Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
Play To Kill (Monkeewrench #5)
by
P.J. Tracy
It begins with a floater.
When Minneapolis homicide cops Rolseth and Magozzi are called to a derelict stretch of the Mississippi River, they see a bride, facedown, dead in the water. And when the Monkeewrench crew – computer geeks who made a fortune on games, now assisting the cops with special anticrime software – are invited by the FBI to investigate a series of murder vi...more
When Minneapolis homicide cops Rolseth and Magozzi are called to a derelict stretch of the Mississippi River, they see a bride, facedown, dead in the water. And when the Monkeewrench crew – computer geeks who made a fortune on games, now assisting the cops with special anticrime software – are invited by the FBI to investigate a series of murder vi...more
Hardcover, 336 pages
Published
April 29th 2010
by Michael Joseph
(first published 2010)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
2,641)
Thank you to Shelf Awareness for the ARC of this title. It's been awhile since mother/daughter writing team PJ Tracy came out with a new entry in their popular Monkeewrench series. The latest, Shoot to Thrill, should provide plenty of enjoyment for new and established fans. Leo and Gino, the two seasoned Minneapolis detectives, are back in fine form - squabbling like an old married couple while they tackle what at first appears to be a single homicide only to find it's one in a series of sick ye...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Don't get me wrong. I loved this book. Not only is it another P.J. Tracy book, but this one features the Monkeewrench crew more heavily in this book than the previous book (Snow Blind). It's just that this book had one or two things I'm just not entirely sure about.
This volume of the Monkeewrench series focuses on killers who are videotaping their murderous exploits. The FBI is at a loss as they appeal to various internet geniuses (including the Monkeewrench crew) for assistance. The Minneapoli...more
This volume of the Monkeewrench series focuses on killers who are videotaping their murderous exploits. The FBI is at a loss as they appeal to various internet geniuses (including the Monkeewrench crew) for assistance. The Minneapoli...more
Monkeewrench is back, baby! Monkeewrench is a haunted, eccentric, close-knit team of computer geniuses who’ve turned their skills from creating computer games to developing anticrime software. Harley Davidson, Roadrunner, Annie and Grace must a) crack the code killers are using to communicate online b) create software which will separate staged murders from the real thing and c) trace the online snuff films to the killers. Minneapolis homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth are along fo...more
This mother/daughter writing team penned a thriller called Monkeewrench about...probably ten years ago now?...a team of oddball computer hackers including the fabulously bodacious Fat Annie, opera-loivng leather-clad Harley Davidson, lyrcra-clad biker Roadrunner and the incredibly fierce/damaged Grace Macbride. (Grace was highly traumatized by some crazy crazy things in her past and she wears knee-high reinforced riding boots so no one can slash her Achilles tendon and is always armed to the tee...more
This review applies to the audio version.
#5 "Monkeewrench" mystery set in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and featuring MPD homicide detectives Rolseth and Magozzi and the Monkeewrench computer team. Monkeewrench--a very computer saavy bunch who operate somewhat outside the law for the greater good--has been asked by the FBI to assist in tracking down a killer or killers who are posting video of their kills on the web. Their own crack squad can't find anything, so they aren't above seeking outsi...more
#5 "Monkeewrench" mystery set in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and featuring MPD homicide detectives Rolseth and Magozzi and the Monkeewrench computer team. Monkeewrench--a very computer saavy bunch who operate somewhat outside the law for the greater good--has been asked by the FBI to assist in tracking down a killer or killers who are posting video of their kills on the web. Their own crack squad can't find anything, so they aren't above seeking outsi...more
Another in the great Monkeewrench Series. This time murders are being telecast over the Internet throughout the U.S. The FBI enlists the aid of hackers in order to track down who is doing the killing. They also are looking for a software program that can distinguish between staged deaths and the real thing. Enter Grace and her band of computer geeks. Meanwhile the hilarious team of Margozzi and Rolseth have their hands full with a bride found floating in the river. They soon discover the bride i...more
1 like · like · see review
The wait for a new Monkeewrench novel is over. At last. And it was worth it.
