The Kill Code Collective

by Brian Lutterman, Julie Holmes, Rob Jung

Two deaths from unexplained cardiac device failure. One victim, threatened before her death. The family of the other, taunted afterwards. Negligence? Coincidence? Or something far worse? The devices’ Minnesota-based manufacturer, Voyageur Cardiac Systems (VCS), is blind-sided by the mysterious calamity, as it also faces a leak of patient data, mounting financial losses, and a blackmail threat against CEO Stephen Hartsburg.
A collective of five extraordinary individuals join forces to investigate the VCS disaster, including confident, no-nonsense aircraft mechanic Sierra Bauer and her partner, Detective Quinn Moore, and Matt Lanier, a classical musician and action guy. Both have witnessed device-related deaths. Joining them are Pen Wilkinson, a sassy, whip-smart paraplegic attorney, along with Louise (“Weezy”) Napolitani, computer guru and hacker extraordinaire, both hired by CEO Hartsburg but wary of their employer’s secrets. Complicating the group’s efforts is charming, slippery attorney Henri Hawke, an international fixer secretly hired by Hartsburg. The collective presses ahead against violent opposition, racing against time to thwart a plot to take over VCS, weaponize its products, and settle some scores.
The Kill Code Collective is the exciting creation of the five members of Midwest Mystery Works, uniting their signature characters in a high-stakes battle against a deadly enemy, backed by hijacked technology.

314 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 8, 2026

About the author

Brian Lutterman is the author of the mystery-thrillers Bound to Die, a Minnesota Book Award runner-up, and Poised to Kill, described by the Midwest Book Review as “. . .a masterfully woven tale of tycoons and terrorists.” Lutterman, a former trial lawyer and corporate attorney, writes cutting-edge corporate thrillers, bringing to life the genre’s outsized conflicts and characters. A graduate of the University of Minnesota and Georgetown University Law Center, he lives with his family in the Twin Cities. He can be found on the web at: www.brianlutterman.com

Reviews

[Jessie Chandler]

excellent thriller!

These five authors embarked on a very challenging journey, and managed to pull off a great story. Highly enjoyable and highly recommended!

[Theresa]

I wasn’t sure how a book with 5 authors would be but I was so impressed! The story is thorough and each character is well developed and pushes the story along. And written so well you can’t tell it’s more than 1 author. I was chosen to ARC this book and it was great!! After 2 deaths involving people with cardiac devices, 5 very different people join together to investigate. #bookstagram #bookreview #loveyourlibrary #readersgonnaread #pagesandprimrose

[Deb Early]

The Kill Code Collective is one of the most original and entertaining thrillers I’ve read in a long time. What makes this novel stand out immediately is the collaboration between five talented Midwest Mystery Works authors—Brian Lutterman, John Baird Rogers, Rob Jung, Chris Norbury, and Julie Holmes—who seamlessly bring together characters from their individual series into one fast-paced, high-stakes story.

The premise alone is terrifying in the best way: implanted heart devices being remotely manipulated to commit murder. It feels chillingly believable and gives the novel a modern, tech-driven edge that keeps the tension high from beginning to end. The conspiracy unfolds layer by layer, and every revelation raises the stakes even further.

Each of the main characters is from each of the authors' previous books. Instead of competing for attention, the characters complement each other, creating the feeling of an ensemble thriller you’d want to see adapted into a television series. The pacing is excellent throughout. The authors balance suspense, action, humor, and character development without slowing the momentum. Even with multiple writers involved, the story feels remarkably cohesive and polished.

Fans of medical thrillers, conspiracy mysteries, and techno-suspense novels will absolutely love The Kill Code Collective. This is a smart, gripping, and highly entertaining read that leaves you hoping the collective teams up again for another novel.

