Saturday, November 17, 2018

Slaughtered: A Jack Slaughter Thriller by K. A. Lugo


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!!!