The FBI has asked the brilliant Monkeewrench gang for help with a new twist in cyber crime. Film of murders -- real murders in progress -- are being posted on the Internet. There is bragging in
advance. Even finding the bodies and tying the crimes together is a challenge.
With evil this audacious, the Monkeewrenchers can't resist the challenge. Even if it means allowing an FBI liasion into their HQ. Special Agent John Sm...more
The FBI has asked the brilliant Monkeewrench gang for help with a new twist in cyber crime. Film of murders -- real murders in progress -- are being posted on the Internet. There is bragging in
advance. Even finding the bodies and tying the crimes together is a challenge.
With evil this audacious, the Monkeewrenchers can't resist the challenge. Even if it means allowing an FBI liasion into their HQ. Special Agent John Sm...more
May 31, 2010
Kathleen Hagen
added it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2010-audio-books,
2010-mysteries
Shoot to Thrill, by P. J. Tracy, A-minus, narrated by Buck Schirner, produced by Brilliance Audio, downloaded from audible.com.
This is no. 5 in the collaboration between the Minneapolis police, and a group of computer wizards called Monkeywrench. In this one, Monkeywrench and the police are asked to collaborate with the FBI in tracking down computer criminals who seem to be photographing real murders and putting them on the web. More frightening yet, they advertise ahead of time by posting the n...more
This is no. 5 in the collaboration between the Minneapolis police, and a group of computer wizards called Monkeywrench. In this one, Monkeywrench and the police are asked to collaborate with the FBI in tracking down computer criminals who seem to be photographing real murders and putting them on the web. More frightening yet, they advertise ahead of time by posting the n...more
If you liked the previous P.J. Tracy books, you will like this one. It has all the familiar characters and characteristics. I suppose it's inevitable in the Monkeewrench series, but I've noticed a theme in whodunnits lately that's beginning to bother me. It's the assumption that anything you can dream up related to the internet, no matter how complicated and unlikely, is not only possible but is already happening. It has come up in recent books by Thomas Perry, there's always Lisbeth Salander, a...more
A great addition to the Monkeewrench series. This time the crew is caught up investigating serial murders throughout the country. The difference is, the deaths are announced on the internet before they occur, and a video of the actual murder is posted to popular social websites after they are committed, potentially by multiple individuals. There are a few reasons I really liked this book. One is that there was a nice balance of all the recurring characters, including Magazzi and Rolseth, and all...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This book is another in the series of the Monkeewrench computer expert company stories. People are being murdered and an advance clip is aired on the internet. When Minneapolis detectives, Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth attend the scene of the latest murder, it is not what it seems. The corpse is dressed as a bride but is actually a drag queen. When Magozzi tells Grace, a member of the Monkeewrench crew of the scene, she realizes the clip she saw on the internet was not a fake as her peers origina...more
This starts off like all the others. A crime is committed at some point in time, flash forward to something innocuous, a different crime is discovered, computers are involved somewhere. Here though the Monkeewrench crew does something I would have never expected, they trust an FBI agent. Some one kills a man in a wedding gown, the only witness is a drunken ex-Judge. Somehow this leads to the internet being evil.
There is the usual Magozzi moping and worrying about how Grace feels about him. Harle...more
There is the usual Magozzi moping and worrying about how Grace feels about him. Harle...more
May 09, 2010
K.B. Hallman
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
psychological-thriller,
mystery
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
maybe more of a 2.5
It's been a while since I've caught up on the monkeewrench game and this book came out a few years ago... I was in the library between class and study session on Thursday and of course all the books I was specifically looking for weren't available. So I picked up a quick mystery to get me through the rest of the night and indeed I finished it in the freezing cold bath I had to take when I got home from the 100-degree heat to my 100-degree apartment.
I liked the mystery and the...more
It's been a while since I've caught up on the monkeewrench game and this book came out a few years ago... I was in the library between class and study session on Thursday and of course all the books I was specifically looking for weren't available. So I picked up a quick mystery to get me through the rest of the night and indeed I finished it in the freezing cold bath I had to take when I got home from the 100-degree heat to my 100-degree apartment.
