This has been re-released as Night Victims. ( )

I hate it when I start reading a book only to realize I've read it before. Bought this without having done the research. This was a good book when it was first published as Night Spider. Changing the title won't make it any better. I really hate it when publishers confuse people by bringing out early works with new titles. ( )

I've often glanced at those John Lutz 'Night' paperbacks, with their similar names and attractively creepy cover designs. Each book features the same basic themes of a retired cop being called back, a serial killer, New York and the word 'Night' in the title. I did a little research and The Night Spider seemed to be the best reviewed of them, so I gave it a shot.

There's a killer loose in New York. His victims are all single women, living in upper floor apartments, cocooned in their bedclothes. The apartments are accessed via their windows, meaning the killer is scaling the sides of the buildings like a spider. Thomas Horn, a former detective is called out of retirement to hunt down the killer.

I wasn't exactly clear why Horn had to be called out of retirement for this case. I got the feeling it was mainly done to give Lutz an excuse to bypass all the police procedural stuff. In fact, I think that was my major problem with the book. It felt like Horn and his two assistants were an island of detection. Even as the press turned up the heat on the cops, we were never shown that there was anybody besides Horn, Ramboquette and Bickerstaff working the case, meeting in a diner.

Still, the book is an exciting and well paced thriller. It moves along smoothly, all of the scenes are interesting and things never drag. The scenes involving the killer are suitably creepy, yet avoid being too lurid and each of the cops has enough personality to make them interesting to follow. Lutz does a decent job of evoking New York. The ambiance wasn't as strong as I like, but as you read the book, you will not confuse the setting for any other city.

But as enjoyable as it was, it was missing that certain something 'extra' that would have put it over the top and made it truly memorable. The book did everything right (though near the end the plot twists became ludicrous), but there was nothing about it that was especially spectacular. For sure I enjoyed the book as a simple pot boiler and I will read more of his stuff. But if The Night Spider is among his better work, I can see that he won't be top tier. ( )

This book is the same book as The Night Spider. I mean the same, it just has a new title. Don't get ripped off like I was. I'm really livid over this! In very small print on the cover it read, "Previously entitled The Night Spider". Why re title it and pass it off as something new?! UG!!!

The Night Spider is the first novel I’ve read by John Lutz, and I can tell it will surely not be the last. Lutz’s way of grabbing the reader’s attention in the first chapter, and keeping an excellent pace with twists and turns long the main storyline, provides for an excellent read. Robust characters, timely and relevant sub-plots, and flashbacks all keep the reader enthralled, and anxious for more.

Could there be a better place in the USA for a serial killer to work besides New York City? Especially for one who lives to scale buildings of towering heights, and break into his victims apartments silently, leaving no trace, other than his victims, wrapped up in a cocoon of their own bed sheets, bled to death through a series of multiple, yet no fatal stab wounds? Meet The Night Spider.

And who hunts this talented elusive serial killer? A crack rookie homicide detective, new to the NYPD, a retiring NYPD homicide detective, and a detective pulled out of medical retirement from the force, and join together with brains, instinct, and sarcasm, to catch a very elusive, and very creative serial killer. Lutz turns up the heart as they get closer and closet to catching him, only to slip in some unique turnabouts that leave the three racing against the clock to save one of their own. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and look forward to exploring Lutz’s other work. Highly recommended.