This was my first book by Jennifer Hillier, and apparently she decided there was no need to ease me into things.
The Butcher starts off crazy and really doesn’t let up. I went into this expecting a mystery about an aging former police chief famous for killing a serial killer decades earlier.
Well…that wasn’t exactly what I got.
Instead, Jennifer Hillier lets us in on a HUGE secret almost immediately. We know who the killer is.
Everyone else just has to figure it out.
And somehow, knowing the truth made watching everything unravel even more suspenseful.
Amazon Summary
In 1985, Edward Shank famously gunned down the Beacon Hill Butcher, ending the serial killer’s reign of terror over Seattle. Now in his eighties, the decorated former police chief has left his Victorian home to his grandson Matt and moved into a nearby retirement community.
Matt, an accomplished chef and restaurant owner, thinks his life is finally falling into place—until he discovers something buried in the backyard that reveals a horrifying secret about his grandfather.
Meanwhile, Matt’s girlfriend Sam, a true crime writer, has spent years trying to solve her mother’s murder. She’s always believed her mother was one of the Butcher’s victims, despite being killed two years after the supposed serial killer died.
When new victims begin appearing with disturbing similarities to the original murders, Sam starts digging deeper. But the closer she gets to the truth, the more dangerous her investigation becomes—and the answers are much closer to home than she realizes.
My Thoughts
This book started off CRAZY.
At first, I thought we were simply getting inside the mind of Edward Shank, an aging former police chief whose biggest claim to fame was taking down the notorious Beacon Hill Butcher.
Little did I know…
EDWARD IS THE BUTCHER.
And Jennifer Hillier doesn’t even make us wait until the end to find out!
I actually loved that choice because it completely changes the kind of suspense you’re dealing with. This isn’t really a Who did it? mystery.
We know who did it.
The question is when everyone else is going to figure it out—and what Edward is going to do when they get too close.
Of course, things get even crazier when we get to Matt.
Matt is Edward’s grandson, a talented chef and successful restaurant owner who seems to have a pretty great future ahead of him.
Until he accidentally kills one of his employees.
WHAT?!
And instead of calling the police, Matt turns to Grandpa for help.
That’s when we start seeing just how much darkness there might be in Matt, too. He has serious anger issues and a capacity for violence that starts making a lot more sense later.
Meanwhile, Sam is investigating the murder of her mother, Sarah.
Sarah was killed after Rufus Wedge—the man everyone believed was the Beacon Hill Butcher—was already dead. Sam has always suspected that her mother’s murder was somehow connected to the Butcher, and eventually she meets a woman who had been a close friend of Sarah’s.
Finally, Sam has someone who might be able to give her some answers.
And then that woman is murdered too.
At this point, I’m thinking, WHAT IS HAPPENING?!
Except we already know what’s happening.
Edward never stopped.
This eighty-year-old man isn’t simply sitting around a retirement home reminiscing about his glory days.
He’s still killing people.
Even people at the retirement home aren’t safe from him!
But somehow, Jennifer Hillier still had one revelation waiting that completely blindsided me.
Matt and Edward start talking about Matt’s mother. Matt has never really known much about her because she died by suicide when he was young. He’d always been led to believe drugs were behind everything that happened to her.
They weren’t.
Edward raped his own daughter.
And Matt isn’t Edward’s grandson.
MATT IS HIS SON.
That one smacked me right in the face.
Suddenly, Matt’s violent tendencies and anger take on an entirely different meaning. The darkness we’ve been seeing in him isn’t just there to make us question his character. Jennifer Hillier has been quietly building toward this absolutely horrifying family secret.
And poor Sam walks into the house at exactly the wrong moment.
Edward attacks her and puts a cleaver straight through her chest.
I genuinely thought we were going to lose Sam. Thankfully, she survives.
Edward escapes and heads for his cabin, but there’s no way he’s going to allow himself to spend the rest of his life behind bars. He gets exactly the ending he wants: going down in a blaze of glory in a confrontation with police.
Except this time, everyone finally knows the truth.
The real Beacon Hill Butcher is dead.
What I really enjoyed about this book was how different the suspense felt. Jennifer Hillier wasn’t trying to make me spend the entire book guessing the killer’s identity.
She handed me that answer almost immediately.
Then she made me watch as Sam, Matt, and everyone else slowly moved closer and closer to a truth I already knew.
But I didn’t know everything.
I didn’t know how deep Edward’s secrets went. I didn’t know what had really happened to Matt’s mother. And I definitely didn’t see the revelation about Matt’s parentage coming.
Knowing who the killer was didn’t take anything away from the story. If anything, it made some scenes even more nerve-racking because I knew exactly how dangerous Edward was while the people around him had absolutely no idea.
And that Matt revelation?
Nope. Didn’t see that coming at all.
This was dark, disturbing, twisty, and incredibly entertaining.
For my first Jennifer Hillier book, I’d say we are off to a VERY good start.
Final Recommendation
I definitely recommend The Butcher to readers who enjoy dark psychological thrillers, serial killer stories, disturbing family secrets, and mysteries that aren’t necessarily about figuring out who committed the crimes.
This one gives you the killer early and then makes you wait for everyone else to catch up—all while revealing that the truth is even worse than you realized.
If you like thrillers where you think you already know the big secret only to get smacked in the face with an even bigger one, The Butcher is absolutely worth reading.