In for the Kill

By: John Lutz

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Frank Quinn, the relentless detective who made his debut in John Lutz’s acclaimed thriller Darker Than Night, faces his toughest - and most personal - case yet...

An invitation written in blood...A madman is stalking women in the city. By the time his victims are found, they’ve been dismembered with careful precision, their limbs stacked into a gruesome pyramid and completely cleansed of every last drop of blood.

To catch a killer - or die next....

Accustomed to working on the most grisly homicides, detective Frank Quinn’s nerves don’t rattle easily. But when the last names of the killer’s victims spell out “Q-u-i-n-n,” the veteran cop feels a chill run down his spine. Then a fresh victim is linked to the one woman Quinn can’t stop desiring. Hunting down killers is what Quinn does best. But this time, Quinn is up against a psychopath that will test him as never before....

©2007 John Lutz (P)2007 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"A very scary and suspenseful read." (Booklist)
"Lutz gives us further proof of his enormous talent for crafting great police fiction." (Publishers Weekly)

formulaic if you have read other Quinn books

What did you like best about In for the Kill? What did you like least?

Great story, well told and lots suspense.

Would you recommend In for the Kill to your friends? Why or why not?

Yes if they hadn't bought any other books featuring Quinn but as for buying more of them I'd tell them to keep in mind the phrase "a distinction without a difference".

Which character – as performed by Scott Brick – was your favorite?

Pearl Krasner's mother

Was In for the Kill worth the listening time?

yes

Any additional comments?

Lutz's books featuring Detective Quinn are a good read or listen if you limit yourself to one. I won't be buying any more of them. If I have to listen how Federman's sleeve becomes unbuttoned and his fashion sense once again I'll go mad. The same descriptions of the main characters are used over and over again and remain unchanged in other books. The same repetitive plot as well: the villain is transformed into a serial killer by an earlier experience and must re-enact it and make it a contest against Quinn. I enjoyed the first book but then tedium set in, so no more for me.

Loved every minute of it!

I could not turn it off. Very good book! I never wanted my drive home to end.....I love this series!

Quinn Does it Again

Fast moving and a typical Lutz story, but for the excessive gore I like the action Kind of wish the odd victim would be spared

I liked it

but not that much. Not enough for 4 stars. Grisly murders and a fairly predictable plot. Some of the interpersonal relationships just don't add to the story. The climax was suspenceful but in a irritating , come on, get on with it fashion.
Not the best I've read but not the worst.

A great read

Some didn't like this book, but I am a huge John Lutz fan and this is one of his best in my opinion. The character Quinn is believable. Lutz has been around for a while and all of the books I have read so far are about retired cops coming out of retirement to work again. I am also a huge Michael Connelly fan (Harry Botch) and this is one of the reasons I like this author.

Great Narrator

I enjoyed this mystery and the narrator was great. His voice sent chills up my spine more than once as the suspenseful parts. I've read Lutz other books and this one has them beat.

Is this a parody?

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I'd recommend this book to ayone who might enjoy what seemed to me to e a parody of a hard-boiled cop vs serial killer story. The conversations were cynical beyond belief, and there are character inconsistencies throughout the book.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The story was fast paced and filled with tension, even though I found myself laughing out lous at some of the things that were said. I'm paraphrasing here, but there was one sentence that went something like, "She was average looking, but if she managed to grow much older in this lousy world of ours, there was a chance she'd be pretty one day."

Why is this world of ours so lousy? I don't know, but every character in this book seemed to agree with that premise.

And veryone in this book is also jaded; they all hate each other; they are tired of life, and none of them treats anyone else with even a modicum of respect. Still though, they are so over the top, they made me laugh, so . . .

Did Scott Brick do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Scott Brick did a great job of differentiating the characters, simply be giving each one of them a distinct accent and/or speech pattern. and he also gave me the impression that he was aware of how over the top this book is, so he read it with so much attitude that I swear I could see him laughing all the way home from the studio.

Any additional comments?

Despite everything I hated about this book, it kept me riveted to the story, and I've no doubt that I'll sample atr least one more of Lutz's books

I always read reviews before downloading...

Some of the reviews for this book were not very flattering, but I took a chance on Scott Brick as the narrator. I thought it was a great book. Unlike some of the reviews, I found it very intriguing and easy to follow. Good "creepy" story!

Enjoyable read

I will say I enjoyed this book and Scott Brick was amazing as usual. The relationship between mother and son was well developed. I would have liked to have seen Quinn do more to "catch the killer" instead of the killer simply falling from the sky. It seemed the book ran a bit out of steam at the end.

Does the narrator have a breathing disorder?

He seems to end most sentences with a gasp. Once noticed this is very distracting (like trying to guess if he's going to do it this sentence, or is it influenced by consonants or vowels, etc.).