[Jennifer Ostenson]

The Kill Code Collective follows the murders of multiple people that have an implanted medical device for their hearts. There are multiple POVs written by five authors, bringing their protagonists together to solve the crime.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this. I wish that the group got together earlier than 65% through the book. The beginning was a little tedious because they were all following the same leads. I understand that this is how it would work in real life, but as a story I wish they could have followed the leads together and became more of a cohesive unit rather than doing a bunch of sleuthing on their own.
I also liked how each person brought different abilities to the table like the Avengers or a CSI team. Members include a lawyer, a musician, a cop, an airplane mechanic, and a computer genius. I hope that there is a second book to follow the building relationships with these characters.
Thank you to the authors for an ARC of this story.

[Richard Sherry]

The Kill Collective is a thriller/mystery novel set in Minnesota, and is the collaborative effort of a number of writers, each the author of separate mystery/procedural stories. What makes the book interesting—and occasionally challenging—is that each author brings his or her central characters out of their own series and into this one. It’s easy to imagine the editing/structuring discussions that led to the book. Praise to whoever did the final edit, because it becomes an interesting adventure.

Its premise is threateningly possible: someone in the medical device field figures out a way to interfere with an implanted cardiac device. Interfere in the right—or wrong—way and the patient dies in a matter of moments. The science underneath the book’s premise actually exists: my wife had an implanted defibrillator that connected wirelessly to a base station in our home and could be updated remotely. And someone figures out what a great weapon this capability might be.

The book moves from a “device failure” to a larger picture of corporate accountability, and then jumps beyond that to the attempt to blackmail corporate leaders into a takeover. Up against this are “white-hat” hackers, private investigators, grieving friends who have lost loved ones, and cheerful Minnesotans enduring winter and demonstrating hospitality.

I give kudos to the sense of locale, as the book moves believably through the Twin Cities and out into “lake country” and back. The story is well anchored, and the action moves believably to introduce our investigators and their separate skills and then finally bring them together as a collective to understand and overcome both corporate and individual treachery and greed.

The authors successfully create—or draw in—the various investigators, introducing their histories or previous experiences without unnecessarily distracting from the action. This may seem a trivial point, but it’s not—how do you “reference” a character’s past exploits without dragging a chapter or several chapters down? Without diminishing The Kill Code Collective, it’s the “Avengers” problem: a bunch of superheroes have to work together to fight evil. These aren’t “Earth’s mightiest heroes,” but each character does come alive and interests us. It’s enough to make you want to go read the separate books about them.

I was less satisfied with the creation of one of the primary villains of the story, a corporate insider who became less believable the longer he was on stage; the story succeeds for me with two other characters in part because “less is more.”

Does the book have a weakness? Maybe it’s a Minnesota weakness: some of the dialogue seems both flat and perfunctory. “We have to get these facts on the table so we can move people around and get closer to solving the problem.” It’s not that the dialogue doesn’t sparkle, sometimes, because it does. In Milton’s “Il Penseroso” we have the line about speech “where more is meant than meets the ear,” suggesting that speech brings with it mysteries, overtones, threats, hopes, dreams, and hinting that if we put our mind to it, we can discover them. Sometimes the dialogue here is at the level of “pawn to king 4” as we move characters about.

Worth your time, and not just as a regional novel.

[Julie]

I was given an advance copy of this book. I wasn’t sure what kind of read this would be. I’ve been a part of collective works in some of my writing, and it was tough. These authors were familiar to me as I have read Chris Norbury, Julie Holmes and Brian Lutterman’s individual mysteries. I knew to expect excellent writing and an enticing mystery from them, but five writers, with different ideas working together on a mystery that works, holds readers’ attention and enthralls you throughout the entire book? I was skeptical but they succeeded. The characters are well developed, interesting and familiar, if you’ve read any of their individual works. If you haven’t, after reading The Kill Code Collective: A Midwest Mystery Works Thriller, you will look for these authors. I will, especially those I haven’t read. It takes talent to write a mystery of this excellence, if you are one writer, but hats off that five talented writers came together to give us a book we will remember

[Christine Husom]

I have enjoyed books written by each author in this joint effort. I was intrigued when I heard they planned to bring their characters—from different walks in life—together in a collaborative mystery. The crime in The Kill Code Collective? Someone is hacking into implanted heart devices to kill people, but why? The protagonists, the reasons they’re involved, and their roles in solving the crimes, are woven together throughout the book in a seamless and believable way. Tension builds as the story unfolds, with heart-pounding scenes as the end nears. It’s an intriguing read with a gratifying end. Thank you, team!

