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Claire Waters #1
Kill Switch
[This is the Audiobook CASSETTE Library Edition in vinyl case.]
Brilliantly constructed and breathtakingly suspenseful, this novel is a masterful combination of murder, mystery, and modern forensics that will keep you hooked until the final shocking conclusion.
Dr. Claire Waters understands what motivates violent criminals, and she tries to prevent them from committing further crimes. Haunted by a childhood brush with a vicious crime that was never solved--the abduction of her best friend--she must confront her own worst fears when she takes on her first serial killer case. She meets with Todd Quimby in the bowels of Rikers Island prison and sets out to crack his tough exterior, but she overlooks his violent nature and recommends his release. Within twenty-four hours, Claire is horrified to realize that the body of a murdered woman in Times Square bears all the hallmarks of a Quimby victim. Soon the killer taunts her, her supervisors doubt her, the cops resent her, and her boyfriend questions her loyalty. Determined and daring, Claire agrees to be a decoy. Risking everything, she uncovers a devious medical conspiracy that threatens to disrupt the international balance of power. She must confront both a killer and a conspiracy--or die trying.
Brilliantly constructed and breathtakingly suspenseful, this novel is a masterful combination of murder, mystery, and modern forensics that will keep you hooked until the final shocking conclusion.
Dr. Claire Waters understands what motivates violent criminals, and she tries to prevent them from committing further crimes. Haunted by a childhood brush with a vicious crime that was never solved--the abduction of her best friend--she must confront her own worst fears when she takes on her first serial killer case. She meets with Todd Quimby in the bowels of Rikers Island prison and sets out to crack his tough exterior, but she overlooks his violent nature and recommends his release. Within twenty-four hours, Claire is horrified to realize that the body of a murdered woman in Times Square bears all the hallmarks of a Quimby victim. Soon the killer taunts her, her supervisors doubt her, the cops resent her, and her boyfriend questions her loyalty. Determined and daring, Claire agrees to be a decoy. Risking everything, she uncovers a devious medical conspiracy that threatens to disrupt the international balance of power. She must confront both a killer and a conspiracy--or die trying.
7 pages, Audio Cassette
First published December 13, 2011
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810 people want to read
About the author
Neal Baer
10 books23 followersNeal Baer M.D. is a pediatrician, television writer and producer. He is best know for his work on the television shows ER and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 253 reviews
April 17, 2013
I don't know why I read these books. I hoped for a serial killer book with interesting characters in addition to gruesome death. That didn't happen here.
I won't recap the plot, because that's done adequately elsewhere, and I'll keep my criticism to what bothered me most. Leaving aside nit-picky observations (of which I have plenty because boy howdy, am I good at picking nits), the characters in this book bothered the snot out of me.
Witness, yet another, "too-stupid-to-live"** female protagonist. She is a young, beautiful psychiatrist loaded with credentials and lacking either common sense or any understanding of normal human behavior, let alone that of the criminally insane. I don't understand how a character like this is even plausible.
The male character wasn't quite as bad. Contrary to form, he was not the all powerful he-man, thank god. In fact, lots of the shooting and car chases were performed by the female protagonist, which is unusual for this type of schlock.
Chances are good that I'll pick up another serial killer book again, because I apparently can't help myself. However, it probably won't be anything by Neal Baer or Jonathan Greene.
**Not my phrase. Thank you Sarah Wendell for introducing me to this handy description.
I won't recap the plot, because that's done adequately elsewhere, and I'll keep my criticism to what bothered me most. Leaving aside nit-picky observations (of which I have plenty because boy howdy, am I good at picking nits), the characters in this book bothered the snot out of me.
Witness, yet another, "too-stupid-to-live"** female protagonist. She is a young, beautiful psychiatrist loaded with credentials and lacking either common sense or any understanding of normal human behavior, let alone that of the criminally insane. I don't understand how a character like this is even plausible.
The male character wasn't quite as bad. Contrary to form, he was not the all powerful he-man, thank god. In fact, lots of the shooting and car chases were performed by the female protagonist, which is unusual for this type of schlock.
Chances are good that I'll pick up another serial killer book again, because I apparently can't help myself. However, it probably won't be anything by Neal Baer or Jonathan Greene.
**Not my phrase. Thank you Sarah Wendell for introducing me to this handy description.
August 22, 2022
Book Blog | Bookstagram
This sounded like it was going to be so good. A female-led serial killer drama written by two guys who have spent their careers working on Law & Order? Let's go! Or not. I came away from this reading experience disappointed in how disjointed and silly this formulaic novel is.
Claire Waters is a forensic psychiatrist working at Rikers Island under Dr. Peter Curtin (seriously,) who is written like a comic book villain trying to "fix" the criminal mind. Waters' has one session with a new patient, Quimby, who then becomes the suspect in a series of sex worker murders.
Detective Nick Lawler is on the case and he's bringing along Claire because as he sees it, "no one knows Quimby better than you!" Yeah, she literally had three conversations with him at this point, but whatever.
