"A murdered family. A dying serial killer. A missing child. DC Max Wolfe hunts a pitiless killer through the streets of London. By the Sunday Times number one bestselling author of The Murder Bag.
On New Year’s Day, a wealthy family is found slaughtered inside their exclusive gated community in north London, their youngest child stolen away.
The murder weapon – a gun for stunning cattle before they are butchered – leads Detective Max Wolfe to a dusty corner of Scotland Yard’s Black Museum devoted to a killer who thirty years ago was known as the Slaughter Man.
But the Slaughter Man has done his time, and is now old and dying. Can he really be back in the game?
And was the murder of a happy family a mindless killing spree, a grotesque homage by a copycat killer – or a contract hit designed to frame a dying man?
All Max knows is that he needs to find the missing child and stop the killer before he destroys another innocent family – or finds his way to his own front door …
Even the happiest of families have black, twisted secrets that someone is ready to kill for…"
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This book is what I call a good old-fashioned crime caper with loads of action, thrills and violence which is fast paced and well written and I thank the publisher, Random House UK Cornerstone, for providing me with a copy via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
This is the second book in the Max Wolfe Series and although I have got the first one (The Murder Bag), I am ashamed to say that I forgot about it so haven’t read it but after reading The Slaughter Man, I won’t do that again as I would quite like to get to know the main characters a little more.
The book starts with a bang and doesn’t let up. The fast pace and continuous action together with an easy writing style makes this hard to stop reading. The story was gripping, compulsive and plausible and the characters were complex, interesting and believable. DC Max Wolfe was likeable but his daughter, Scout, even more so - the sections devoted to their relationship were a welcome relief from the sometimes harrowing details of the crimes and investigation. These details were however very interesting. I particularly enjoyed the sections about The Black Museum and the description of the process of death, although grim, was just excellent.
There were a few things that I found a little odd - like how Max acted and was treated like he was a much higher rank than his Detective Constable (he needs a promotion) and how he and his colleagues put themselves in danger so easily when entering the house of paedophiles and when visiting the travellers site - I just don’t think this would happen in real life but then, this isn’t a nonfiction book so I just went with it and it did make for exciting reading.
Overall, I enjoyed this and would recommend to anyone who enjoys a good crime thriller with twists and turns aplenty which will keep you on your toes and enthusiastically turning the pages.
Yet another great British author to keep my eye out for in the future.
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