Forensic criminalist Dub Walker is once again called upon when an old friend enlists his help in finding her 19-year-old daughter. When the bodies of two young women show up in a shallow grave, one of whom is the daughter, Dub is back to work and hard at it. Soon other bodies start turning up in similar graves, and each victim has undergone multiple, highly technical surgical procedures requiring extremely sophisticated equipment. Who would have access to such state-of-the-art instruments and the skill to perform the complex surgeries? The ensuing trail of terror and bodies that leads Dub to Talbert Biomedical—a surgical instrument manufacturing company operated by a business tycoon and a surgeon—is a horrifying breech of ethics and human decency. It's too gruesome to even contemplate what was done to the victims before they died. To catch a killer, Dub has to put himself in their place.
DP Lyle, MD is the Macavity and Benjamin Franklin Silver Award winning and Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, Scribe, Silver Falchion, and USA Best Book Award nominated author of many non-fiction books as well as numerous works of fiction.
He has worked with many novelists and with the writers of popular television shows such as Law & Order, CSI: Miami, Diagnosis Murder, Monk, House, Medium, and Pretty Little Liars and others
For the past 35 years, he has practiced Cardiology in Orange County, California. He is the co-host, along with Jan Burke, of Crime and Science Radio, a twice-monthly program on Suspense Radio.
Set in Huntsville Alabama, a college friend of Dub’s, Miranda reaches out to him to enlist his help in finding her nineteen-year-old daughter Noel who has gone missing. According to Miranda Noel started acting out after the death of her father, Richard.
When the bodies of two young women are uncovered from a shallow grave, and Dub learns that one of the bodies is the missing girl, Dub sets to find out what happened to her.
Soon after more bodies start turning up: it appears the victims have undergone multiple surgical procedures carefully and skillfully done by someone with experience and state-of-the-art equipment.
Investigator Tortelli. Huntsville PD is handling the case and is working alongside Dub Walker who consults for law enforcement.
Over the following days, a dozen more bodies of young women are unearthed and each of the victims has been similarly mutilated in the same fashion.
Dub Walker, T-Tommy and Claire are like the 3 Musketeers. Dub is a forensics criminologist, T Tommy is a police investigator and Claire is a TV news reporter. None of them particularly color within the lines. A friend of Dub's asks for help finding her daughter, who happens to be going to school in Huntsville. The investigation leads to the discovery of dead bodies, lots of them and some sci-fi medical technology. All Walker and his group have to do is untangle the web without getting caught in it themselves. Very interesting reading!
The story is fast paced and a definite page turner. It contains more graphic violence than I prefer but it was not intended as a cozy. I thought the final scene in the operating theater was a bit contrived. I also question some of T-Tommy's investigative methods, most of which would never hold up in court.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Teilweise recht langatmiger thriller mit flachen Charakteren. Der Titel hat nichts mit der Handlung zu tun. Spannung gibt es kaum. Stellenweise muss man sich tatsächlich durchkampfen. Ich weiß nicht, ob ich die anderen Teile lesen werde. Die Story an sich ist nicht interessant und beschäftigt sich mit einem aktuellen Thema, man hatte viel mehr draus machen können
The author's bio said he was a consultant on CSI and Law&Order shows, so I thought this would be more clever. Not even close. I couldn't wait to get this one over and almost made it a DNF.
I had to stop reading the book twice due to recieving books with limited time to read. I may have rated it high if I had been able to read it straight through.
Ein 19-jähriges Mädchen verschwindet spurlos. Die Mutter wendet sich verzweifelt an den Kriminalexperten Dub Walker, der sich sofort auf die Suche macht. Die Spuren führen ihn ins Rotlichtmilieu und schon bald wird klar: das Mädchen ist nicht die Einzige, die verschwunden ist. Was ist nur passiert??
"Mädchenkiller" ist der zweite Band der Dub-Walker-Reihe, aber für mich der erste Versuch mit D.P. Lyle. Mich hatte das Cover und der Klappentext angezogen. Nach der Lektüre kann ich sagen: hätte ich es dabei mal belassen. Denn das Äußere verspricht mal wieder mehr, als der Inhalt zu halten vermag.
Die Geschichte wird sowohl von einem auktorialen Erzähler berichtet als auch von Dub Walker selbst. Wenn Dub nicht von seinen Ermittlungen berichtet, folgt man dem Türsteher Alejandro bei seinen dreckigen Aufgaben. Dieser Wechsel der Perspektiven hat mich zu Beginn begeistert und ich konnte mich schnell in die Story einfinden. Das war toll.
Doch was bringt es, wenn man als Leser auf heißen Kohlen sitzt und auf den ersten Mord wartet? Ich hatte die Erwartung, dass der Killer brutal, grausam und effizient vorgeht. Nun ja, in diesem Fall hatte ich es mit einem humanen Mörder zu tun, der seine Opfer zwar in gewisser Hinsicht missbraucht, dafür aber kaum in Erscheinung tritt. Selbst nach 2/3 der Lektüre konnte ich die Leichen an einer Hand abzählen. Für mich zu wenig für einen so blutig angekündigten Thriller.
