John Lutz (1939–2021)

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

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

The amount of filler in this novel was disappointing. Lutz is an adept enough writer, but he chooses to toss in endless points-of-view (most of them ultimately pointless, since it's obvious when a woman is going to get killed off) and a ho-hum backstory about the serial killer.

The good guys, the folks we should root for, are...drab. Quinn is your typical grizzled cop. Pearl is the quick-tempered, buxom love interest. Feds is the rumpled cop. Renz is the PR-conscious boss. None of them did show more much of interest. Pearl has the most interesting story – or I should say the most titillating. Her actions are unprofessional and mystifying, and the fact that she gets off with a slap on the wrist boggles the mind.

The serial killer is just another serial killer. His murders are shockingly gruesome, which does raise the stakes, but there isn't much to distinguish him from a host of other fictional killers. His flashback sections drag on and on, for reasons I can't ascertain. His grievances with his mother could've been explained in a few chapters of him reminiscing instead of transporting us back in time for pages and pages.

Again, I question why Lutz used so many female victim POVs, and why he has Team Quinn trot off to basically identical crime scenes over and over. I don't need to read Nift, the medical examiner, explaining how this crime scene is the same as the last one – just like he explained how the last one was the same as the one before that.

The police work (if you want to call it that) isn't exactly top-tier. Team Quinn interviews people, then waits until they're called to the next murder scene. The climax only happens because the cops forget fairly obvious points regarding building construction, and because one of the cops doesn't think it's necessary to inform Quinn that his own daughter is in the same hotel as the “Mom bait” operation. I realize this is fiction, but please, don't run completely off the rails.

This novel is able to keep a three-star rating mainly because Lutz is a technically sound writer. Most of the descriptions are outstanding, and most of the observations and social commentary are spot-on. I just wish the story was better structured, and that the “WTF” moments were culled. 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