Kill to Fit

Rick Train #2

by Bruno Fischer

Bruno Fischer was born in Germany in 1908, and emigrated to the United States with is family in 1913. Two of his most famous novels are The Restless Hands and The Evil Days . His plots revolve around the common man, who is put into a situation where his morals are put to the test. Fischer was also one of the early members of Mystery Writers of America.

100 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

Bruno Fischer was the author of 25 novels and more than 300 short stories, a contributor to "Black Mask" and "Manhunt" magazines, and the uncrowned king of the notorious 'weird menace' pulps. He wrote also as Russell Gray and Harrison Storm.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kill to Fit is Bruno Fischer's ode to the grand old tradition of a murder mystery weekend up in the Catskills where all the guests are in an isolated resort and they start dropping like flies. Typically, the fun in the murder mystery weekend tales is that you know the murderer is one of the people at the resort but each and every one of them has a motive for the murder or murders and they each start getting
suspicious of the others.

Fischer does a fine job with his story, leading the reader to at first suspect that it's really a story about a man returning to the old family home in a small town. Fischer also muddied up the waters by offering us a big time hoodlum on the run and a corrupt local law enforcement.

Ultimately it is a story about the characters all gathered together at Aunt Susan's resort-like retreat for boating and shooting competitions and large community meals. Suspicion falls on each in turn as you suspect they may have nefarious motives as well as petty jealousies.

Normally, I tend to shy away from the murder mystery weekend stories,but Fischer really does a great job of holding the reader's interest.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

A traditional mystery rather than a noir. A big group of people are out to a lakeside estate for a fourth of July weekend and one of them is murdered. Whodunnit? Rick Train, our narrator, must solve the crime. Fischer writes smoothly and with impeccable craft, but this one moves pretty slowly, it's almost halfway into the novel before the murder occurs. Plenty of plot complications and twists and investigative activities from there and that picks the pace up to the end. I'd recommend it for mystery lovers, but if your taste goes to noir thrillers you could skip this one.