I liked the mystery and the...more
I'm anxious for other fans to read this book because I'm not sure what to make of the Grace/Magozzi storyline. I think I know what the author is expressing at the end, but I worry I am projecting my own emotional desire to see them together ....
The FBI comes to hackers for help trying to locate the source of snuff films being posted on social media sites. Is the internet community being used to normalize sociopathic behavior? If so, is there anyway to stop this?
Monkeewrench offers up their skil...more
The FBI comes to hackers for help trying to locate the source of snuff films being posted on social media sites. Is the internet community being used to normalize sociopathic behavior? If so, is there anyway to stop this?
Monkeewrench offers up their skil...more
This was such a disappointment! After waiting all this time, we get this lackadaisical rendering of one of the most exciting ensembles in mystery history! I put this down and read another book because I was so bored. I kept waiting for it to pick up with the old excitement the crew usually brings. While I found the crew enjoyable, the story had huge holes and the idea of actual murders filmed and shown on the internet is not new with this book. But many of the same theme books I've read were mor...more
Read as an audiobook.
This book has been more sedate and grounded than the last couple of Monkeewrench book - a return to the feel of Book 1 (Monkeewrench) and Book 2 (Live Bait) No one is running around the countryside in the dark trying to escape terrorists, no one is driving around the state in a week long blizzard; we have our characters knuckling down and working the crimes in their hometown of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
I can't decide if I felt there was a de-emphasis on the romantic intere...more
This book has been more sedate and grounded than the last couple of Monkeewrench book - a return to the feel of Book 1 (Monkeewrench) and Book 2 (Live Bait) No one is running around the countryside in the dark trying to escape terrorists, no one is driving around the state in a week long blizzard; we have our characters knuckling down and working the crimes in their hometown of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
I can't decide if I felt there was a de-emphasis on the romantic intere...more
Shoot to Thrill by P.J. Tracy (pp. 320)
A rash of scattered FBI cases involving anonymous Internet postings of thrill kills is brought to the super-hacking Monkeewrench team and the attention of the local Minneapolis Police Department.
The mother-daughter team behind the pseudonym, P.J. Tracy are consistently great at what they do and continue to get better with each offering – now with their fifth installment of the Monkeewrench series. They have created fun and unique characters with robust per...more
A rash of scattered FBI cases involving anonymous Internet postings of thrill kills is brought to the super-hacking Monkeewrench team and the attention of the local Minneapolis Police Department.
The mother-daughter team behind the pseudonym, P.J. Tracy are consistently great at what they do and continue to get better with each offering – now with their fifth installment of the Monkeewrench series. They have created fun and unique characters with robust per...more
I really enjoy this series and find that it is one of the ones that spoils me for other mysteries. It's nice to have a new installment in the series - and although this does work well as a stand alone it is richer as part of the series since it is continuing to build on character layers and introducing new complexities that have more meaning if you have the background.
It is - as a blend of cyber and police mystery and hits a good balance between the two. There are some story lines that could us...more
It is - as a blend of cyber and police mystery and hits a good balance between the two. There are some story lines that could us...more
Light, frothy, escapist mystery series fiction and nothing wrong with that! The motley group of super geeks that make up Monkeewrench are up to their old high jinks. This time they stay at home in the twin cities. The crime and crime fighters, including new character John Smith, a soon to retire FBI agent, come to them. Plot involves several simultaneous threads about domestic cyber-terrorism. Just enough gruesome detail is provided as serial killer(s) get busy. I gave this title a 3 based on my...more
The Monkeewrench crew team up with FBI agent John Smith and Detectives Magozzi and Rolseth when serial killing takes to the internet with video footage of real murders posted on public sites. Expert hackers Harley and Roadrunner work feverishly to prevent further killings and Smith finds himself in a strange situation, not only accepting help from people he previously considered criminals, but liking them as well. Magozzi still tries to advance his cautious relationship with Grace who is recepti...more
Well, probably my least favorite of the series. I enjoy the Monkeewrench crew and the various detectives we've come to know from the previous 4, but with every book I dislike Grace a little more. Her haunted diffidance is just reading as plain bitchy and selfish at this point and I have no more empathy for her as a character. While I disliked the ending in this one, in some ways kind of happy about it too.
