Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: Mister Slaughter (The Matthew Corbett Novels)

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 15, 2012

Cette chasse à l`homme est palpitante et ne manque pas de rebondissements.Certains passages sont parfois durs mais McCammon nous offre un très bon thriller.Ceci est le 3è tome des aventures de Matthew Corbett.Bravo!

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cbuddy

Excellent Addition to The Corbett Series

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 6, 2010

Mister Slaughter is an excellent addition to McCammon's Matthew Corbett series. It is better than the previous Queen of Bedlam, and can be read at a good clip. It could use more character development, but nonetheless it is good summer reading.

I look forward to his next volume in this series.

2 people found this helpful

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Surprisingly Boring

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 17, 2012

Ever since McCammon's Swan Song, I have been a fan. His detour from the horror genre into this historical mystery series covering the adventures of Matthew Corbett in colonial America has been very entertaining. This third outing started with a well depicted tavern brawl. The description of characters and action was first-rate and promised a rousing novel. Unfortunately that was not the case despite a Jack the Ripper-type protagonist, an unceasingly fascinating backdrop, and the well-established, earnest character of Corbett. What results is a repetitive chase with unnecessary gore and some lazy stereotypes. The latter most example is a Native American who can only be related to because he had been Shanghai'd into a theater show in Britain at a young age - therefore he knew English and its customs. I still intend to read the fourth in the outing and hope that Corbett is placed in a plot requiring more nuanced detection.

One person found this helpful

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L. Cothren

Review is for the perplexing lack of a Kindle edition for the third outing in this series!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 20, 2019

These are wonderful books, but it's ridiculous that all of the Matthew Corbett books are available on Kindle except for this one, the third in the series. Given that they should be read in order, I now have to wait until this is available on Kindle in order to read (AND BUY -- HINT, HINT) the rest of them.

Otherwise, this is a wonderful series. Matthew Corbett is an engaging character, and McCammon's writing is at its best here..

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JCStreetSoldier

A Western meets… Hannibal Lecter

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 2, 2023

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If SPEAKS THE NIGHTBIRD reads like Tim Burton’s SLEEPY HOLLOW meets TRUE DETECTIVE, THE QUEEN OF BEDLAM reads like SHERLOCK HOLMES meets GANGS OF NEW YORK, then MISTER SLAUGHTER reads like 3:10 TO YUMA meets THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, by way of James Bond.

MS takes place shortly after TQOB, in which our protagonists Matthew Corbett and Hudson Greathouse are employed to escort a dangerous criminal from an insane asylum to New York—of course things go sideways.

I’m thoroughly invested in the series. What is the most interesting to me is how each book is completely different in style and tone and sub-genre, and yet the story continues. That could be a turnoff to some; that could be a highlight (personally, I prefer the dark atmosphere of NIGHTBIRD, which may be my favorite McCammon novel).

Also, this book is unapologetically dude-ish and masculine—and there’s nothing wrong with that.

I might also add that this series begs for an HBO tv show adaptation. Tom Holland as Matthew Corbett? Make it happen.

John Doe

Another Amazing Story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 23, 2022

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Every scene fully described had me there in that period of time.

All the characters were fully flashed out. I felt the pace of the story was really good to.

Highly recommend reading the Matthew Corbet series!

James Tepper

Matthew Corbett and the Highwayman

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 21, 2013

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MISTER SLAUGHTER is the third in the series of Matthew Corbett detective novels. Corbett lives in New York at the beginning of the 18th century and works for the London- and New York-based Herrald Agency, a small problem-solving business . In the current adventure, Matthew and senior partner Hudson Greathouse, are hired to transport Slaughter, a dangerous and likely deranged highwayman to New York for extradition back to England to answer for his crimes. Naturally, things go horribly wrong, Slaughter escapes, and Matthew must track him down in the wilds of the New York countryside and environs and recapture him.

This novel is by far the bloodiest and most violent of the three. Slaughter is a clever monster who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, his freedom, leaving behind a trail of mayhem, gore and extreme physical and psychological violence. Matthew is aided in his hunt by two excellent supporting characters, a young London-educated Seneca indian brave and a very tough and resourceful young teenaged boy. There are a couple of ancillary mysteries and side plots to be negotiated along the way, some amusing and some that foreshadow events that will unfold in future novels.

