Clutterkill

by Gary Paulsen

A sniper was loose on the Chicago strip... And the city was running scared. He killed from the rooftops, swiftly, terribly and at random. Lt. Ronnie Gold of Homicide had a difficult job on his hands. All he were a few spent bullets and a vague description. He'd been going by the book of accepted police procedure, but he hadn't got very far. Now it was time to throw away the book!

220 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Gary James Paulsen was an American writer of children's and young adult fiction, best known for coming-of-age stories about the wilderness. He was the author of more than 200 books and wrote more than 200 magazine articles and short stories, and several plays, all primarily for teenagers. He won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1997 for his lifetime contribution in writing for teens.

Reviews

[Will Cockrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grimy, noirish cop character study murder mystery that I'm still amazed never got turned into a movie-of-the-week back in the 80s. It's fascinating to read it probably 40 years after the publication date and think about how much the "story language" of this kind of book has changed, and also how much the subject matter it covers has changed. There's a ton of sexism and homophobia with a shake or two of racism for good measure, and it all *really* stands out reading this book in 2023. Also, the "police procedural" aspects of the story are laughable to an audience that's been exposed to two decades of CSI-flavored copaganda. But every character you encounter is vivid and interesting, even the ones that only show up for a paragraph or two, and the prose is fantastic. Descriptive, evocative, natural, and it reads like butter. Barely a word in the entire book feels forced or stilted.

You absolutely have to keep in mind that it was written in like eighty-two, but it's a fantastic read. It was one of my favorite books in high school, and it's honestly amazing how well it holds up to my memories of enjoying it.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was clearly written in the late 70s early 80s. The language used to describe sex workers and LGBTQ+ people is offensive for sure. But leaving that aside the lead character is investigating two different heinous crimes and seems to somehow figure them out in the last 10 pages. It was a lot of behind the scenes because the process wasn’t shown on the page and the conclusions he jumps to are never even hinted at in anything that shows up in the prose. This is the first review on this book and I bet it is also the last.