The Butcher - by Jennifer Hillier (Paperback)

About the Book

"Thirty years ago, police chief Edward Shank hunted down and killed the most notorious serial killer in Seattle's history: the Beacon Hill Butcher. Now, eighty years old and retired, Edward is giving up his Victorian home to his grandson Matt, an aspiring chef. While Matt is renovating it, he stumbles upon a gruesome cache. Matt must decide whether he should ignore the sinister secret, go to the police, or take matters into his own hands. And his family's past is feeding disturbing changes in himself as well ... Sam, his girlfriend, believes that her mother may have been killed by the Beacon Hill Butcher - even though the murder took place two years after Edward Shank gunned down the killer. But Sam's search is bringing her too close to the truth ... and right into the path of Matt's terrible secret"--Back cover.

Book Synopsis

In this "skillfully penned tale of murder and cover-up that will keep readers enthralled until the powerful finish" (Fresh Fiction), family secrets and a serial killer from the past converge in this electrifying thriller. In 1985, Edward Shank famously gunned down the Beacon Hill Butcher, ending the serial killer's reign of terror over the city of Seattle. But now in his eighties, Edward's action-packed glory days are long behind him. The decorated former Seattle police chief has given up his high-maintenance Victorian home to his grandson Matt for a quiet life at the nearby Sweetbay Village Retirement Residence, where mac-n-cheese Wednesdays have become the highlight of his week. Though it's hard to watch his grandfather get older, Matt is thrilled to inherit the large house he grew up in. Already an accomplished chef with a popular restaurant and a TV show in the works, Matt's dream life is finally within reach...until he discovers a crate buried in the backyard that holds a secret about his grandfather so terrible, it threatens to ruin all their lives if it ever gets out. Especially his girlfriend Sam's, whose mother was killed when she was only two years old. As Matt struggles with his dark family secret, Sam's obsession with solving her mother's murder continues to grow. A true crime writer now working on a book about the Butcher, Sam has always suspected her mother was one of his victims, even though she was killed two years after the Butcher was supposedly gunned down. But when new victims begin to turn up, their murders eerily similar to the Butcher's all those years ago, Sam realizes she might be right. The more she digs into the old murders, the more dangerous it gets...and the truth is closer to home than she ever could have imagined. "A tense, suspenseful, thoroughly creepy thriller" (Booklist), The Butcher sinks its teeth in you from the very first page.

Review Quotes

"Hillier's third thriller fairly shudders with tension. [She] sends her reader into a labyrinth of creepy twists and grotesque turns...The secrets of the past refuse to keep quiet in this disquieting, taut thriller."

About the Author

Jennifer Hillier is the USA TODAY bestselling and award-winning author of Things We Do in the Dark, Little Secrets, Jar of Hearts, The Butcher, Freak, and Creep. A Filipino Canadian born and raised in the Toronto area, she spent eight years in Seattle, which is where all her books are set. She now lives in Oakville, Ontario, Canada with her husband and son. Visit her on the web at JenniferHillierBooks.com.