books more than Thomas Harris’s Hanibal Lector and those titles I’ve read have made
a standard plot new with a dash of nuance, sprinkle of humor, and a wheel-barrel
full of tension.
His
2007 novel, In for the Kill, the second (of ten) Frank Quinn outings, is
a wonderful example of Lutz’s serial killer thrillers. Like all his others, it
was published as a paperback original by Pinnacle. Quinn is a rough-edged, at
times brutal and others charming, retired NYPD detective with a knack for
catching killers. When a new killer dubbed “The Butcher” begins working New
York City—he prefers attractive brunettes, downing them, draining their blood,
and dismembering them before stacking them neatly in the pristine bathtub where
they died—Quinn is brought in by his old boss, Deputy Chief Harley Renz, to find
the killer.
Quinn
in turn gets his old pals Detective Fedderman and Officer Pearl Kasner, an
attractive brunette Quinn had a relationship with and he is still harboring
feelings for, onto his team and soon realizes The Butcher is playing games with
him. The first letter of the first five victims’ last names spell: Q-U-I-N-N. What
Quinn doesn’t know is his relationship with the killer will burn closer to home
than he wants.
In
for the Kill is
a brilliant guilty pleasure with non-stop pacing and a flash-bang climax. The
interplay between serial killer and detective could be silly, but Lutz’s smooth
style and his skill at ratcheting tension—without ever going splatterpunk gory—allows
the reader little time (or desire) to question the story. The detectives’ relationships,
including Harley Renz, provides low-key and much needed humor to an otherwise
bleak tale. If you like this kind of fiction, In for the Kill is about
as good as you will find.
Click here for the Kindle edition at Amazon.
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