While MISTER SLAUGHTER surely is historical fiction, and there is a lot of history here, McCammon plays the history a little faster and looser with than he did in the first novel, and some might object to non-period speech styles, but this did not bother me at all, although I did take note of it. There is an afterward in which McCammon explains that after he wrote the first novel that needed to be set to coincide with the end of the witch hunting era, he decided that a New York of the 1730s was a more interesting setting for the remainder of the series than that of turn of the century. Not wanting to age Matthew into his 50s, he decided to take certain liberties with the times and places. I understand the decision, even if it does confuse a bit of the history. If I had to work up a criticism of the novel, I guess it would be that some of the events near the end are just a bit over the top, and Matthew's physical prowess seems at times just a bit too limited to go one on one with the giant and far more experienced killer, Slaughter.

MISTER SLAUGHTER is the fastest paced of all the novels so far, and contains bits of intentional humor to offset the extreme horror that is all around whenever Slaughter is in the picture. While I do miss the supernatural horror that McCammon used to write (and in fact still does occasionally), his last half-dozen books or so, while more mainstream, are just as good (or better) and just as enjoyable as anything that he has written. I'll be ordering THE PROVIDENCE RIDER, the fourth and most recently published entry in the series, as soon as I post this review.

Recommended.

J.M. Tepper

7 people found this helpful

Richard Fitzgerald

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly....

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 10, 2010

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The Good: As usual, McCammon has a writing style that flows easily. So easily, in fact, that before you know it you've whisped past 50 pages or more. That is one think I have always enjoyed about his books. He writes with such a style that you never feel bogged down by detail or cumbersome dialogue. McCammon tells you what you need to know in order to get the flavor of his story and move on. I truly appreciate his style. As stated above, that style is evident in this book. Matthew moves along with the other characters seemlessly as they navigate the good ol' 1700's. The story moves along at an enjoyable pace, carrying with it likeable and realistic people who never seem out of place. There are twists and turns, each of which are very McCammon-esque, if you are familiar with his writing style.

The Bad: A point of frustration for me came during certain decisions our protagonist makes. At times he seems inches away from resolution when suddenly he decides - then justifies - doing something other than getting the bad guy. I know this is vague but I don't want any spoilers and if you do or have read the book, you probably know what I am talking about...

The Ugly: There is only one part of the story I wish was not there...and yes, I'll tell you just a bit...Slaughter happens upon a farmhouse with a very Christian family and he does some pretty horrific things to them. I could have without the details that were included. I like to read but I don't need to read such things that make my stomach knot up simply because they mirror every day life. I truly wish the scene was removed or not written at all but what are you gonna do? In a sense, it happens rather quickly so be warned...That is the ugly.

The Verdict: Overall this is a great addition to Matthew's story. Per an author's note in the back, McCammon seems to be ready to knock out a few more before retiring this character. While I was pretty displeased with the issue I covered in "The Ugly," I think overall the book is well worth the read whether you are a McCammon fan or not.

3 people found this helpful

Dennis

Excellent historical fiction

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 19, 2022

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Third book in an excellent series. Highly recommend.

One person found this helpful

Diane Graef

Matthew Corbett has me in his clutches

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 10, 2018

Verified Purchase

Ok, being a die-hard Robert McCammon fan, having devoured Swan Song (twice, and I bought the Kindle version to read again in light of the current political climate), Boys Life, Wolf's Hour, Stinger, Mine (I have a signed copy), and more recently, The Five and The Border, etc., etc., I was hesitant to read the first book in the Matthew Corbett series -- Speaks the Nightbird. But, it's a McCammon, so I bought it in paperback several years back. Then I looked at it. Thought about it. Put it in a box. Took it out of the box. Read the cover. I did this for years, with a certain amount of distaste - historical fiction? What's next? Bodice-buster gothic romance?! I just couldn't do it. Until a few months ago when I ran out of stuff to read in the house. So, I picked up the paperback, dusted it off, and entered Matthew Corbett's world. I haven't been out since.

Mr. Slaughter is Matthew Corbett's third adventure. I enjoyed it immensely. The pace of the novel is breakneck and Mr. Slaughter's character (to whom we were introduced in Matthew Corbett's adventure number two, The Queen of Bedlam), is a spine tingling 1700's serial killer whose pure evilness rivals the hair-raising Hannibal Lecter. A warning, there is a lot of gruesomeness in this book. And the victims are innocent, which makes the horror all the more shocking and deplorable.

I heartily recommend Mr. Slaughter, with a caveat – you really should read book numbers one and two first to understand the characters and storyline completely. For example, in Mr. Slaughter Matthew is having a crisis of conscience which evolved from something that took place in book number two. I am in the middle of The Providence Rider, book number four. Which is, by the way, also awesome...

I’m not sure WHAT I’m going to do once I’ve read all of Matthew’s adventures. There should be a support group out there somewhere.

13 people found this helpful

5 star		74%
4 star		20%
3 star		4%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Mister Slaughter (The Matthew Corbett Novels)

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