The Iceman

The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer

By: Anthony Bruno

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

At home, Richard Kuklinski was a dedicated suburban family man; on the street, he was the Iceman, a professional hit man and lethal scam artist, a man so heartless he kept one of his victims frozen for over two years to disguise the time of death. His personal body count was over 100, but the police couldn’t touch him. Then undercover agent Dominick Polifrone posed as a mobster and began a deadly game of cat and mouse.

The Iceman chronicles Kuklinski’s grisly career and exposes his murderous double life.

Anthony Bruno, a crime writer, is the author of 11 crime fiction novels and four books of nonfiction true crime. His nonfiction work The Seekers: A Bounty Hunter's Story, was nominated for an Edgar Award in 2001 for best fact crime book. His novel Bad Apple was adapted for television in 2004.

©1993, 2008 Anthony Bruno (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

" The Iceman chilleth! Not for the faint of heart but a rousing, riveting read. I read it in one (scary) gulp." (Jack Olson, author of I: The Creation of a Serial Killer)

"Bruno has done an excellent job of re-creating the tension and stress Polifrone experienced in fulfilling his risky undercover assignment." ( Publishers Weekly)

"Smoothly written…Bruno puts his writing talents to white-knuckle use with a tight focus on a killer with no human feelings except toward his wife and three sons…. A fast-paced, suspenseful re-creation of how a vicious killer was run to ground.” ( Kirkus Reviews)

What a sick-o!

Anyone who likes true crime I think would enjoy this book. I'm sorry he had a bad childhood...but many do and don't end up committing mass murder. He was indeed, COLD!

Strange but true

I had heard about this man on a crime podcast, so I was interested at once. This was so well written, o detail left out. The narrator was excellent.

Loved the story

So well-read. You could feel how uncaring he really was. Great story, detailing, in very short order, his difficult youth until his hearing

Excellent

We’ll put together and excellently read. The accent is exact to the location in North Jersey Jersey City where I lived for many years. Well done
Michael Jenkins
7CROWNZ

Cold

Dude, this guy is so cold and detached. This book was a good read, very well written and narrated very well too. Pinchot did really well conveying the tone for Kuklinski, it's chilling.

A lot of perspective

An interesting listen. I've read and listened to the other books, but this one holds its own. There are extended periods of time in which the book focuses primarily on the agent tasked with trapping Kuklinski, making one wonder if it was really about the killer or not. But eventually it does flow back to even out. Perhaps a better title would have been one that shared top-billing with the agent, Dominick Polifrone.

Bronson Pinchot does quite effectively make entertaining use of voice characterizations for main characters, though I did start to wonder why the Irish-American agent (aka IRA girl) sounded suspiciously like Kuklinski. He's got good voices, maybe just not a lot of them. A good look at both the killer's home life and the undercover agent's work to bring him down.

Great

Scary that this person exists.

Mr Pinchot was more than incredible as narrator. I’d love to hear more from him.

excellent

great book not just for crime stories but in general and narration great. highly recommend

review

I have never read/heard much about the Iceman, so this was a new subject for me. It was mostly about how he was finally captured, but did include a few of the murders he committed. I loved the narration, the different voices really adds to a book in my opinion. Interesting, relatively short listen.

awesome

Not only was this a fantastic story, and a fantastic book, but the reading was perfect! I've listened to other books where the narrator is a bit over the top when it comes to reading as the characters, but this was PERFECT. I loved listening to this book, and I will be looking for more read by Bronson Pinchot for my next selection.