Fear the Night

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. (Nov.)