What starts as a race to stop Quimby, soon becomes an exercise in finding closure for Claire - she needs to find out who kidnapped her friend, Amy, right before her eyes when she was 8 years old. Then, through the sheer magic of contrived coincidence, it turns out there is a connection between Quimby and the kidnapper from Claire's past.
Reading this book was like watching the authors check off a list of genre clichés they wanted to pack in. The main character with a tortured past? Check! The main character who can't get through any conversations without having flashbacks to their tortured past? Let's make all the characters do this! What about dream sequences that don't further the plot? Couldn't leave those behind! Could something bad happen to the main character at this moment? Then it fucking will!
Just... ugh.
It was just silly. Murder and assassins and the cure for cancer and solving a 30-year-old crime that has haunted you your whole life? All in two days? That's this book.
And like, if you're going to set a large portion of the crime within the Canadian legal system, it would seem only natural that you would do research about how our legal system is different from that in the U.S. Because it is different. It kind of seemed as though the authors just Googled "what's the biggest prison in Canada?" and said fuck it to the rest. As a Canadian reader, those particular mistakes were glaring.
I like serial killer drama, but this like a bad Lifetime movie. Not good/bad, just bad/bad.
⭐⭐ | 2 stars
This sounded like it was going to be so good. A female-led serial killer drama written by two guys who have spent their careers working on Law & Order? Let's go! Or not. I came away from this reading experience disappointed in how disjointed and silly this formulaic novel is.
Claire Waters is a forensic psychiatrist working at Rikers Island under Dr. Peter Curtin (seriously,) who is written like a comic book villain trying to "fix" the criminal mind. Waters' has one session with a new patient, Quimby, who then becomes the suspect in a series of sex worker murders.
Detective Nick Lawler is on the case and he's bringing along Claire because as he sees it, "no one knows Quimby better than you!" Yeah, she literally had three conversations with him at this point, but whatever.
What starts as a race to stop Quimby, soon becomes an exercise in finding closure for Claire - she needs to find out who kidnapped her friend, Amy, right before her eyes when she was 8 years old. Then, through the sheer magic of contrived coincidence, it turns out there is a connection between Quimby and the kidnapper from Claire's past.
Reading this book was like watching the authors check off a list of genre clichés they wanted to pack in. The main character with a tortured past? Check! The main character who can't get through any conversations without having flashbacks to their tortured past? Let's make all the characters do this! What about dream sequences that don't further the plot? Couldn't leave those behind! Could something bad happen to the main character at this moment? Then it fucking will!
Just... ugh.
It was just silly. Murder and assassins and the cure for cancer and solving a 30-year-old crime that has haunted you your whole life? All in two days? That's this book.
And like, if you're going to set a large portion of the crime within the Canadian legal system, it would seem only natural that you would do research about how our legal system is different from that in the U.S. Because it is different. It kind of seemed as though the authors just Googled "what's the biggest prison in Canada?" and said fuck it to the rest. As a Canadian reader, those particular mistakes were glaring.
I like serial killer drama, but this like a bad Lifetime movie. Not good/bad, just bad/bad.
⭐⭐ | 2 stars
April 5, 2016
Rating: 2.5
Some portions of this book were laughable. no legit psychiatrist would act remotely like this with their client (the whole dressing up as his victim type for one of their sessions, was just no; I'm not going to blame her for his attempted sexual assault that happened to her). And if they did, they would probably get their license revoked at the very least.
This book was messy and really badly written. It didn't even feel remotely realistic.
Yet I finished it in one day, when I actually started to read this book.
Some portions of this book were laughable. no legit psychiatrist would act remotely like this with their client (the whole dressing up as his victim type for one of their sessions, was just no; I'm not going to blame her for his attempted sexual assault that happened to her). And if they did, they would probably get their license revoked at the very least.
This book was messy and really badly written. It didn't even feel remotely realistic.
Yet I finished it in one day, when I actually started to read this book.
January 18, 2018
Really good read, it pulled me in and had me invested to figure it all out. It reminded me a little of Heartsick by Chelsea Cain but I think I liked this one a lot more.
I am definitely going to be reading the rest of the series.
Awesome Read!
I am definitely going to be reading the rest of the series.
Awesome Read!
March 1, 2019
Want to see more from me? Check out my youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfer...
3.5/5 Stars
Claire Waters has landed her dream job as a psychiatrist. She often takes on difficult cases to distract her from her own troubled past. She gets assigned to a man named Todd Quimby, an inmate at Rikers Island. After he is released from prison, a series of murders begin and Claire believe Quimby is responsible. Claire immediately goes to the police where she meets Detective Nick Lawlor. They work together to try to catch Quimby before he strikes again.