[Fay Wallin]

This book was really a puzzle with many pieces! Five authors combined to create a great read; it blends in characters from the authors early books... SOME characters good, SOME questionable! But the characters cross paths one way or another to solve murders that are happening; the events meld medical emergencies, computer hackers, airplane employees, LE, medical device manufactures and much more! It's a fun ride and I didn't know what would happen to the characters until the end chapter!

[Bert Haagenstad]

This book is one of those that you can't put down. A page turned from beginning to end. The ability to create a great read with many characters involved draws you into the book. The twists and turns build the intrigue to the last page.

[Sandra]

Very fine medical thriller, with lots of interesting characters!

[Louise Schwartz]

Great mystery and enjoyed the characters teaming up together. We'll done!

[Mary Seifert]

Hold onto your hat when you begin The Kill Code Collective. It’s a fast-paced, compelling, frightening seamless collaboration among five fabulous award winning Minnesota mystery authors that will keep you turning pages and glad you’ve been along for the ride.

[Happy Reader]

As an uncompensated advance reader, I received a copy of Kill Code. I really found this fast paced medical thriller hard to put down. The tightly woven plot was exciting, and the authors lead the reader through a tangled web of potential perpetrators with various motives and skills. The setting was in Minnesota in winter, which added to the cold urgency of solving the mystery. I found it to be creative, and an enjoyable read.

[Don Lucast]

A Cleverly Written Intriguing Puzzler

The Kill Code Collective is an inventive mixing of characters, some of them new to me, who combine their individual skills to unravel a scheme to take down a large medical device company. Pen, the inquisitive and persistent lawyer, Quinn, the airport police detective, his close friend Sierra, and Weezy, computer hacker extraordinaire, team up to stymie the conspiracy and save innocent lives. It keeps the reader engaged.

[JJ Harrigan]

When I was younger, I thought that the best movie of all time would be a murder mystery in which Superman, Batman, Spiderman, and the Incredible Hulk all worked together on a crime.

Lutterman and his four co-authors go that idea one better. They each took their protagonist from previous novels and set them to work on the same case.

The story starts when Julie Holmes’s airline mechanic Sierra Bauer witnesses the mysterious death of an old friend at the Minneapolis-St Paul airport. To answer her questions about the sudden death, she needs a corporate attorney and finds one in Brian Lutterman’s Pen Wilkinson. A second victim shows up, a prominent conductor, which requires the help of a musician. Enter Chris Norbury’s Matt Lanier, who also has useful detective skills. But the real problem involves tracking down a computer whiz who kills people by hacking into their implantable cardiodefibrilators. This requires the services of John Rogers’ Weezy Napolitano who is a nationally recognized cyber-security wonk. And when the plot explodes internationally, they need an international fixer, Rob Jung’s Hawk.

Adding credibility. Each of the authors has a background that gives them intimate knowledgeable of their characters. Julie Holmes was indeed an airline mechanic, Brian Lutterman a corporate lawyer, Chris Norbury a musician, and John Rogers an expert in medical device startup companies as well as cyber-security. Rob Jung has none of the nefarious qualities of his fixer Hawk in this story, but he has become a valuable middle man for all sorts of ventures in his home state of Minnesota.

In less skilled hands, this could have been a mess. But the authors did a great job of cross-editing their work so that most scenes pass seamlessly from one to the other. Focusing five minds on the same story opens the possibility for lots of surprises. This leads to a story with more twists than a pretzel, as the saying goes. It gives you some good guys who are very, very good. And it gives you some bad guys who are very, very bad.

