Switch

The Janek Series

By: William Bayer

Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

At first the two killings seem unrelated. The lonely call girl murdered on New York City's West Side had never met the prim schoolteacher slain across town in the far safer preserve of the city's Upper East Side. But someone has decapitated them both and switched their heads: a deed that is apparently its own motive, a crime as pointless as it was perfectly executed.

Detective Frank Janek immediately knows that he has entered the realm of a lethal madness. Middle-aged, divorced, a man centered solely on his work, Janek is practiced in piercing the minds of the criminals he pursues. In the absence of clues from the killer, he has only the awful symmetry of the crime to work with, only his own finely honed intuition. "This was a crime conceived in the shadows," he thinks, "There was precision in it, and passion. Concentrated rage and a love of order. A need to beautify. Even some strange, unfathomable, as yet uncatalogued species of love."

The challenge-to become as precise, as creative, as cold as his prey-begins to take its toll. The tenuous psychological thread leads Janek back into the unsettled past-- not only the killer's but his own. His own passion and rage and unresolved love. The love he bore for the man who trained him-a retired cop whose apparent suicide he has shied from investigating too closely, the passion for justice that has made him a marked man within the police fraternity. The rage he feels at ancient crimes that have finally burst into full and terrifying flower. And most of all, the new love he feels for the mysterious woman in whom all these strands of the past seem to converge. It is Janek's love for Caroline that leads him at last to a blinding vision of the purpose behind the grisly double homicide.

Too late, he realizes that the case of "Switched Heads" may only be the bait....

©1985 William Bayer (P)2011 David N. Wilson

Critic Reviews

" Switch has the stunning intensity of The First Deadly Sin, and I can't think of a higher compliment." (Mary Higgins Clark)

"A hugely entertaining police procedural from the Edgar-winning author." ( The New York Times)

Great reading of my novel by Jeffrey Kafer!

Kudos to Jeffrey Kafer for his superb reading! He captures perfectly the rueful middle-aged angst of my character, Frank Janek, as he goes about solving his greatest case. I'm hopeful that Mr. Kafer's will be reading the other two more books in my Janek series, "Wallflower" and "Mirror Maze" for Audible.

A Good Mystery

My Review
Well, the publishers summary is long enough to give every reader a pretty good idea of what this book is about, but it's a bit darker than I expected it to be.
The work worn, hard boiled middle aged detective, Janek, takes on a strange case, very strange indeed, it all begins at the funeral of retired detective Al DiMona. Al was Janeks' rabbi - cop slang for mentor - Al had committed suicide by "eating his gun". His death hit Janek hard, he had this feeling that he should look deeper into what drove his friend to do such a thing, especially as Lou, Als wife, had insisted to Janek that he had been working on something secretive prior to his death. At the funeral he sees a woman, she looks out of place, so he decides to introduce himself to Caroline. She tells him she was just a friend of Al, just came to say goodbye.

Before he leaves, he's told that Chief of Detectives Hart wants him to ride back with him, it's during this trip that Janek is given the "switched heads" case of the two murdered women. Seems two detectives were called out, one to each case, they got into a fight about who should investigate, so Chief Hart settled it by giving it to Janek.

This is where his head scratching begins, it's all so bizarre, everything about it just plain weird, how's a man to start? The first few chapters are compelling reading, then it gets a little dull, there's a lot of conversation, conjecture, what ifs. In truth, all probably quite realistic but it doesn't hold the attention quite so well as the first part of the story.

Then there's the mystery of Al, and this is where Caroline has the leading part, having fallen in love with her ( and pretty darned quick if you ask me) Janek discovers she has not been entirely truthful. By this time, it's all become very complicated!

Despite being a little dull in parts, the author does have a wonderful way with words, he describes a room and you are there, seeing it. There's a very poignant passage about Lou, describing her reaction when, whilst cleaning the bathroom she hears the shot, she knows, she just knows she is going to walk down the stairs and find the dead body of her husband Al.

