Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Der Vollstrecker

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Der Vollstrecker by Chris Carter

15 reviews

heidi_84's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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liveyourlifereading's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

A while ago, I read the first part of the Robert Hunter series, the crucifix killer. I will admit it wasn't my favorite, but I do love Robert Hunter, Garcia, the psychology that plays a big role in the book and the fact that the crime scenes and murders are very explicit. And that same opinion continued in the second part of the series.

What I liked about the executioner was the fact that this second part of the series, is build up in exactly the same way as the first part. For me, that means I got into the story a lot better and I knew what top expect, which was to expect the unexpected. It also meant I knew I had to expect a lot of conversations, a lot of thinking and a sometimes very slow story. What changes that a little bit, was the amount of murders that occured and the fact that there were 2 perpetrators.

I will admit, Carter writes books in a way that makes them easy to read through, with shorter chapters, which makes it easier to just read that extra chapter. And with short chapters, I mean 2-3 pages per chapter.

The story was good, I'm not a fan of journalists, or psychic kind of things, but it didn't bother me too much. The fact Carter knows exactly how to pick the perp and the victims and works his story out into the smallest detail, makes every story he writes worthwhile. They may not be the best i have ever read, but they are addicting and I can't wait until I can read further in the series.

If you want to read his books, be prepared for gruesome murder scenes, being left in the dark for a long time, someone who "reads a lot", casual jokes, slow burns, and very well planned motives and history for the charachters. Carter certainly won't disappoint you!

I, again, gave the executioner 3,5 stars.

~ Live Your Life Reading

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remi_san's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Hooked from page 1. No nonsense and short crisp chapters with cliffhanger.. binge reading this series 😁

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slintangel's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

[ NOT SPOILER FREE ] my bullet pointed thoughts.:

• the author seems to offer wikipedia style descriptions of characters regardless of whether they're relevant and uses them as some silly pretense for an introduction or worse... character development. maybe it's all about me being usually turned off by this sort of writing style (jo nesbo comes to mind) but i found it jarring and a little tiresome. did we need someone's lifestory complete with name drops only for them to get killed a few pages later? why not spend that time on some real development for characters like robert or garcia... even hopkins or blake, anyone really.

• the whole subplot felt incredibly unnecessary. i kept thinking the slasher was going to be a set up for a sequel somehow (silly me, i know.) the side characters just didn't contribute much to the story other than extra pages especially with them being forgotten about for several chapters. it's like they served their immediate purpose and were instantly discarded.

• robert is insanely good at everything and everyone loves him. i honestly don't care about this but if it's something that annoys you this isn't the book for you.

• i will not comment on the reveal but just know i have thoughts. what i will talk about however is the blatant, shameless copaganda that doesn't even bother to cover or even make itself interesting. "cops need to break procedure and withhold information... it helps them save more civilians!! it's for the greater good of everybody!!" this is almost word for word by the way, the implications aren't subtle and the dialogue even less so.

• speaking of which, i found the dialogue to be clunky and very exposition heavy. sometimes it didn't feel as if the character was speaking but rather as if they were reciting the script of a forensic files episode. an example of this would be when they speculate on how certain victims' deaths must have taken place and how those individuals must have felt in those moments. i didn't believe in it as a real conversation anyone would have but rather carter's attempt to shove a bit more gratuitious violence for us to clutch our pearls at. robert and garcia continued each other's sentences, on the same wavelength, their revelations coming across as flat and disinterested. none of the tension was palpable because these events were told in such monotone dialogue lacking any interjections or personal effects. in fact, there were hardly any times i could distinguish these two from your average hardboiled cop. isn't that such a sad fate for a literary hero?

• props for being insanely readable i guess, finished this in a day while in a reading slump and though i couldn't stop rolling my eyes at least it was done.

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savage_book_review's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

The second Robert Hunter thriller, this book sees the star of the Robebery Homicide Division of the LAPD face crime scenes that even he has never seen the like of before.

I read this book years ago, and it's definitely the one I remembered best of all of the Chris Carter books I have read (about half the series). The murders in this are particularly memorable in their gruesomeness, and definitely set the tone for the series more than 'The Crucifix Killer' in my opinion. It's certainly not for the squeamish, but where you're looking through the eyes of the detective, the descriptions are objective enough for you to see past the gore to the evidentiary value of the bodies, while simultaneously being subjective enough to evoke an emotional reaction from the reader. It's a very well trodden line.

The plot is clearly well thought out and meticulously paced, taking you through the twists and turns of the investigation and keeping the reader engaged throughout. The eventual reveal of the killer and their motives made sense and it was all to easy to understand, and perhaps even sympathise a little.

I did find the chapters to be a little too short in this one though; for the most part, it still flows well, but on the occasions where you shift from Robert's POV to that of the killer or another character, it's a bit jolting and you don't get a chance to get into their mindset before it's shifted back again. Similarly, a lot of the chapters end with an exclamation from one of the characters at something they've just seen, or another sort of mini-cliffhanger. It's fine at first, but it does get a little repetitive. And when the cliffhanger is resolved on the very next page, it felt a little pointless after the first couple of times.

I also didn't get as much depth from this one. It sticks pretty closely to investigating the case rather than exploring Robert and Garcia's characters in greater detail, which I feel is still necessary at this early point in the series. There are moments where you get more, but not enough. The last scene is a case in point - it felt like a great opportunity to see a little more of the 'real' Robert, but there just wasn't really anything to it and it left me a bit underwhelmed.

There are trigger warnings a-plenty in here; definitely one to read with the lights on!

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