Fear the Night

Scott Brick is certainly among the premier male narrators. In this latest John Lutz mind-twister, Brick's pleasing voice, appropriate pacing and phrasing, and just-right emotion ensure a performance that's near perfect. Retired NYPD Homicide Detective Vincent Repetto, legendary for nabbing serial killers, refuses the department's request to help find the "night sniper," who has been shooting citizens at long range. The crazed killer, who wants only the best tracing him, kills a young detective whom Repetto loves like a son. As the body count rises, Repetto's hunt continues with a vengeance. Brick is deliciously evil as the sadistic killer and solid as the unflappable cop. The only fear you need have is the all-too-quick end of Brick's performance. A.L.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

October 3, 2005
On a warm evening in Manhattan, a sniper's bullet kills a lowly theater district shop owner. It's the first of several killings in what becomes a twisted cat-and-mouse game between the "Night Sniper," so-called because he only strikes after sunset, and retired New York detective Vincent Repetto in Lutz's fast-moving crime thriller. Although the beleaguered detective is straight from central casting and the sniper's motivation is hinted at but never satisfactorily explained, Lutz skillfully brings to life the sniper's various victims. It doesn't matter if the killer's target is a Broadway star on the way up or a homeless person on the way down, in a few pages these people come across as layered and three-dimensional. One wishes Lutz had done as good a job fleshing out his main characters.