The Saint of Wolves and Butchers

By: Alex Grecian

Narrated by: January LaVoy

Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

From the best-selling author of The Yard comes a chilling contemporary thriller about an enigmatic hunter on the trail of a Nazi who has secretly continued his devilish work here in America.

Travis Roan and his dog, Bear, are hunters: They travel the world pursuing evildoers in order to bring them to justice. They have now come to Kansas on the trail of Rudolph Bormann, a Nazi doctor and concentration camp administrator who snuck into the US under the name Rudy Goodman in the 1950s and has at last been identified. Travis quickly learns that Goodman has powerful friends who will go to any length to protect the Nazi; what he doesn't know is that Goodman has furtively continued his diabolical work, amassing a congregation of followers who believe he possesses Godlike powers. Caught between these men is Kansas State Trooper Skottie Foster, an African American woman and a good cop who must find a way to keep peace in her district - until she realizes the struggle between Roan and Bormann will put her and her family in grave peril.

©2018 Alex Grecian (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

“With his artistry of painting a sense of place and time, Grecian delivers a compelling, twisty story driven by fascinating characters. The Saint of Wolves and Butchers makes breathless, gripping, up-all-night reading.” (Nora Roberts)

“A breathtaking thriller with plenty of action and some very clever twists . . . 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.” (Booklist, starred review)

“Grecian has crafted a fast-paced thriller that peels back years of horrific evil hidden beneath the Kansas soil.” (Suspense Magazine) 

A 5

This is a lot of fun to listen to, I'm really sorry it's over. Hunting a Nazi in NW Kansas. Who knew?
There were a lot of German POWs who spent WW2 in camps in Kansas. Some chose to remain in the US rather than return to Germany when the war was over.
But theNazi in this book is not one of these. Excellent character development, snappy
pace, very good story, not too bloody nor filled with car chases
and gunfire. There is this sentence"...smiled like a snake in a hamster cage," which describes one villan. Choose this book and settle in for quality time with a good book.

Good but...

Spoilers:

I was captive by this story. With only 3 hours left, the action was getting to a high point when, I want to kill Scottie’s daughter, Maddie. It is riveting but Maddie’s actions became stupid. I stopped. listening. Frist, Maddie hears the intruders. After telling her mother, she wants to do something other than what her mother told her. Why not call 911? She goes about trying to be amateur detective.

Second, Scottie is furious and worried because her daughter is missing. I got that. Knowing that time is of the essence for missing children and your need to interrogating the burglar, call 911 FIRST.

Third, Maddie appears at a hotel desk in the winter without shoes and a coat. The clerk has no sense of urgency to help her. Her father is there, and he says to her “it is too late to call his room”

Fourth, Damn that Maddie. She is safe in the hotel lobby with the stupid clerk. She panics when she sees her assailant outside of the hotel. Her dad is on his way down. She takes off. She caused problems for Bear and I was ready to kill her.

Fourth, Scottie’s neighbors hear commotion and never call the police. They come out at the end of the event with the line, “was that noise that we hear?”

Fifth in that damn little town, when 911 is finally called, the callers are put on hold.
With the warning that Scottie had and the help of Bear, this could have ended with ours heros in a better position.

I gave the story a 4 because it was a riveting story. I was too disappointed with in the first conflict to continue.

Hours of my life I will never get back.

Aahh, can I take every known plot contrivance for a thousand, please?
Yes, of course....For Final Jeopardy:What did this book make you consider?
Ok, we're back to Final Jeopardy and the answer is :
What is contemplate suicide......You win! You win!
So sorry. I started imagining a new book because this one is so bad.

Disappointed

This book had an intriguing and interesting premise. I purchased it because of that and because I read Grecian’s Scotland Yard series and, for the most part, enjoyed them.
There is something about this book that doesn’t quite work. The character development is shallow which left me feeling like I didn’t really care about any of these characters even though I should have. In fact, the only character I felt invested in was Bear (the dog). He’s the best part of the book. There is a very, very long buildup to the final resolution. Some readers might enjoy this, but it got exhausting and at several points I found myself just wishing for it to be over already. There seemed to be a lot of extra things thrown in to try to make it more exciting, but it just got boring instead.
The narration is fine. The book is average. It’s usually entertaining, but don’t expect much more than that.

Holy sh**. Great story, great performance.

Bear is MVP. Ataku for the win. I love the character development and frequent action.

Travis and Bear

This book has a bit of everything, Nazi doctor fugitive, Nazi hunters, an amazing dog named Bear, a state Trooper who just wants to do right by her district. All of the characters are well fleshed out and nuanced. The premise gets a bit outlandish but the overall feel and flavor of the book reads nuance. Highly recommend! Hope to see Travis Roan & Skottie Foster meeting up again.

Generally a good plot, but some of the dialog exchanges bordered on silly

For the first several hours of the story, the character dialog seemed well-crafted and realistic; however, at about the point when 2.5 hours remained in the story, the dialog seemed unrealistic, to the point of being silly. Example: “he’s following me”... “in a car”? No, he’s on foot, and I’m concerned that he’ll catch up to me in a couple of days (sorry for the sarcasm).

Also, the mother’s (state trooper) reaction to the use of a stun gun to extract information from the guys who kidnapped her daughter - ludicrous.

some missed opportunities

The climax of the book seems to lose sight of some of the major premises from the beginning, much as many blockbuster movies lapse into shootouts and confrontations rather than working through the issues raised by the rest of the book. The old Nazi theme that begins the book is never really dealt with, save to show how it morphs into more home-grown opportunistic mistreatment of others. It was an enjoyable book with interesting protagonists, a young girl who also fails the 'transcend Hollywood memes' test, a way-too-smart dog and some truly horrifying torture scenes. I will be reading more from this author . . .