Honestly... this book is ridiculous. The whole concept is so far-fetched and would never happen in a million years BUT I kind of loved it? The story goes by very quickly and it's definitely a page turner. Claire is kind of an imbecile and makes THE WORST decisions... but that made for an interesting read only because you wanted to see what stupid thing she would do next. I enjoyed Nick as a character and thought his side plot was interesting.
3.5/5 Stars
Claire Waters has landed her dream job as a psychiatrist. She often takes on difficult cases to distract her from her own troubled past. She gets assigned to a man named Todd Quimby, an inmate at Rikers Island. After he is released from prison, a series of murders begin and Claire believe Quimby is responsible. Claire immediately goes to the police where she meets Detective Nick Lawlor. They work together to try to catch Quimby before he strikes again.
Honestly... this book is ridiculous. The whole concept is so far-fetched and would never happen in a million years BUT I kind of loved it? The story goes by very quickly and it's definitely a page turner. Claire is kind of an imbecile and makes THE WORST decisions... but that made for an interesting read only because you wanted to see what stupid thing she would do next. I enjoyed Nick as a character and thought his side plot was interesting.
March 30, 2017
Wow this was a really good thriller. I couldn't believe all that came of this book.
Can't wait to see what Claire and Nick will get into next.
Can't wait to see what Claire and Nick will get into next.
November 3, 2016
This felt like two completely different mysteries, which finally did come together in the final third. But it was weird, with Claire not really seeming to grieve over Ian's death. I was glad that at least there wasn't overt romance between her and Nick. Probably waiting for the sequel for that one. I wanted these stories to be more entertwined. I think the fact that they weren't is a signpost telling you that there's just too much reliance on coincidence to connect them. The sex offender was a patsy, the cancer doctor was a reluctant but zealous murderer...The whole cancer research, giving people cancer, forcing(?) Tammy to give other people cancer, and the secret statement by CDC or wherever that Nick and Claire saved "billions of lives" by stopping what would surely be a cancer epidemic--the whole thing was ridiculously simplified and cartoonish. I wanted to see how the author tied the mysteries together (the current murders and the abduction of Amy, Claire's childhood best friend), so I stayed with it, but it didn't really feel worth it at the end. Sedgewick as the orchestrator of the entire thing just didn't fly for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 6, 2019
Well, it started out good! Then it flew straight overboard and I gave up.
The main character is a forensic psychiatrist, but I'm not sure how she got herself through to that point with zero common sense.
So yeah, I gave up.
The main character is a forensic psychiatrist, but I'm not sure how she got herself through to that point with zero common sense.
So yeah, I gave up.
January 4, 2012
I was eagerly looking forward to reading this, but was sorely disappointed. It was so thoroughly contrived and unbelievable that I almost didn't finish it. The writing doesn't flow; perhaps because it was written by two authors. The character of Claire either under reacts or over reacts to various incidents in the book; don't want to say which so as not to give spoilers. Certain events in the book were obviously bound to happen from hints the writer gave us 100's of pages earlier. I know the co-authors wrote and produced Law & Order; I'd rather watch that because at least the contrived story gets wrapped up in under an hour.
June 16, 2018
#Beendet
🐭🐭
Neal Baer
Jonathan Greene
"Beuteschema"
-Thriller-
Erst kommt die Geschichte nicht in Gang und ich habe überlegt, es abzubrechen. Kurz fängt sich die Story und dann, als müssten die Autoren den Beginn wieder einholen, überziehen und überladen sie den Rest so dermaßen, dass es nur noch unlogisch und unrealistisch wird.
🐭🐭
Neal Baer
Jonathan Greene
"Beuteschema"
-Thriller-
Erst kommt die Geschichte nicht in Gang und ich habe überlegt, es abzubrechen. Kurz fängt sich die Story und dann, als müssten die Autoren den Beginn wieder einholen, überziehen und überladen sie den Rest so dermaßen, dass es nur noch unlogisch und unrealistisch wird.
November 13, 2021
3.5 stars
I thought the mystery was good but it was honestly two mysteries. The overall arch mystery was kinda over-the-top and very t.v. movie like. So, I was willing to suspend reality while reading.
For this reader the real attractive aspect of this read was the relationship and scenes between the cop & the doctor. They were interesting and captivating. Will I read the next and last book in this duology? Yes, if both those characters are present I will.
I thought the mystery was good but it was honestly two mysteries. The overall arch mystery was kinda over-the-top and very t.v. movie like. So, I was willing to suspend reality while reading.
For this reader the real attractive aspect of this read was the relationship and scenes between the cop & the doctor. They were interesting and captivating. Will I read the next and last book in this duology? Yes, if both those characters are present I will.
July 21, 2015
Really enjoyed this one. It was expertly written, well-researched and was one of those stories I didn't want to put down. Claire, a psychiatrist, goes to Rikers to interview a prisoner. Her goal is to help him. However, as they're talking about his background she has a flashback to when she was a little girl, the day her best friend, Amy, was kidnapped right in front of her and she didn't do anything to stop it. She's always felt guilty since her friend's body was never found, her parents never getting closure. She ends up blowing the interview. Several days later after the man is released from prison, he calls her and says he needs her help. She agrees to meet him at the hospital. Later, Claire sees on the news where a woman was murdered and she realizes the victim matches the description of the hooker her patient had sex with and that she was killed where he claimed to have picked her up. Claire goes to the police where she meets Nick Lawler, a detective.
