The Butcher by Jennifer Hillier

 

TW - Profanities, sexual assault, r*pe

The mid 80's witnessed a plague of gruesome murders in Seattle. The serial killer was then called the Beacon Hill Butcher. The Butcher killed women and then kept a lock of their hair and their left hands! Edward Shank, the then police chief, was responsible of nabbing the murderer and bringing justice to the place. 

Thirty years later, Shank, who was now widowed and retired, had found home in an old age facility, handing over the keys of his house to his grandson, Matt. Matt is a young man, just building his career with food trucks and a restaurant based on his grandmother's cooking. On renovating and redecorating the house, Matt finds some very gruesome stuff in his garden. Shocked at what he finds, he reasons out what could have led anyone to bury them in the garden and why on Earth would his grandfather keep or dump stuff like this in his backyard? Police reports and old wives' tales unearth secrets that he wasn't ready to hear or accept.

Matt's girlfriend, Samantha has been a victim of the Beacon Hill Butcher - her mother was killed by the same killer. But, the odd thing was that her mother's death took place two years after the "original" serial killer was shot down. So, was there another serial killer on the prowl? Sam has been doing some research and her finds get murkier by the day when a lady messages her on some chat website that she might have some details about Sam's mother. 

Samantha is trying to get to the bottom of the truth. Matt seems to have met the truth, which he cannot reveal. Ironically, he gets himself into trouble and goes to seek help from the very person he has to finally run away from. Who wins this game or cat and mouse? Has it become a tad too late to realize that the killer might still be around? Or is someone copying the old butcher? And will coming to know of the truth make any difference thirty years too late?

By the time you have reached the end of the book, I can't really say if you feel relieved that people have been brought to justice or just exhausted from so much happening that no justice can really bring you peace immediately. 

I listened to it with a pinch of salt. While the story line was good, but the gruesome details are a little putting off. But, such is truth. Have we not heard of enough cases of assault and wonder how on earth could this have been carried out? I think if you don't get too affected by murder details and the starkness of it all, you could give this book a shot.