Review: "In for the Kill" by John Lutz

 

In for the Kill

by John Lutz

Pinnacle, 2007

  

There was a time not so long ago when serial killer police procedurals were everywhere. From film to television to fiction. Perhaps it began with the success of the film, The Silence of the Lambs (1991), inspired by Thomas Harris’s novel, and continued with James Patterson’s early Alex Cross bestsellers—Along Came a Spider, Kiss the Girls, etc. Whenever and whyever the serial killer craze began, one of its best practitioners was John Lutz.
     Lutz’s first serial killer romp, Final Seconds with David August, arrived in 1998 and over the following 17 years he wrote another 15 slash and burn procedurals about detectives chasing demented killers through labyrinthine urban landscapes. Lutz’s thrillers resemble Lawrence Sanders’s Deadly Sins books more than Thomas Harris’s Hanibal Lector and those titles I’ve read have made a standard plot new with a dash of nuance, sprinkle of humor, and a wheel-barrel full of tension.
     His 2007 novel, In for the Kill, the second (of ten) Frank Quinn outings, is a wonderful example of Lutz’s serial killer thrillers. Like all his others, it was published as a paperback original by Pinnacle. Quinn is a rough-edged, at times brutal and others charming, retired NYPD detective with a knack for catching killers. When a new killer dubbed “The Butcher” begins working New York City—he prefers attractive brunettes, downing them, draining their blood, and dismembering them before stacking them neatly in the pristine bathtub where they died—Quinn is brought in by his old boss, Deputy Chief Harley Renz, to find the killer.
     Quinn in turn gets his old pals Detective Fedderman and Officer Pearl Kasner, an attractive brunette Quinn had a relationship with and he is still harboring feelings for, onto his team and soon realizes The Butcher is playing games with him. The first letter of the first five victims’ last names spell: Q-U-I-N-N. What Quinn doesn’t know is his relationship with the killer will burn closer to home than he wants.
     In for the Kill is a brilliant guilty pleasure with non-stop pacing and a flash-bang climax. The interplay between serial killer and detective could be silly, but Lutz’s smooth style and his skill at ratcheting tension—without ever going splatterpunk gory—allows the reader little time (or desire) to question the story. The detectives’ relationships, including Harley Renz, provides low-key and much needed humor to an otherwise bleak tale. If you like this kind of fiction, In for the Kill is about as good as you will find.

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