The Five Points Ripper

Lost Planet Homicide #3

by Larry Correia, Oliver Wyman (Narrator)

The stakes have never been higher as Lutero Cade hunts an elusive, seemingly impossible killer in this gripping Audible Original from best-selling author Larry Correia.

On the lost colony planet of Croatoan, the job of the police force is to keep the peace, even if it means turning a blind eye to all varieties of crimes. DCI Lutero Cade knows how to play the game – but when it comes to murder, he is more than willing to rock the boat.

Now, with a serial killer on the loose, Cade knows he’s about to do a whole lot of boat rocking.

But what Cade finds puts him square in the sights of an artificial intelligence that may have its own agenda – and threatens the already shaky foundations of the Five Points, all the way back to the colony’s mysterious origins.

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook, Mystery, Fiction, Novella, Noir, Detective

3 pages, Audible Audio

Published September 19, 2024

About the author

Larry Correia (born 1977) is the New York Times bestselling author of the Monster Hunter International series, the Grimnoir Chronicles, and the thriller Dead Six.

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a compelling, action packed third installment in this mini-series. I like how these stories all tie in together and collectively start to uncover something larger, conspiratorial and more ominous going on. This one feels like what would ensue if a ship full of humans unknowingly colonized Predator's home planet :)

[Matthew Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each book continues to pack some great action as the primary storyline slowly unravels. Looking forward to the rest. If I ever remember to come back to the series when the rest come out!! Let’s get a move on!

[Brandon Church · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series has not slowed down and the mysteries keep getting more intriguing. I really like the "case of the week" aspect combined with a larger story that will evolve over multiple books. It helps give the world (setting) more time to feel like its own character. By the time i started this book, i knew the mountains, and the gang mentality, and all the politics and was now looking forward to seeing how a murder spree spanning all of them would force cooperation.

Now, normally a larger narrative being strung along over multiple titles might put me off, but since each one of these are so short, it feels like quick little bite sized adventures I can cram in between my larger 20+ hour books.

my only gripe is....I want more!!
Great series. Great narrator (for audiobook). Highly recommend.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know this series started life as Correia's Gritty Cop RPG, and so the story is, by nature, episodic, but I really want this fleshed out. I eagerly await each installment and hope that at some point he will compile them in print fill in the gaps to make it a novel, or even better, a first in series.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another installment in the series by Larry Correia, which started very strong and based only in novellas. This was not as fundamental an installment; it’s more of an episode in the process that barely builds the overall narrative. Overall it’s a fairly average short detective story. But I do like the overall world building he is doing, so it’s a good addition to the series.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun installment where the story is elevated by the narrator of the audiobook. The MCs ‘willing to die for others’ attitude was a bit heavy handed in this ‘episode’ of the story.

[Tim Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third instalment in the fantastic _Lost Planet Homicide_ series by Larry Correia, narrated skillfully by Oliver Wyman. A wonderful series of neo-noir science fiction novellas that follow hard-boiled homicide detective DCI Lutero Cade as he investigates what look to be normal if gruesome murders but instead reveal tantalizing clues to deep dark secrets of his world.

What is his world? A nightmarish colony world known as Croatoan, located over a thousand light years from Earth. Settled by accident when the biggest deep space colony ship in human history went off course and in desperation settled here, it is only barely habitable. Everyone is crowded on and inside five mountain peaks, the only ones that rise high enough into the atmosphere to be above the caustic, instantly lethal to man and machine acid clouds that blanket the planet. People are crowded into essentially five city-states, with the highest peak the nicest one with the richest people, nicest facilities, museums, houses with actual yards and real trees, a zoo (thanks to embryos and DNA brought from Earth), and the lowest peak one of gang violence, slums, decaying infrastructure, and hand-me-downs for equipment. Earth is becoming a subject of myth and legend, and the vast majority of the colonists have given up the idea of ever reconnecting with the mother planet.