A curious thing happens when you’re reading about characters you’ve known from earlier books. You begin comparing the character in the current collaborative story with the earlier ones. For me, there were a couple of characters I like better in the collaborative story than I did in the original, Matt Lanier and Weezy Napolitano. Pen, on the other hand, I liked better in the earlier story I’d read. In any case, you will find all these characters compelling.

Highly Recommended.

[Karl Jorgenson]

A snappy, fast-paced thriller built around a medical device company and the unscrupulous hackers who have found a way to mess with implanted pace-makers. The mere idea of the crime, turning life-saving implants into life-ending bots, is enough to make us all shudder. Fortunately, an ensemble cast of investigators, hackers, and thrill seekers is on the job: the collective. The book is also the product of a collective, five mystery/thriller authors have contributed their expertise AND their sharp, inquisitive characters. The extra fun here is to get, in a single story, five recurring characters with substantial previous adventures. I knew one of the characters well from previous books, a second from a single read. The other three were new to me, and now I can see why I should pick up some of their stories. One of the impressive aspects of this novel is the prose itself: while the characters are distinct and often in conflict, the writing is uniformly clear and well-paced. There’s no sign more than one cook has prepared this feast; perhaps that’s due to competent editing, perhaps it’s the natural result of expert writers working out their differences. The result speaks for itself. The book has just launched; I read an ARC.

[Larry F. Sommers]

This collaboration knocks the ball out of the park. It’s the kind of good, clean fun that will hold your attention on the beach, at a cabin in the woods, or in bed before you turn out the lights.
The plot starts fast with a death among passengers getting off a plane in Minneapolis. Aircraft mechanic Sierra Bauer and her partner, police detective Quinn Moore, try to solve the puzzle of what seems an unlikely heart attack. Half a dozen diverse characters are drawn into the mystery: international traveler Gina Apate, a former operative for the Greek intelligence service; medical device company exec Stephen Hartsburg; jazz musician Matt Lanier; computer whiz Weezy Napolitani; investigative lawyer Pen Wilkinson; and the enigmatic international fixer Henri Harte.
Each character is intriguing in his or her own right. Together, like the proverbial blind men describing an elephant, they stumble and fumble until they begin sharing information. It makes for an exciting and spellbinding ride.
The work of five different authors comes together seamlessly to make a book that’s hard to put down.

[Valerie Biel]

The Kill Code Collective is a triumph of collaborative storytelling! Five suspense writers, each with their own distinctive voice and cast of characters, somehow weaving it all into a single, seamlessly cohesive thriller. That alone would be impressive. That it's also genuinely gripping, with a plot that twists in all the right places, makes it exceptional.

What the five members of Midwest Mystery Works have pulled off here is no small feat. Multi-POV novels are hard enough for a single author; building one across five different writing styles, with five sets of established characters, and still delivering a story that reads as unified and purposeful—that's the literary equivalent of a standing ovation moment. The pacing never falters, the voices stay distinct without ever feeling disjointed, and the plot holds everything together with real skill.

Great story. Great writing. A thriller that earns every twist. And yes, now I have five authors' back catalogs to work through. I'm not even a little mad about it.

[Christine DeSmet]

Set in a perfectly frigid Minnesota winter, this is a suspenseful, fast-paced, smart medical thriller featuring unforgettable male and female characters in a relatable and scary situation. Many people in real life have implanted medical devices for various reasons. What if control of the signals to those devices fell into the wrong hands? The race is on to bring down an international criminal cabal with its tentacles reaching into a Midwest medical device company and other people with power. Clever plot surprises arise with every chapter featuring well-drawn antagonists as well as the collective of men and women crime fighters. Uneasy friends at first—all with different talents—soon find themselves leaning on each other to step up their game and fight for what’s right all the way to an action-packed ending. Let’s hope there’s a Book 2 because this collective is fun. Solid writing, well-edited! ~ Christine DeSmet, series mystery author and writing coach