Nick was back on the job after his wife's suicide. He'd been questioned after her death because it was his gun she'd used to do it. There were some who thought he, himself, pulled the trigger. The press had a field day. Now he was attempting to put his life back together, moving him and his two children in with his mother and going back to work.
When Claire shows up claiming to know who murdered his victim, he's nothing short of rude given her profession. He doesn't think much of shrinks. However, he quickly discovers, as the bodies begin to pile up, that the killer is after women who look like Claire and that she could be next if he doesn't protect her. The two of them have to work with one another to figure out what is going on and stop the killing.
A complex plot but keeps you turning the pages and there's a major twist at the end. Since I actually read the next book first, I already know the characters will return. I'm intrigued by the fact Nick is going blind. He doesn't want to reveal the fact yet, knowing they'll take him off the job. Being a cop is all he knows. There are times in the story when Claire has to be his eyes because his vision is slowly failing. It will be interesting to see how this is handled in future books.
Nick was back on the job after his wife's suicide. He'd been questioned after her death because it was his gun she'd used to do it. There were some who thought he, himself, pulled the trigger. The press had a field day. Now he was attempting to put his life back together, moving him and his two children in with his mother and going back to work.
When Claire shows up claiming to know who murdered his victim, he's nothing short of rude given her profession. He doesn't think much of shrinks. However, he quickly discovers, as the bodies begin to pile up, that the killer is after women who look like Claire and that she could be next if he doesn't protect her. The two of them have to work with one another to figure out what is going on and stop the killing.
A complex plot but keeps you turning the pages and there's a major twist at the end. Since I actually read the next book first, I already know the characters will return. I'm intrigued by the fact Nick is going blind. He doesn't want to reveal the fact yet, knowing they'll take him off the job. Being a cop is all he knows. There are times in the story when Claire has to be his eyes because his vision is slowly failing. It will be interesting to see how this is handled in future books.
December 12, 2012
short review: "Well, that escalated quickly."
Longer version:
I don’t read crime dramas but sometimes a story based about a psychologist and mind games intrigues me enough to pick it up. I won’t lie, I read this book in a day and a half it did have me gripped….just at the end it was a lolz, what!? Type of gripped. It was written by two producers of Law & Order SVU but progressed more like a Lifetime movie. If it is bad, it will happen to our main character, if it is drama, it will happen. About halfway through I lost the connection to the characters from that feeling of “there is no way all that happens/happened to just person’.
Longer version:
I don’t read crime dramas but sometimes a story based about a psychologist and mind games intrigues me enough to pick it up. I won’t lie, I read this book in a day and a half it did have me gripped….just at the end it was a lolz, what!? Type of gripped. It was written by two producers of Law & Order SVU but progressed more like a Lifetime movie. If it is bad, it will happen to our main character, if it is drama, it will happen. About halfway through I lost the connection to the characters from that feeling of “there is no way all that happens/happened to just person’.
January 15, 2012
This book had excellent pacing. The book has three distinct arts and each time I thought "wow, there is more?" and yup, more. As incredulous as it may seem the entire book, subplots and all are wrapped up nicely by the end. So why four stars not five, well, the dialog was a bit amateur at times. This in no way diminishes this great book, as I read it fast and enjoyed every page, so I guess 4.5 stars then.
April 14, 2024
This was so easy to read. The story follows a great story arc that gets divided into 2 parts, then comes back together at the end with an amazing sci-fi twist. I love that it's connected to Law & Order SVU as well!
April 15, 2021
This was a fast-paced thriller that kept me up way past my bedtime, 2 nights running.
Well worth the missed sleep. :)
Well worth the missed sleep. :)
October 12, 2021
Lohnt sich nicht
June 19, 2015
Baer and Greene are famous or known for being the executive producers of Law & Order: SVU, so you know that they know there way around writing a suspenseful screen play for TV but the question is whether they can transfer it to a novel?
Dr. Claire Waters has just landed her dream job as a psychiatric doctor treating criminals, but with treating criminals the stakes are higher. When Claire recommends the release of her first client an accused serial killer, Claire gets way more than she bargained for. When a new body turns up not 24 hrs after his release Claire realizes how grave of a mistake she has made and now not only is he on the hunt for her, she is now on the hunt for him as well and only one of them is going to get out alive.
To answer the question I posed above, right now my opinion is No, Baer and Greene were not able translate their award winning screen plays to a novel. Maybe with time it could get better but for this book right now, it did not work for me, there were too many things wrong with the plot and I personally did not like one of the main characters. I'm surprised that I actually made it through this book as I kept thinking this is just wrong or what were they thinking, but I did finish it.
