2nd book was a bit like the first. serial killer. cop. no mystery. ( )

Frank Quinn picks up a new case in his New York City stomping grounds. This time a serial killer who meticulously cuts his victims up in pieces. He is joined by two other retired cops as they pull special duty to find The Butcher.

This was a pretty good story fairly well told. It had a few too many cliches for my taste but I will admit that by the time I got about 3/4ths the way through there was no way I could abandon it. ( )

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 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. ( )

This book was surprisingly good. I purchased it from Amazon through Book Bub and that is always a hit or miss experience. The majority of the characters are rich and well developed. There are a couple of exceptions and unfortunately that's when things begin to sour.
A serial killer prowls the streets of New York, taunting police with notes. In desperation and because the killer drives the police in that direction Frank Quinn, a retired police detective is called in to action. Along with Quinn his former partners are drafted as well. Pearl Kasner, who is also Quinn's ex lover, and Larry Fedderman (Feds) are called in to assist in the hunt for the Butcher. Along the way Quinn's daughter shows up complicating things even more.
My biggest problem with the characters is the way they show up far into the story and often behave illogically.
While the story is gritty and suspenseful it's predictability eventually left me hoping things would just get to the point.
The end is very unsatisfactory. Dangling story lines, actions unexplained, and a sense of the author rushing through the last improbable chapter left me feeling unfulfilled. ( )

I may try this again, but this seems to be one of Lutz's slow, wordy stories & Brick's reading just isn't doing it for me. Actually, I find it really irritating right now.