The Saint of Wolves and Butchers

January 29, 2018
This predictable thriller from Grecian (the Murder Squad series) focuses on the hunt for a Nazi concentration camp commander. In 1951, wanted war criminal Rudolph Bormann succeeds in making his way from South America to rural Kansas, where he begins a new life as Rudy Goodman. In the present, Travis Roan, the head of a family foundation devoted to bringing war criminals to justice, comes to Kansas from L.A. after a report that the German was recognized by Ruth Elder, a concentration camp survivor. When Travis arrives at Ruth’s home, the woman’s grown daughter tells him that her mother has recently died. Undeterred, Travis presses on, aided by his canine companion, Bear, a massive animal with the ability to understand Esperanto. Travis gets another unlikely ally in the person of Kansas Highway Patrol trooper Skottie Foster, a single mother who risks her job to help him. None of the characters lingers in the memory, and the early appearance of Skottie’s precocious daughter, who instantly bonds with Bear, presages a climax that veteran genre readers will find unsurprising. Author tour. Agent: Seth Fishman, Gernert Company.

February 15, 2018

When Kansas State Trooper Skottie Foster gives a routine warning to a man in a rest area, she doesn't realize that she is about to be drawn into a tempest. Travis Roan, recipient of the warning, is a Nazi hunter. She listens to him, but she doesn't believe him. The Nazis are all dead, aren't they? If they're not, they're really old. They'll be elderly, true, Travis tells her, but still must be brought to judgment. Then there's the matter of a previous investigator who has vanished, like so many others in the area. When Travis finds trouble in the small town of Paradise Flats, he calls on Skottie, who reluctantly agrees to help him. This contemporary thriller from Grecian ("Scotland Yard Murder Squad" series) is an excellent tale of good vs. evil. Believability can be thin in places, but it doesn't distract. Add in a smart child, a shaggy monster of a dog, and an ubervillain or two with no conscience and you have the recipe for a great modern adventure story. VERDICT Fans of Jack Higgins, Lee Child's Jack Reacher, and early Dean Koontz will enjoy this, as will anyone who appreciates mysterious stranger stories.[See Prepub Alert, 10/22/17; "Editors' Spring Picks," LJ 2/1/18.]--Elizabeth Masterson, Mecklenburg Cty. Jail Lib., Charlotte, NC

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2018
Old Nazis never die--where would thrillers be without them?When Skottie Foster, an African-American trooper in the Kansas Highway Patrol, flags down Dr. Travis Roan's Jeep Wrangler, Grecian (Lost and Gone Forever, 2016, etc.) sets her on a dark and dangerous road. Roan is a Nazi hunter, affiliated with the Noah Roan Foundation, a West Coast version of the Wiesenthal Foundation. Accompanied by an enormous mastiff, Roan is in Kansas to confirm a report identifying Rudolph Bormann, who was once an assistant administrator in Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp--where he indulged his penchant for torture and improvised surgery. Roan initially attempts to deflect Skottie's questions, but by the end of their conversation he has revealed an outline of his mission, and Skottie, fearing he may also intend retribution, alerts the sheriff of the county Roan is headed to. Skottie has problems of her own: She's living with her mother and her daughter is acting up in school, but she can't get Roan out of her mind. Eventually she trails after him, and the two become uneasy allies. Bormann has become Rudy Goodman, and his progress through the years is presented in flashback chapters. At first a rancher and family man, he is struck by lightning and, believing or pretending to believe he has powers, buys a derelict church and establishes a Nazi-like cult. By the beginning of the novel he is, at 94, a political and economic power in his corner of Kansas, and he defends his place vigorously. While Skottie is a believable and sympathetic character, both Roan and Bormann/Goodman are extreme examples of their types. Roan is calm, intellectual, unfailingly polite and correct, and seems at times omniscient, while Bormann is the very model of cruel sadism and belief in his own racial superiority, and despite his age, he manages to continue his grisly hobby. Grecian's narrative also overindulges a bit in its presentation of the varieties of Nazi wickedness, as if every imaginable outrage needed to be included.A solid if unsurprising thriller in need of some restraint.

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Starred review from February 15, 2018
Grecian changes the setting from the 1890s London of his Scotland Yard's Murder Squad series to modern-day Kansas. Enigmatic doesn't do justice to the lethal vigilante Travis Roan, whoalong with his enormous dog, Bearhunts villains of his choosing. Here they're on the trail of a Nazi who has settled in Kansas in the 1950s as the ironically named Rudy Goodman. Formerly Rudolph Bormann, diabolical Nazi doctor and concentration-camp administrator, Goodman has managed to continue his fiendish experiments with the support of followers who believe that a lightning strike endowed him with godlike powers. State Trooper Skottie Foster, an African American single mother, has transferred back home from Chicago and moved in with her mother in the hope of raising her daughter in a safer environment, but when her involvement with Roan puts them all in peril, she is up to the challenge. Foster is one of the most compelling female leads to hit the pages of crime fiction in a long time and definitely deserves her own series. A breathtaking thriller with plenty of action and some very clever twists, this is one of those stories where just when you think things can't get any worse, they do; but the grimly satisfying conclusion makes it worth it for both characters and readers. Fans of David Baldacci and John Grisham will enjoy the unpredictability and unrelenting suspense.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)