Blood Sport

VICAP #1

by Michael Newton

Los Angeles is city primeval, home base for the sociopathic elite. Charles Manson. The Hillside Strangler. And now—the Reaper. He hunts at night terrorizing whole families at gunpoint, mutilating and finally slaughtering them. Dozens of victims. No survivors. No Clues.

Special Agents Joe Flynn and Martin Tanner, are highly trained members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. But the Reaper never leaves a trace. Flynn and Tanner can do nothing except pace in the shadows of the sleeping city waiting for the Reaper to strike again.

The case files of Special Agents Flynn and Tanner are a scorching record of brutal crime. Their Los Angeles is an urban nightmare ruled by psychotic lords of violence. But VICAP agents are tough and resourceful—and they never give up.

Thought this series is fiction, VICAP is a real organization initially conceived in the late 1960s when the crimes of the Boston Strangler, Charles Manson, and other “motiveless” killers began to make national headlines.

229 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

From Wikipedia:
"Michael Newton (born 1951) is an American author best known for his work on Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan series. Newton first began work on the Executioner series by co-writing "The Executioner's War Book" with Don Pendleton in 1977. Since then he has been a steady writer for the series with almost 90 entries to his credit, which triples the amount written by creator Don Pendleton. His skills and knowledge of the series have allowed him to be picked by the publishers to write the milestone novels such as #100, #200, and #300.

Writing under the pseudonym Lyle Brandt, Michael Newton has also become a popular writer of Western novels. He has written a number of successful non-fiction titles as well, including a book on genre writing (How to Write Action Adventure Novels). His book Invisible Empire: The Ku Klux Klan in Florida won the Florida Historical Society's 2002 Rembert Patrick Award for Best Book in Florida History. Newton's "Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology" won the American Library Association's award for Outstanding Reference Work in 2006."

Pen names: Lyle Brandt, Don Pendleton, Jack Buchanan

Bibiliography available here.

Reviews

[Josh Hitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought overall the book is a slog, a lot of filler with general serial killer talk and profiles. With this info being repetitive as well to make it more just filler. Could cut a third of the book and had the same tale. VICAP is a FBI program for apprehending violent criminals like serial killers. The main one in this book is the Reaper, a family annihilator. Also, the duo of agents are working on a child killer. The narrative is well written, just kind of dull for the most part. Overall, the two main characters, the agents of VICAP, are sort of cookie cutter. They have different cases or events giving than nightmares, but other than that, they are basically the same.

Can't really recommend it. It's basically barely a 3 read with just enough of ending to get me to round it up. However, since I do enjoy Newton most of the time, I will try the next one at some point. I think since Newton wrote so many true crime books, he had too much material that he felt compelled to throw into a fiction series.

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This starts out like reading the F.B.I's employees handbook while sitting in on first day of orientation. Then it turns into a field guild for serial killers. All while we have a sort of Dragnet type conversations about the ills of society and the gutter that is L.A.

Lucky for us, this kicks in to a higher gear once the killing begins. The author really grabs you with the slaughter of whole families by a psycho with multiple problems. Very creepy and realistic. A cat and mouse chase for the maniac keeps it interesting.

Michael Newton is one of the better writers of this sort of fiction in my opinion. He keeps the tired Mack Bolan, The Executioner series of books interesting. He can always keep things moving.

[JoseLingo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Newton es un escritor que me da la sensación que debió o debe ser informante del FBI o criminólogo. La manera que tiene de narrar las historias ficticias de crímenes es demasiado versosimil como para ser un simple aficionado. En esta seguimos a un asesino en serie que ataca a las familias (niños incluidos) de la manera más ruin y asquerosa que uno pueda imaginar. Nuestros protagonistas, los agentes Flynn y Tanner, deberán conseguir detenerle antes de que continúe su masacre. Gran aventura (y hay otras 8!)

[chelepissbcglobal.net · Rating 5 out of 5]

ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY FABULOUS.

This book was so unbelievably good that I didn't want it to end.. I absolutely loved the story as well as the fantastic cast of characters. I highly recommend this book and it should be on everyone's must read list. I promise you won't be disappointed.

[I.D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written overall but the two main characters were virtually identical save for their marital statuses and there were far too many exposition heavy scenes of people talking about the history of serial killers. The dangling thread at the, rather abrupt, Hollywood ending does make you want to read the next one.

[T C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Serial Killer Paradise

You couldn't pay me to live in California, if even half the statistics are close to the truth in this book. Reminds me of the show Criminal Minds. This book will have you reading to the wee hours