Narrator
Wonderful performance by Jeffrey Kafer, he has the perfect voice for Janek, he switches faultlessly from character to character, gender to gender and it's seamless. Easy to listen to with a good pace, there's a lot of emotion in this book, from overwrought Lou to angry, frustrated detectives. Then, of course, there's the cold, cold murderer! Jeffrey Kafer nails it.

This audiobook was gifted via Audioblast in return for this, my honest review.

Great psychological murder mystery

Would you try another book from William Bayer and/or Jeffrey Kafer?

Switch is a great psychological murder mystery. William Byers’s build up thrills with detailed real detective work. Plot explores twists suspense as story developed and getting better and better. Each character’s real and highly expressive. Never boring moment.

Too much strong language!!!!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Couldn't get past the foul language.

What was most disappointing about William Bayer’s story?

Swearing.

Any additional comments?

I wish books & audios had ratings like movies like R, PG, strong language, sexual content

Good procedure story

Detective Frank Janek's life is about to get complicated, handed a tough double homicide, his mentor has committed suicide and an attractive lady is about to enter his world. Good procedure police story, with Frank crossing swords with a cunning killer and the chief of detectives.

AMAZING

I'm not usually one for a twisted killer, grizzly murder book to be honest, preferring to read about different types of crime in my reading. I've got to say though that this one smashed it out of the park. Bloody brilliant and more enjoyable for the fact that it was so unexpectedly excellent.

I probably shouldn't have been surprised because I've read William Bayer before, enjoying his Peregrine novel a year or two ago.

Here Detective Frank Janek is assigned a double murder by Chief of Detectives Hart. Two woman have been found murdered on the same night and their heads have been switched. Janek puts together a team and they work the case. He has the two detectives assigned to the original homicides when they were unconnected cases - Stanger and Howell - and his two trusted friends and confidants, Sal Marchetti and Aaron Rosenthal. The killer has been careful, not sloppy and there's no real physical evidence left on the crime scenes.

Janek also embarks on an affair with a photographer, Caroline who he met at the funeral of his rabbi, retired cop Al DiMona. Al ate his gun and Janek also feels obligated to his widow Lou. She has questions over what Al had been doing in the days and weeks leading up to his death.

Janek is struck by a connection between Al, Caroline's dead father who was murdered and C. of D. Hart. It's a connection that Hart lied to him about. Caroline has an old photograph of the three of them together. A frank conversation with Al's widow and a tearful confession give Janek more to ponder, especially given the fact that Hart has tentatively offered him a promotion. Bribery? What's he covering? What does he have to hide?

I really enjoyed how Janek got his team working together. Profiling the two victims, one a prostitute, one a teacher. Understand the victims, know who the victims are, understand the crime, try and understand the killer. Easier said than done. Incrementally they make progress. Janek having the ability to make intuitive leaps that inspire lines of enquiry unimagined by the other detectives. I don't think he presents as a super sleuth, just someone who has a gift for thinking slightly outside of the box and looking at things from different angles.

There's a lot of old school detecting. Door knocking, interviewing, eliminating, persistence. A suspect emerges eventually and the same approach applies. Find his past, find people who knew him, watch him, uncover his secrets. It's all painstakingly done but it's not something that the killer is unaware of.

Tables get turned, tension gets ramped and gears start moving.

I liked the character, the slow burn initially of the case, which morphs into two cases with Janek also convinced of Hart's complicity in his rabbi's demise and also the murder of the other part of the trio - Caroline's father. Janek is determined to bring him down and again has to think outside the box to put Hart and his go-to-guy, Sweeney in the box. I enjoyed the way Janek pulled the strings and had his two main guys, Sal and Aaron following him loyally.

Top notch crime writing. Not a false step throughout. Never a boring moment. No breakneck pace, but something happening every step of the way to keep me fully engrossed.

5 from 5

Read - (listened to) June, 2022
Pulbished - 1984
Page count - 322 (9 hrs 5 mins)
Source - Audible purchase
Format - Audible