I had real issues liking Claire. I did not like her approach to her patient, and she took wanting to prove herself way too far. For someone who is supposed to be so smart I do not know how she could be so stupid in her profession. I do not know what would lead a psychiatric doctor to think that dressing up as the most recent victim would help your patient or yourself or even the victim would be in anyway beneficial. I could not follow her thought process throughout the book
There were times when things seemed fairly far fetched and that Baer and Greene were grasping at straws to make the book work and this caused the book to feel like it dragged one. There were too many issues and too many problems that Claire and Nick needed to solve, it almost become 2 books in one. I am not really sure how the first half of the book and really the first mystery is connected to the second half. I think that Baer and Greene were just trying too hard and just put too much into their first novel. If they would have just take one of their ideas for this novel and developed it more properly I think the book would have been a lot better.
If you are going to use the Canadian legal system within your book perhaps they should have done some research first first, it is not the same as the American system. Life in prison does not actually equal life it equals 25 with the first chance of parole being available once a 1/3 of the sentence has been served. Unless the individual in prison is designated a dangerous offended, which means they are not going to get out of prison. However, it can be hard to have this designation assigned to an individual and I hate to say it but probably just murdering one individual would not get that designation assigned to that person. So there was every likelihood that **** (sorry that would be a spoiler if you decide to read it) would have gotten out of prison, especially if he had good behaviour.
NYPD Detective Nick Lawler was really the only redeeming quality in this book. Although I had issues with his character as well, I like that he was more real, he had issues both psychological and physical as well he did not seem to be the over demanding over sexualized male lead that often happens when you put a male and female team together. One of my main problems with is is that he has degenerative eye disorder that impairs his site so eventually he will not be able to see, which in itself is an interesting concept as you get to know Nick you realize how much being a cop means to him and what it would feel like for him to loose his job because of it. But my issue is that issue just seems to completely disappear in the second half of the novel until the very end, it seems to no longer impede him like it should and is never even mentioned.
This book overall had too many far fetched ideas and flaws for me to enjoy it or even recommend for people to read it. I think that Baer and Greene do have talent for this type of wet in for TV but as for authors of novels there are still a lot of things that need to be worked on.
Cheers!!!!
Instead of This,
Check These Books Out:
Dr. Claire Waters has just landed her dream job as a psychiatric doctor treating criminals, but with treating criminals the stakes are higher. When Claire recommends the release of her first client an accused serial killer, Claire gets way more than she bargained for. When a new body turns up not 24 hrs after his release Claire realizes how grave of a mistake she has made and now not only is he on the hunt for her, she is now on the hunt for him as well and only one of them is going to get out alive.
To answer the question I posed above, right now my opinion is No, Baer and Greene were not able translate their award winning screen plays to a novel. Maybe with time it could get better but for this book right now, it did not work for me, there were too many things wrong with the plot and I personally did not like one of the main characters. I'm surprised that I actually made it through this book as I kept thinking this is just wrong or what were they thinking, but I did finish it.
I had real issues liking Claire. I did not like her approach to her patient, and she took wanting to prove herself way too far. For someone who is supposed to be so smart I do not know how she could be so stupid in her profession. I do not know what would lead a psychiatric doctor to think that dressing up as the most recent victim would help your patient or yourself or even the victim would be in anyway beneficial. I could not follow her thought process throughout the book
There were times when things seemed fairly far fetched and that Baer and Greene were grasping at straws to make the book work and this caused the book to feel like it dragged one. There were too many issues and too many problems that Claire and Nick needed to solve, it almost become 2 books in one. I am not really sure how the first half of the book and really the first mystery is connected to the second half. I think that Baer and Greene were just trying too hard and just put too much into their first novel. If they would have just take one of their ideas for this novel and developed it more properly I think the book would have been a lot better.
If you are going to use the Canadian legal system within your book perhaps they should have done some research first first, it is not the same as the American system. Life in prison does not actually equal life it equals 25 with the first chance of parole being available once a 1/3 of the sentence has been served. Unless the individual in prison is designated a dangerous offended, which means they are not going to get out of prison. However, it can be hard to have this designation assigned to an individual and I hate to say it but probably just murdering one individual would not get that designation assigned to that person. So there was every likelihood that **** (sorry that would be a spoiler if you decide to read it) would have gotten out of prison, especially if he had good behaviour.
NYPD Detective Nick Lawler was really the only redeeming quality in this book. Although I had issues with his character as well, I like that he was more real, he had issues both psychological and physical as well he did not seem to be the over demanding over sexualized male lead that often happens when you put a male and female team together. One of my main problems with is is that he has degenerative eye disorder that impairs his site so eventually he will not be able to see, which in itself is an interesting concept as you get to know Nick you realize how much being a cop means to him and what it would feel like for him to loose his job because of it. But my issue is that issue just seems to completely disappear in the second half of the novel until the very end, it seems to no longer impede him like it should and is never even mentioned.
