John Lutz (1939–2021)

The only reason to read this is if, like me, you were curious about the source material for the 1992 movie and interested in what makes adaptations work. In this case, the answer to "what makes adaptations work" is "making any effort at all" because Don Roos clearly knew a few things about screenwriting and thought about how to build character and suspense, whereas this book reads as if Lutz just thought of the basic premise, wrote down the premise, and then wrote a few scenes of the villain show more being evil and the protagonist thinking about how New York is a tough place to live, and called it a day. The prose is always on the verge of coming off as a deliberate parody, like if Garth Marenghi tried to do a non-supernatural thriller, but it's not really as enjoyable as that and mostly comes off as Dan Brown if Brown had never read even one fake history book. Bad writing doesn't necessarily make me mad, but it does make me mad when the writer devotes more energy and space to filler material about apartments than to very basic questions like "this person we just met who is going to be the villain, what does she even seem like?" Seriously, in place of the movie's montage of potential roommates followed by Hedy finally showing up and being shy and giving our hero a sympathetic ear, the book almost literally just says "She interviewed some roommates, and eventually she picked someone named Hedy" with no description at all, and then about two pages later Hedy is doing super obvious evil things and is never nice or interesting or ambiguous in any way. The protagonist barely registers as a presence, and totally disappears from the book for quite a while near the end until she shows up again and we're just told in a few sentences about how she got out of the problem. About the best I can say for it is that Lutz doesn't try to actually show us the violence in the main murder scene, because even though the book really could have used more violence or more of something, I don't think that would have gone well. show less

I can summarize Slaughter very simply - All guts (literally) and no glory. Overall, this is just a mishmash of diabolical killings loosely strung together for no other reason than shock value. Add to that the fact you have so many killings, a killer with obvious deformities/idiosyncrasies, Quinn's group that does no more than mark time and the increasing complexity of the crimes and you loose any semblance of believability. And don't even get me started on the ending which is so grossly over show more the top, over complicated and over blown that it's comical. I've read all of the Quinn books to date and have enjoyed most but this will definitely be the last. show less

This is a very impressive story of a man on the run. At the start of his run, he picks up a $10 a night hooker who proves to be an equally interesting character. Unlike the criminal, the girl, Ellie, knows and accepts what she is. The man, Lou Roebuck, is a serial liar, who has largely invented a heroic past for himself. He spins lies off the top of his head with hardly any effort at all. As the couple travel west, trying to escape the law, we see, however, that it is Ellie who is really show more stronger. Nevertheless, we see that Lou is a complex character through his actions as he and Ellie encounter people who help or hinder them along the way. The most interesting of these is a corrupt county sheriff. As the book races to its conclusion, we find out more about what has made Lou the way he is. His increasing paranoia toward the end of the book seems a bit abrupt, and the ending may leave you a bit less than satisfied, but the fascinating relationship between Lou and Ellie and the memorable story of their cross-country journey will stay with you for a long time. This is a book filled with great scenes and characters that rises well above the usual genre restrictions. It is the first book I have read by John Lutz, but it will not be the last. show less

This is the first novel that I’ve read by John Lutz but it definitely won’t be the last! It’s a psychological thriller that I could only compare to authors such as Gillian Flynn (“Dark Places”), Thomas Harris (“The Silence of the Lambs”), Lisa Gardner (“Touch & Go”). Retired police captain and ex-homicide cop Frank Quinn and his PI team are special consultants to the NYPD hunting serial killers. The serial killer to catch is Daniel Danielle and the descriptions of his show more victims seem to become tougher to read as the victim count continues to mount.

The novel is definitely not for the faint of heart or to quote Harlan Cohen, “John Lutz knows how to make you shiver.” It’s edge-of-your-seat suspenseful reading and in turning the pages you might begin to hear every inaudible tone and noise in the house as nerve-endings are alert and adrenaline is pumping on all cylinders.

I’ll definitely catch up with Frank Quinn and his team again but it will be a while as it’s definitely haunting reading about the ‘darker side’ of life. show less