Also, guessed the killer very early on, and everyone's horror over bad things happening on...more
Also, guessed the killer very early on, and everyone's horror over bad things happening on...more
Aug 28, 2012
Marci
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
first-reads,
2012-goodreads-challenge
A body is discovered floating in the Mississippi river and the cause of death is ruled a suicide. Minneapolis cops Gino and Magozzi think it is an open and shut case. Until the FBI shows up.
FBI agent John Smith invites the assistance of several known criminal hackers in solving a new string of cyber crimes-snuff films posted online. The Monkeewrench crew agrees to help and finds the link between the FBI case and the case the Minneapolis homicide detectives have already deemed closed. Can they c...more
FBI agent John Smith invites the assistance of several known criminal hackers in solving a new string of cyber crimes-snuff films posted online. The Monkeewrench crew agrees to help and finds the link between the FBI case and the case the Minneapolis homicide detectives have already deemed closed. Can they c...more
This was really bad. I've loved the other Monkeewrench novels, but this one was pretty useless. They find one killer, who you kind of feel sorry for. And that's the one whose story you know. Then there's the psycho teacher, who they have no explanation for the two waitresses he terrorized. Then there's the rest of the online killing gang who Monkeewrench tracks down from "an anonymous tip" and gives to the FBI. No explanation. Just people do crap kind of stuff.
And then the ending is very ambiguo...more
And then the ending is very ambiguo...more
I'm not really sure what to think about this book. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't as good as the previous books of the series. I didn't find it as gripping or sitting at the edge of my seat reading. The genre that the writing team of P.J. Tracy promotes is thrillers but I cannot consider Shoot to Thrill a thriller it's more like a suspense read. Because in my mind there is a difference. Or maybe it's just me.
And then they had to "screw up" some of the characters dynamics and relationships. I unders...more
And then they had to "screw up" some of the characters dynamics and relationships. I unders...more
I finally got a chance to read the 5th installment of the monkeewrench novels. I loved the first book but there have been a few less then stellar follow ups. I really enjoyed this novel, the pacing was great and it focused less on the oddities of Grace and her crew (which is a good thing in my opinion). The part that i couldn't stand were the blatant rants against the internet and what problems the internet could cause. It was a vamp throughout the novel and the characters all kept coming back t...more
Loved ALL the Monkeywrench mystery books. This one was really good. Looking for geeky super sluths. . . this is the one for you!
Fun to read - some of the dialogue is good. I thought that I might enjoy the series related to computer hackers but it suffers from the usual flaw of computer-programming-related fiction, the "clickety, clickety, click - okay I have just hacked into the NSA's computers" syndrome. (I actually know people from the NSA and their reaction is "did they describe how they jumped the air gap?". I realize the plot needs to move quickly and you can't have too many characters involved but I know some reall...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| just finished it. | 1 | 15 | Aug 29, 2012 12:21pm |
PJ Tracy is the pseudonym of mother-daughter writing duo P.J. and Traci Lambrecht, winners of the Anthony, Barry, Gumshoe, and Minnesota Book Awards. Their first three novels, MONKEEWRENCH, LIVE BAIT and DEAD RUN, have become national and international bestsellers.
P.J. Lambrecht is a college dropout with one of the largest collections of sweatpants in the world. She was raised in an upper-middle...more
More about P.J. Tracy...
P.J. Lambrecht is a college dropout with one of the largest collections of sweatpants in the world. She was raised in an upper-middle...more
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“pg 132
'...the one and only time in his career he'd been tempted to draw his weapon was when a swarm of gnats had descended on him in the motel parking lot. And what was so wrong about killing all the insects? Who cared if the frogs died with them? The only thing frogs were good for was keeping the insect population down, and clearly they were lousy at that.”
—
1 person liked it
More quotes…
'...the one and only time in his career he'd been tempted to draw his weapon was when a swarm of gnats had descended on him in the motel parking lot. And what was so wrong about killing all the insects? Who cared if the frogs died with them? The only thing frogs were good for was keeping the insect population down, and clearly they were lousy at that.”
Apr 29, 2011 08:51am