Cade is from Zenith, the lowest peak, the grittiest, dirtiest, and most dangerous one, one last in line for food, supplies, and equipment. Only in this story Zenith has something or rather someone very much wanted, as there is a serial killer targeting the other four peaks, one as yet secret from the public, and the powers that be on the highest peak, Olympus, know that Cade not only has caught more murderers than the top detective of the other four peaks combined, but in previous adventures in the series dealt with Unexplained Things. And this serial killer is definitely unexplained, as no one has any sort of profile on them nor knows how they are moving unseen from peak to peak.

Gets right into the action, great pacing, phenomenal world building, really advances the whole series arc of the mysteries of why the colony ended up on Croatoan, the tale leans very heavily into science fiction. Excellent.

[Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic short read. This series is fascinating - layer upon layer - we learn a little bit more in each episode.

[Soo · Rating 3 out of 5]

2024/10/02 Notes:

Series Currently on Audible Plus

**Recommend to wait for series to be finished & read it all in one go.

Unlike the first installment in the series, #2 & 3 won't make sense as a standalone. Fun developments for the over arcing plot line, but it was a terrible teaser. Basically crap for those who dislike cliffhangers.

Great narration by Oliver Wyman. 👌

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The out-breath at the end of every word was too distracting

[Penelope · Rating 4 out of 5]

MY RATING GUIDE: 4 Stars. I wish the LOST PLANET HOMICIDE series, a dystopian film noir-type story, was 1 book rather than a number of serial episodes. If it was, I’d rate it 5. As is, it’s pricey for the 2+hours you get with each episode. Even if each is very satisfying.

1= dnf/What was that?; 2= Nope, not for me; 3= This was okay/fairly good; 3.5= I enjoyed it; 4= I LIKED THIS A LOT; 5= I Loved this; it was great! (I SELDOM give 5 Stars).

5 POINTS RIPPER picks up with Detective Chief Inspector Lutero Cade of the Zenith Police Department as he continues his unceasing battle against crime. Homicide DCI Cade lives and works on Zenith, the considerably deadliest of the 5 mountain peak communities on the wretched planet of Croatoan. Through coercion Cade is approached to work with an Olympus police officer, from the most elite of Croatoan’s 5 Point communities. Olympus’s Special Magistrate officer Witkins requires Cade’s vast homicide investigation expertise for his newly assembled 20 member team formed to investigate an operating serial killer, already responsible for 17 deaths from 4 of the 5 Point communities (Cade’s Zenith community exempted). But when the team investigates, they discover much more than they expected.

Comments ~
1) Although it might be possible to jump into THE 5 POINTS RIPPER as a Standalone title, I wouldn’t recommend it. 5PR is the 3rd episode in this dystopian series. The world and character building is continuous from bk1.
2) 5 POINTS RIPPER reminds me of film noir dropped into a dystopian setting. The world building is incredibly detailed and the story, again in bk3, pulled me right in. I don’t enjoy overly dark or depressing novels so Correia does a great job of riding the edge of suspense, cynicism and danger without the tone becoming negative. The MC (and this world) has a story that begs to be told.
3) I’ve never previously read anything by Larry Correia but I enjoy Mystery, Action/Adventure novels and Sci-fi Fantasy. I was recommended bk1, LOST PLANET HOMICIDE, as a free “read” through my audio book service, read the blurb, snatched it up and loved it. Book 2, GHOSTS OF ZENITH, was as captivating. As mentioned above, 5 POINTS RIPPER is book 3 in this series. I love visiting this world. My only complaint is that each book runs just over 2 hours and costs over $10 (or a full credit). I wish it was all pulled into 1 book. Oliver Wyman’s voice is perfect!

READER CAUTIONS - Not recommended to readers who prefer CLEAN fiction.
VIOLENCE - Yes. PG/PG-13. Very brief Dystopian film noir gun battles (a page or so). Monster gore. Not particularly dark or graphic.
PROFANITY - Yes. Strong language is used on occasion.
SEXUAL SITUATIONS - None.

[Reanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would have been 3 stars ("liked it") instead of 2 ("it was okay") if not for the way the O'Brian situation was handled. Like, the MC couldn't carve out an hour of time to go follow up on this very important series-spanning issue when the guy clearly had something to find out? Very annoying, and it seems like it was done this way just to drag this part out longer than necessary. The MC shows surprisingly little interest in this huge discovery that previously had seemed pretty important to him. If the author wanted to not give us and the MC this info, I think it would have worked better to just have one meeting request, a reasonably expedient attempt to meet, and then the ending. At least then the result wouldn't appear to be the MC's own dang fault.

On a separate note, I will also say that I always have a hard time actually picturing the world in this story. They're on mountain peaks but have some extremely wide and flat spaces. They're sometimes in tunnels or underground but huge "mushroom cloud" causing explosions can happen inside them without collapsing the whole thing. Unless I misunderstood where stuff was taking place, which is also part of the problem. Sometimes I'm unclear if they're underground or somewhere else. I just think more description of this strange environment is needed for me to picture the map and setting well enough.

[Nathaniel]

Larry likes to say that he writes in different genres so that he can keep pressing the envelope on his skills and avoid getting scale, and I gotta say: he really does a fantastic job of fiting into different genres. I'd say that this is my second or third-favorite.

My favorite? The Iron Kingdoms sereies that, apparently, didn't do well and won't be resumed any time soon. This is sad, but you should still read Into the Storm and Into the Wild.

My second favorite? Either this series--Lost Planet Homicide--or The Grimnoire Chronicles (starting with Hard Magic.

Anyway: this is a noir-themed sci-fi with a gritty detective in an even grittier world and--best of all!--a background mystery to the whole setting. Sound cool? It is.

[Ann Schwader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Third in a series of SF police procedural novellas set on Croatoan, a barely useable planet which got settled as a last-ditch effort after the colony ship went astray. Or was that really an accident, after all?

DCI Lutero Cade has been trying to figure this out for a while, now -- for family reasons -- and it's an intriguing mystery. Unfortunately, this novella doesn't get him much closer to the answer. Instead, the listener is swept up in a suspenseful "bug hunt" for a killer who's been leaving a mess on four of the five habitable mountain tops of the colony. There's some excellent world-building, and Cade's hardboiled personality shines through as always with Oliver Wyman's narration. I had no trouble sticking with this one to the end -- but for once, that end came too soon. I wanted more progress on the overall mystery of how Croatoan got settled, which didn't happen.

These novellas are available free on Audible as part of one's membership, which seems a good way to enjoy them. Too short to justify a full credit purchase, at least to me, but I'm hooked on the series and the character. Recommended for listeners who loved movies like Outland or Bladerunner.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another novella in Larry Correia's growing series about a colony that was planted on the wrong world after getting off course. It's a hard world with a poisonous atmosphere and a really grim outlook on life. Our hero is a hard-boiled-style homicide detective in the worst of the five peaks of the colony. He's good at his job, but he's not so good at following orders. In earlier novellas he figured out that the colony ship didn't actually go off course and that there were people from earth on the colony that nobody knew were there. In this story, we get our first hints at why the colony ship was sent to the wrong place--and it's greatly disturbing.

The Ripper of the title is a serial murderer who seems to be a ghost. His predations are so serious that a special team is put together from all five of the peaks to try and trace him down. It's a good story--fast moving with lots of action--and it shows the depressing political machinations that are a constant feature of life in Five Points. And the mystery—and how they solve it—is just great. If you're enjoying this series, you really don't want to miss this story.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third novella in Correia's "Lost Planet Homicide" series, set on a lost colony planet supposedly settled by Earthers whose ship got misdirected, to a harsh, almost uninhabitable world.

The protagonist, Lutero Cade, is a hardboiled detective in a dirty, corrupt stratified society full of gangs and manipulative elites. The archtypical "Last honest cop" who's very much a Larry Correia stock character - gruff, violent, great at shooting people, but inherently noble and lion-hearted.

The stories have been building towards a big reveal about the origins of Croatoan, which Cade is beginning to suspect was not accidentally settled by his hapless ancestors. There is a big conspiracy, a meddling AI, and more hints that humans were not the first settlers on the planet.