This book overall had too many far fetched ideas and flaws for me to enjoy it or even recommend for people to read it. I think that Baer and Greene do have talent for this type of wet in for TV but as for authors of novels there are still a lot of things that need to be worked on.
Cheers!!!!
Instead of This,
Check These Books Out:
November 3, 2011
In 1989, Claire and her best friend Amy were playing outside when a car pulled up, a man got out, and Amy became part of the ‘missing children’ list. Today, Claire is all grown up and in the last stage of receiving her degree in forensic psychology. Working as an intern under the famous Dr. Curtin, who most people see as the “Dr. Oz” of forensic psychology, Claire wants to prove to the man that she knows her job, and wants more than anything to get into the human mind and try to figure out what makes the brain tick. She wants to be able to “reprogram the circuitry” of the mind, so that people who are causing crimes can be stopped and saved.
Today is her first client interview on Rikers Island, where out of fifteen thousand prisoners, three thousand of them possess the sickest minds in the world. Todd Quimby is her subject. He is in Rikers for something quite small, not exactly horrific, and is scheduled to be released in two months. He shows signs of getting ‘worse’ if he goes back out in the world without treatment, so Claire becomes his ‘ear,’ his clinician, and his friend, and tries with all her might to make him get rid of the childhood memories that he can’t seem to let go.
Nick Lawler is a homicide detective who has been through hell. Even though he carries his own secret, he has been placed back on the force because a body has been found that relates to a murder Lawler investigated once before. All the signs are there - Lawler is looking at a serial killer.
As bodies begin piling up and Claire inherits a stalker, it’s quite clear to everyone that Todd Quimby is the man behind the attacks. But…is he? This is a startling intense suspense novel that offers all hardcore mystery readers a textbook crime in a very non-textbook context. The characters are real, the scenes are brutal, and the relationship of the two protagonists will have readers staying up at night - with the light on - to see how this one turns out.
Seeing as that these two authors are very talented men who have been Executive Producers and Co-Executive Producers for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, it comes as no surprise that they can take a story and turn it into an unforgettable event. Readers may just have found the next ‘Preston & Child’ team!
Today is her first client interview on Rikers Island, where out of fifteen thousand prisoners, three thousand of them possess the sickest minds in the world. Todd Quimby is her subject. He is in Rikers for something quite small, not exactly horrific, and is scheduled to be released in two months. He shows signs of getting ‘worse’ if he goes back out in the world without treatment, so Claire becomes his ‘ear,’ his clinician, and his friend, and tries with all her might to make him get rid of the childhood memories that he can’t seem to let go.
Nick Lawler is a homicide detective who has been through hell. Even though he carries his own secret, he has been placed back on the force because a body has been found that relates to a murder Lawler investigated once before. All the signs are there - Lawler is looking at a serial killer.
As bodies begin piling up and Claire inherits a stalker, it’s quite clear to everyone that Todd Quimby is the man behind the attacks. But…is he? This is a startling intense suspense novel that offers all hardcore mystery readers a textbook crime in a very non-textbook context. The characters are real, the scenes are brutal, and the relationship of the two protagonists will have readers staying up at night - with the light on - to see how this one turns out.
Seeing as that these two authors are very talented men who have been Executive Producers and Co-Executive Producers for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, it comes as no surprise that they can take a story and turn it into an unforgettable event. Readers may just have found the next ‘Preston & Child’ team!
January 9, 2012
Review posted at LitStack.com January 5, 2012 (http://litstack.com/?p=4127):
Kill Switch is authored by two heavy hitters in the television industry: Neal Baer, former executive producer and showrunner of NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, executive producer of ER (“the longest-running primetime medical drama in American television history”), multi-award winner (Emmy, Golden Globe, People’s Choice, and Edgar), and graduate of Harvard Medical School; and Jonathan Greene, writer and co-executive producer of Law & Order: SVU and now writer/co-executive producer for CBS’s A Gifted Man (starring Patrick Wilson of Little Children fame). Phew! So many credentials, so little space. These two men are clearly accomplished in their fields—they have nothing to prove to anyone.
Except me. And that is because I am a consumer of books, and they have crossed into my territory, away from the television screen, away from the tidy conundrums presented to their characters who have 44 minutes or less to tie things up. Books are a different world than TV.
Baer and Greene know how to weave a good story, to start fires, let them burn for a while, and then summarily extinguish said fires within the confines of 289 pages. The characters they’ve built—Dr. Claire Waters, NYPD detective Nick Lawler, resident bad guy Todd Quimby—these folks are believable. I read the book over a few hours, which says a lot to the facility of language. It is writing for Every Man. You won’t have to pull out your dictionary or take huge leaps of faith to understand what is going on in the novel. This is a standard police procedural where the cops are gritty, the bad guys are heinous, and the good guy always gets his man. Baer and Greene, for all their impressive credentials, aren’t quite Walter Mosley, a man who spins crime noir into a ballet for the senses, but I don’t feel robbed of the time I spent reading the story, either.
