Slaughtered: A Jack Slaughter Thriller. K. A. Lugo. Tirgearr
Publishing. November 2018. 223 pp. ASIN: B07JLMPX4.
In
the flash of a moment, Jack Slaughter lost his wife, daughter and favorite
pet. The latter were brutally murdered
and to this day Jack has no idea what happened to his wife. The impact of these losses was more
devastating than anyone could imagine.
He left his work as a Detective and is now operating a Private
Investigation practice. Now a man named
Carl Boyd requests his assistance to find his wife Bonnie who has also
disappeared. Jack’s internal response to
this request is gut-wrenching. During
the same week, a young woman is found murdered and found in a local lake area. Jack’s best buddy, Ray, stops Jack from
making a stupid mistake, attaching Ray’s partner Travers at the scene of that
crime. Jack can’t figure out the reason
for Detective Travers’ animosity.
This
opening scene leads to a discovery beyond horrendous – a series of deaths by
evisceration – bodies that have inhumanly been sliced apart. K. A. Lugo ha gone ultra-dark on this central
part of a multi-layered plot. Still the
depiction of over a dozen bodies is so haunting that one keeps flipping the
pages to find out what will happen, wondering if the perpetrator will somehow
almost miraculously solve this unspeakable crime!
These
stories have a soft side as the author adds that compassionate, human element
that doesn’t just see each victim as a number but as a person with connections
to place, time and other people.
Jack
is sharp but what he misses is amply provided by his partner Ray. A parish priest is the listening, caring
individual who is objective enough to speak truth to Jack in the presence of
unspeakable grief. But beware! The four parts of this plot will not be
resolved as the reader expects. It’s
only when Ray’s wife disappears that the action ramps up and all the clues to
discover the serial killer, Butch, begin to unite!
K.
A. Lugo writes romance novels under another name but here demonstrates how
competently and deftly she pens a crime thriller! This is a must read that this reviewer highly
recommends!!!