I like this installment a little better than the previous ones, as some more secrets are unveiled and there was more sci-fi and not just cops being dirty and gritty. Correia is very much a modern pulp-fiction style author; there isn't much depth, but the stories are fun for what they are.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I think the second book lagged a little, this one was again really good. I hope the series continues, though I suppose it'll be a year until the next one comes. The very brief introduction of the alien as a basket starfish looking thing that can form itself into a more or less human shape was pretty interesting. It was just so terribly brief. I expect this will make a good continuation, considering it barely touches on the sacrifice contract mentioned. [image error]

One complaint I had with the first two, particularly the first one, was the narrator nasally exhaling at the end of sentences. I think they must have corrected for that because I didn't notice it so much.

[The Filth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Larry Correia continues to build a very interesting story and world. Without getting into any spoilers, I think this installment has been the strongest of the three released so far. A bit short, and I wish the end sequence had been flushed out a bit more, but overall a pretty good story.

I also can’t write this review without mentioning how outstanding Oliver Wyman’s narration of this series has been so far.

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third installment in the sci fi detective series called Lost Planet Homicide by Larry Correia. They are audible only novellas and they are all very solid this entry being no exception. Larry calls it "space Bosch" and there is a bit of that. Here we get another piece of the overall mystery and it really hooked me. I feel like this could have even been a full novel. These are all in the Audible plus catalog so definitely worth trying.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun addition to the Lost Planet Homicide series. I'm partial to the audiobook's reader, Oliver Wyman, who read the main MHI books. Does a great job with the low-level sarcastic tone.

For how short these are -- this book clocked in just over 2 hours on audio -- there is a fair amount of world-building going on. It's tight. I wish the story were 50-100% longer to spread out the mystery of the case a little more, but it still works. It's tight.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once more, Detective Lutero Cade is called in to make things right rather than cover them up. In this case, a serial killer is striking his victims in the head and pulling the brains out leaving no trace, no blood. There are cameras everywhere, but no record of the killer coming or going. The Five Points Ripper might not even be human.

More and more of the back story is revealed of how the colonists were left on this deadly alien planet. And more is yet to come. I am looking forward to it.

[The Geeky Viking · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another excellent instalment of Larry Correia's audio only series. This time DCI Cade is hunting down a serial killer that may or may not be human. Correia is one of my favourite writers and he doesn't let me down here, moving the series forward with some answers while still maintaining the overall mystery of what's really going on. Can't wait for the next instalment.

[Bill Philibin · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.0 Stars)

This was an enjoyable story with good narration. Basically it is a cop story in space with a mystery element. Well done and engaging. Good characters, and good world building. Short enough to complete in a day. While you could treat this as a stand-alone story, it is the third in a series of short stories.

[Josh Morrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid addition to the Planet Homicide series by Larry Correia. These stories are short but fun. The world Larry has created and the society that has developed is interesting and engaging, and the character of DCI Cade, while a bit of a Mary Sue, is gruff and smart and fun to read. Looking forward to more additions to this series.

[John Sorensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The special investigator DCI Lutero Cade, the last honest cop, is called to solve a homicide. The book reads like a simplified Dashell Hammet, or Mickey Spillane Sci-Fi mystery. It was just what I needed. Lots of fun. (Note: same review for all 3 books released so far)

[Melody Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun quick read! I accidently grabbed this one prior to the first 2. I didn't realize it was the 3rd in a series , but you can read it without the background. I listened to this because it was Larry Correia, and will happily move forward.

[Happy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great third book of series. Fast paced. I really liked the main character in these three books. This third one was the best being the most fast-paced and interesting. I listen to the audible version of all three. Well done.

[John Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series but the stories so far are so short. I'd love to get a full blown novel to that will delve into this universe and the backstory of how they arrived where they did and why. So much potential here.

[Airihi Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story and audiobook.

The story and narration really drew me in.

I didn't realize until afterward that I read/listened to the 3rd book in the series first.

I am currently working on the first one at this moment.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series has been fantastic. The way it blends sci-fi colonization with traditional police work and investigation of mysterious murders is excellent. I am bummed there hasn’t been another book released yet. I will read it as soon as it does!