GO TO LITSTACK.COM (http://litstack.com/?p=4127) FOR THE REST!
Kill Switch is authored by two heavy hitters in the television industry: Neal Baer, former executive producer and showrunner of NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, executive producer of ER (“the longest-running primetime medical drama in American television history”), multi-award winner (Emmy, Golden Globe, People’s Choice, and Edgar), and graduate of Harvard Medical School; and Jonathan Greene, writer and co-executive producer of Law & Order: SVU and now writer/co-executive producer for CBS’s A Gifted Man (starring Patrick Wilson of Little Children fame). Phew! So many credentials, so little space. These two men are clearly accomplished in their fields—they have nothing to prove to anyone.
Except me. And that is because I am a consumer of books, and they have crossed into my territory, away from the television screen, away from the tidy conundrums presented to their characters who have 44 minutes or less to tie things up. Books are a different world than TV.
Baer and Greene know how to weave a good story, to start fires, let them burn for a while, and then summarily extinguish said fires within the confines of 289 pages. The characters they’ve built—Dr. Claire Waters, NYPD detective Nick Lawler, resident bad guy Todd Quimby—these folks are believable. I read the book over a few hours, which says a lot to the facility of language. It is writing for Every Man. You won’t have to pull out your dictionary or take huge leaps of faith to understand what is going on in the novel. This is a standard police procedural where the cops are gritty, the bad guys are heinous, and the good guy always gets his man. Baer and Greene, for all their impressive credentials, aren’t quite Walter Mosley, a man who spins crime noir into a ballet for the senses, but I don’t feel robbed of the time I spent reading the story, either.
GO TO LITSTACK.COM (http://litstack.com/?p=4127) FOR THE REST!
April 27, 2015
Budding forensic psychiatrist Claire Waters is on Ryker's Island to study the criminal mind. During her first week, she interviews Todd Quimby and judges him to be innocent .... only later after it looks like he's killing prostitutes does she realize her own error in judgement.
Turning to the homicide detective, Nick Lawler, who is in charge of the case, they both take extraordinary risks to bring Quimby to justice.
The book then morphs into solving a case that is 20 years old --- a playmate of Claire's was kidnapped, raped and murdered when she was a young child. She was also a witness and the man responsible has never been caught.
And then once again, the story morphs back to the first crime. Was Quimby actually responsible for those deaths ... or did he have a partner who continues to hunt young women?
The story was a bit disjointed for me.... lots of rough edges that didn't merge together. I suspect that the authors (who were screen writers for Law & Order) wrote the book the same way they wrote for TV. Just not sure it worked here.
I did like the characters... but Claire as a psychiatrist did not come across as believable. She did some things that no therapist would ever, ever do.
This was an okay read for me. I've already started on the 2nd book starring Claire and Nick... KILL AGAIN .... (courtesy of NetGalley). Keeping fingers crossed this one will be better.
Turning to the homicide detective, Nick Lawler, who is in charge of the case, they both take extraordinary risks to bring Quimby to justice.
The book then morphs into solving a case that is 20 years old --- a playmate of Claire's was kidnapped, raped and murdered when she was a young child. She was also a witness and the man responsible has never been caught.
And then once again, the story morphs back to the first crime. Was Quimby actually responsible for those deaths ... or did he have a partner who continues to hunt young women?
The story was a bit disjointed for me.... lots of rough edges that didn't merge together. I suspect that the authors (who were screen writers for Law & Order) wrote the book the same way they wrote for TV. Just not sure it worked here.
I did like the characters... but Claire as a psychiatrist did not come across as believable. She did some things that no therapist would ever, ever do.
This was an okay read for me. I've already started on the 2nd book starring Claire and Nick... KILL AGAIN .... (courtesy of NetGalley). Keeping fingers crossed this one will be better.
March 3, 2013
Looking for a suspenseful page-turner? Are you a fan of Preston and Child, Connelly, Deaver, or Gerristen? Consider trying Kill Switch, a mind-bending, debut thriller by Neal Baer and Jonathan Greene.
Haunted, and driven by the unsolved abduction of her childhood friend, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Claire Waters has what it takes to get inside the heads of violent criminals. Her first serial killer case, however, will not only force her to confront her inner demons, but could prove to be the case that makes or breaks her career. Despite a disastrous interview, Claire has Todd Quimby released, and less than 24 hours later, he appears to be killing again. Claire finds herself being doubted by colleagues and resented by cops, leading her to start asking questions that could point to something bigger. Soon she if forced to team up with NYPD Dec. Nick Lawler when she is targeted by another killer. Both must risk everything, and confront their tragic pasts in order to solve a case that will change their lives forever.