Auch die Figuren bleiben eher blass. Ich konnte weder zu Dub Walker, noch zu seinem Freund bei der Polizei, T-Tommy. eine Bindung aufbauen. Beide wirkten auf mich flach, ohne Ecken und Kanten und eher typisch draufgängerisch. So blieben sie nichts besonderes im Einheitsbrei des Genres. Schade!
Die Story an sich beginnt interessant. Die Ermittlungen führen ins Rotlichtmilieu, die dort umher irrenden Gestalten sind im Ansatz spannend und ich freute mich schon auf so manche Schlägerei oder zumindest Bedrohung. Pustekuchen. Der Thriller besteht großteilig aus Hin-und Herfahren, bisschen böse gucken und 2 Leichen. Viel zu wenig, zu flach, einfach kein spannendes Werk.
Der Stil von D.P. Lyle ist einfach und sehr gut zu lesen. Seine Erzählweise ist direkt, zügig und bemüht fesselnd. Leider konnte er mich nicht überzeugen.
Fazit: mich hat der Killer mit Langeweile um die Ecke gebracht. Schade!
Lyle heats up the scene once again with “Hot Lights, Cold Steel.” His prolific and seemingly inexhaustible characters Dub Walker and T-Tommy Tortelli take full charge, just as they did in “Stress Fracture.”
Walker, a sought after forensic and behavior analyst, teams up with Tortellli, a homicide investigator to first find the missing daughter of Walker’s long-time friend. Unfortunately, they find the daughter, but not quite in the shape they were hoping. From there, it gets worse as Clair, Walker’s ex and news reporter, Tortelli and Walker open a can of worms—at times literally—when body after body is uncovered, buried to hide the real reason they were killed. Medical procedures were performed pre-mortem on the bodies. But why would anyone operate on a person only to kill them later? And just as important—who would do such a thing?
It becomes a race to the finish when Claire is kidnapped to be used for the same fatal operation. Will Walker and Tortelli save her before she ends up with the same fate as dozens of others? Lyle paints the scenes and plants the reader into the story as if they themselves were fighting the ugly evil alongside Walker. A must read!
Reviewed by Starr Gardinier Reina, author of “One Major Mistake”
Synopsis: This books is a fast-paced and captivating thriller about the forensic criminologist Dub Walker. An old friend enlists his help in finding her missing 19-year-old daughter. When her daughter's body and other bodies begin turning up in shallow graves, Dub Walker begins investigating the causes of their deaths. Each of the deceased had gone through numerous highly technical surgeries prior to death, but the surgeries themselves were never the cause of death.
My Review: I have had the book "Hot Lights, Cold Steel" on my to-read list for years, so I was excited when I found this brand-new copy at the local library. I enjoyed the book, but I couldn't figure out why it was on my to-read list. It turns out, there are two books with the same title and I had picked up the wrong book. It turned out to not be a big deal as I enjoyed the unexpected thriller of this book. It was a little gruesome, but an easy read.
The story begins with a 19 year old prostitute who goes missing. Our main character is approached by the girl's mother who wants him to help find her daughter. , our main character then enlists the help of T-Tommy who is a police investigator, and the pair explore the local world of prostitution rings, mob bosses and cutting edge medical research corporations. The book itself is well written, and the characters are far from cardboard. The medical portion of the book was informative but not overly complicated to appeal to a wide variety of readers. The storyline itself was a winding path since you arent aware that everyone is in the body snatching until the end. The only part of this book i disliked was there was too much sex when really it didnt add to the storyline in any shape.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This is a very gripping and captivating crime thriller right from page 1 with the gruesome murder of 2 girls.
Dub Walker is approached by an old friend to find her missing teenage daughter. She has run away several times before but has always been found and brought home. When her mutilated body turns up, Dub then starts work on finding the killer while more bodies keep being found. The murders are all gruesome and appear to be committed by someone with surgical knowledge as they have all had some sort of surgery performed before they are killed.
A very well written book that I found very hard to put down. I would recommend this book and the author to any lover of crime thrillers. You won’t be disappointed.
The second in the Dub Walker series is another solid hit. I like the mystery/thriller type novels when the authors throw in a good bit of humor. In this one Dub finds himself helping an old friend when her daughter goes missing. Cannot really say much more without giving something away. Suffice it to say some bodies will start turning up showing recent signs of radical surgery. Something strange is going on and Dub and his buddy are not going to stop digging till they get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding these corpses. A good book that is worth the time spent reading it is always a pleasure. Looking forward to seeing what Dub gets into next.
Another winner in the Dub Walker series. I love the dialogue in this series, it is so real and funny at the same time. The plot stretched credibility a bit--a serial killer conducting surgery on victims? Really? But the story made sense as it eventually unfolded.
What truly inspires chills is to know that the plot isn't all that far fetched. Medicine already uses some of the cutting-edge (pun intended!) techniques described in the book, although hopefully not for the nefarious reasons in the plot.
This is our January book club selection. This is very good if you are a fan of such shows as CSI and Criminal Minds. I am, so I found this to be quite entertaining -- love a fantastic book about serial killers! I couldn't put this one down -- read it in 2 days!
2.5 stars. The plot ended up being more involved than I originally thought. I kept thinking that the story was over, but then looked at the % read on the kindle and I was only about half done.