[Marlene Swenson McShane]

I enjoy mystery/thrillers. The Kill Code Collective checked all my boxes. The characters were all very interesting yet each had a different personality and talents that gave the story continued interest! If one has read the books of the authors, you can imagine how the story may go when the characters work the case or mystery. I enjoyed that aspect.
The story kept me guessing and wanting me to keep turning the pages. I thought it was well written especially knowing that 5 authors wrote this and how well each chapter blended with the next one. If I was asked which character I enjoyed most it would be very difficult. I enjoyed Pen and Henri Hawke.
I highly recommend this book.

[Laurie Buchanan]

“The Kill Code Collective: A Midwest Mystery Works Medical Thriller” is a sharply crafted, well‑researched medical thriller cowritten by five standout Midwest mystery authors. It delivers all the sparks readers crave: real‑world chaos, high‑stakes danger, and a team of compelling, well‑credentialed heroes you can’t help but root for.

Written with confidence and flair, the novel blends crisp pacing, lean prose, and authentic industry insight into a story that moves with purpose. The result is a crackerjack thriller that keeps the pages turning and the tension humming from start to finish.

[Kathy Medlin]

Intriguing Mystery and Suspense
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2026
Format: Kindle
A collaborative novel by 5 MN authors, bringing together their amateur detectives to solve mysterious deaths related to a cardiac device. Initially, it was an effort for me to keep track of each character, but when their individual investigations soon led to each other, the plot thickened and the action-packed story kept my attention all the way to the unexpected ending. The story flowed very well; I highly recommend!

[Kathleen Huebsch]

I love a book with high stakes, engaging tech, and memorable characters. Several times while reading The Kill Code Collective, I exclaimed, “WOW,” then delightedly kept reading. I’m not sure how the writing team managed to bring five strong, compelling characters together to solve a very realistic medical-device mystery, but they did. I hope they collaborate again, but in the meantime, I’ll be catching up on the previous adventures of Pen, Sierra, Matt, Weezy, and Henri.

I received a free copy of the book, but that did not affect my “too good to put down” enjoyment of reading it.

[Robert Wottreng]

This book is well written and keeps you engaged in the suspenseful storyline. The authors have masterfully incorporated their best characters from other successful books and it makes for a thrilling group of leaders in their own right who work tirelessly for a just and right solution to a life threatening situation. This book will make you want to keep reading and find out what happens at the end!

[C.B. Wilson]

Kill Code Collective delivers a smart, layered mystery with a genuinely complex plot that kept me guessing until the end. The multiple viewpoints add depth and tension, though this is definitely a book that rewards paying close attention. Every perspective matters, and the pieces gradually come together in a really satisfying way. If you enjoy twisty mysteries with intricate storytelling and don’t mind staying fully engaged, this is a compelling read worth the effort.

[Robin Gault]

What do you get when five authors write a crime book together? A great book from the authors of the Midwest Mystery Works. Individually they are great story tellers but together they have created a nonstop book of suspense, murder and mayhem. I want now to go back and read their individual books. A great read.
I'm a member of the ARC readers.

[Roberta Edwards]

I was looking forward to reading/reviewing this book and got into it right away. But then there was a whole cast of characters that I had a hard time keeping track of especially with a few of the last names all beginning with the same initial. The story line itself was interesting, but didn't hold my interest as I had hoped. A little too techie for me.

[John J]

What a novel idea. Great work. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Cheryl]

Loved it!

[Marveen]

I was really glad to receive an advance copy of a book I had been looking forward to reading. I didn't expect a book co-written by five authors to be so cohesive. I expected disparate chapters with different protagonists with different point of views but the characters by the different authors worked well together and the storyline was seamless. The core of the storyline was very interesting and the intrigue was plausible. I look forward to another collaborative effort in the next adventure. Worst nightmare to have your implanted medical devices going rogue instead of being your lifesaver.