Full of unexpected twists and turns, this fast-paced novel will keep you on the edge of your seat from the first intense moment until the shocking end. The combination of forensics, murder, and mystery make Kill Switch a must-read for fans of the psychological-thriller.
Haunted, and driven by the unsolved abduction of her childhood friend, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Claire Waters has what it takes to get inside the heads of violent criminals. Her first serial killer case, however, will not only force her to confront her inner demons, but could prove to be the case that makes or breaks her career. Despite a disastrous interview, Claire has Todd Quimby released, and less than 24 hours later, he appears to be killing again. Claire finds herself being doubted by colleagues and resented by cops, leading her to start asking questions that could point to something bigger. Soon she if forced to team up with NYPD Dec. Nick Lawler when she is targeted by another killer. Both must risk everything, and confront their tragic pasts in order to solve a case that will change their lives forever.
Full of unexpected twists and turns, this fast-paced novel will keep you on the edge of your seat from the first intense moment until the shocking end. The combination of forensics, murder, and mystery make Kill Switch a must-read for fans of the psychological-thriller.
February 11, 2012
Claire Waters is a forensic psychiatrist. Todd Quimby is a dysfunctional screw up. Nick Lawler is a good detective going blind. Throw them together and you get a twisty turny mystery that needs to be solved.
This book is authored by two guys associated with Law & Order: SVU. I’ve never watched that particular show, but I do love Law & Order: CI and shows like CSI, Bones, Cold Case, Without a Trace, Monk, NCIS, etc. etc. So though I usually would watch something like this story on television I do like to read a good mystery every now and again.
This was a great story. The characters were believable, the plot twisty, the writing smooth. It started off a bit slow with some background info interspersed with the mystery, but I like info, so it didn’t bother me. Then when I thought the case was put to rest yet had half a book left to read I was wondering where this story was going. The case didn’t seem to fit together very well, as if we were missing something. Something important. The middle lagged a bit, but picked right back up when the trail got hot again.
I have to say the ending surprised me. I love not figuring out how a story is going to end. It drives me crazy…in a good way. I’d read more stories by Baer and Greene and hope they collaborate again.
*The publisher provided a copy of this book to me for review. Please see disclaimer page on my blog.
This book is authored by two guys associated with Law & Order: SVU. I’ve never watched that particular show, but I do love Law & Order: CI and shows like CSI, Bones, Cold Case, Without a Trace, Monk, NCIS, etc. etc. So though I usually would watch something like this story on television I do like to read a good mystery every now and again.
This was a great story. The characters were believable, the plot twisty, the writing smooth. It started off a bit slow with some background info interspersed with the mystery, but I like info, so it didn’t bother me. Then when I thought the case was put to rest yet had half a book left to read I was wondering where this story was going. The case didn’t seem to fit together very well, as if we were missing something. Something important. The middle lagged a bit, but picked right back up when the trail got hot again.
I have to say the ending surprised me. I love not figuring out how a story is going to end. It drives me crazy…in a good way. I’d read more stories by Baer and Greene and hope they collaborate again.
*The publisher provided a copy of this book to me for review. Please see disclaimer page on my blog.
January 7, 2012
This is a three/three and a half star book until about page 200, then it takes off and is a five all the way, in fact it was so good from that point on, I forgot that it started slow and in my opinion a little disjointed. But once I hit around page 200 I could nbot stop reading and did not stop. Likely 100 pages left isn't much to get through but it was amazing, quite a roller coaster. To me, these Law and Order writers did not recreate the show in their writing, in fact other than the fact that it utilized a law enforcement and psychiatrist backdrop, it was not like the show. That is not a good thing and not a bad thing, it is a stand alone read, that could easily be made into a series, there are some things I would like to see Claire waters do.
November 25, 2012
It's hard to describe what I think of this book. First of all, I read through it like a speeding train and kept me interested until the last few chapters. I could tell it was written by "TV" people because of the fast pace. It also seemed like 3 episodes of a cop show. The first 2 stories were good. They were well written and had tight plots. The writers lost me in the 3rd episode. It seemed desperate and went way beyond believable after the first 2 parts. The writers should have stopped after the second part and left the rest for a sequel. I'm stuck between a 3 and 4 star review. 3 stars for the end but its hard to label a book I read straight through and kept me so interested until the last few chapters. I would give it 3.5 but since I can't, I am upping it to a 4.
May 18, 2012
This book is an easy read. It also includes a few twists in it's plot. The book went down paths that I didn't see would happen. Neal Baer, the author did an excellent job of making the various plots work with this book. First book I have read by this author.
January 22, 2012
Lots of twists and turns and edge of your seat suspense kept me loving this book. Really great read.
December 6, 2012
I should have known better ... writing for t-v does not prepare one to write an engaging, meaningful, long-form narrative.
December 30, 2014
Creepy thriller about a woman haunted by an attack in the past and how she attempts to make peace in her adult life.
will-not-finish-ever
August 25, 2014Would rather watch an episode of Law and Order than read this.
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