The Butcher's Wife

by R.J. Law

Robin Patterson has been following her husband — and she’s terrified of what she might find.

She had a perfect life ... until he came home with blood on his shirt.

Just a deer, he said ... an unlucky encounter on a dark, barren road. But then, just one week later, it happened again ...

Blood on his shirt, scratch marks on his back, and a whole lot of excuses that just don’t add up.

Or at least that’s what she claims.

Jimmy Hunter isn’t so sure. A private investigator with a dark, disturbing past of his own, he’s perfectly suited to see through lies.

Only this time, it’s not so easy.

The news says there’s a violent killer on the loose and the local river has a bounty of human remains to prove it.

Is Robin’s husband responsible? Is she telling the truth? Or are they both part of something bigger and more sinister than Jimmy could ever imagine?

Genres: Thriller, Horror, Mystery Thriller, Mystery, Horror Thriller, Fiction, Ebooks

343 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 1, 2022

Reviews

[Kate Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I need to stop trusting tiktok for book recommendations. Started off really interesting and had a lot of potential but just died off and the ending was just so boring.

[Nicole Baertschiger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Saw this book on a booktok thriller page.. big dud.
Story line started out good & I anticipated a big “wow” & was left with… nothing. 👎🏼👎🏼

[Tessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

What the hell. This was so bad 🫠 After 526336 mentions of teeth flashing or snarling (THERE’S CANNIBALISM, I GET IT) I’m so annoyed I didn’t just give up and move to something better. Also I guess it was my bad but I had no idea this was part of a series so the “Claire Foley” reveal just sent me spiraling trying to figure out who the fuck she was supposed to be and why I should care. The synopsis of this was wildly misleading and I haven’t disliked a book this much in a while. Sooo many things were left unexplained and other than Jimmy being a somewhat okay character I truly didn’t like a single thing about this book.

[aneira · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reading this reminded me to never trust ‘BookTok’

[Suzy Hart · Rating 2 out of 5]

How many more recommendations from a teenager on TikTok saying ‘this is the best book I EVER READ’ am I going to take??

[Kaitlin Corbett · Rating 1 out of 5]

What the fuck have I just wasted my time reading? I seen people on TikTok saying this was one of the best books ever with the most jaw dropping twists? TWIST WHERE? was the twist in the room?

It’s very rare I hate a book so much it makes me angry but I am absolutely livid I read this! There was too many characters without names so I couldn’t keep up with everyone, then there was just random people coming in and making a mess? I have so many unanswered questions?! God this was such a waste of my precious free time

[Mia Sidoti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needed a palette cleanser and this was weird and gross and a bit silly/dumb. Lost the plot a few times but sometimes you need a book that you can absorb in a few hours and be done with it.

[hannah.rose.reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is so bad it’s comical. Wanted a quick thriller and this one lacked everything. Bizarre, juvenile, and repetitive. Anywho, since I read the stupid book I might as well tell you about it.

Jimmy Hunter is a former police officer. Currently a private investigator who works both the underworld and the outer world. Rarely is there a plot where they coexist only and do not commingle. Turns out in this one the same bunch controls both.

Robin Patterson has it all. The husband, the money, the clothes, the swanky clubs, the right friends. The truth is she’s in over her head with an inherited lifestyle she wants to escape from. No one escapes, they get butchered. Jimmy is hired to investigate her husband after a string of body parts show up in the waterways and he comes home with blood on his clothes. She plays dumb, knowing he is the butcher and responsible for said body parts. Jimmy risks his life and gives up his resources of a new life to help give her a fresh start.

Ok I made that sound better than it really is. If you read it you’ll be disappointed. You’ll fly through the pages wondering when the twist happens. IT NEVER HAPPENS. The book just ends ;)

[Katie W · Rating 1 out of 5]

literally nothing happens. you discover a few things then they never get explored. the title is barely even touched on.

[Lacey Morss · Rating 1 out of 5]

What the hell was the point? Everything was predictable. There was no thrill. There was no ending. There were no answers. No twists. No turns. You are given random ass characters placed in random ass situations with no explanations. What with the guild? How did it start? Why would anyone want to willingly be a part of it? If it’s so dangerous why would they bring a random ass person to a party and the cry about the consequences later? Then out of no where more mysterious people show up who are more mysterious than the other people but you never learn who they are just that at the moment they seem like less bad guys than the bad guys. No explanation of who or why. The ending what a joke. It’s like the author got tired of writing and was like okay we are done here let’s wrap this one up. I can’t believe I wasted hours (maybe 4-5) reading this.

[Ana Perez · Rating 1 out of 5]

Se siente como un episodio de detectives que alguien está viendo en la tele, es mala producción y mal diálogo pero lo sigues viendo por los cliffhangers. El personaje principal es un hombre blanco y "viejo" y se nota por la forma en la que describe a las personas, en especial a las mujeres. El otro personaje con relevancia es la mujer que tiene 0 personalidad pero está ahí para que pueda existir la historia.

[Megan Barker · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just about couldn’t finish. Who was the editor? Can’t have had one. The first time the author used wreaking I was confused. The third time, I finally figured out they meant reeking. I no longer trust book tok. I expected cannibalism which wasn’t a deal breaker. Just very poorly written.

[Louise Hutchings · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn’t even bother finishing this, I was so incredibly bored. I’ve never left a book 80% read but couldn’t put myself through the torture of another page of predictable, uninteresting writing.

[Julia · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 star is way too many for this book.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Synopsis? Misleading

Writing? After 100 "flashing teeth" and "hisses", I can conclude the writing is poor.

Plot? Boring. Tried to be shocking w the cannibalism but failed miserably at grasping my attention

Rating? Would rate it 1.5 cuz 1 seems mean but I am being soooo generous w a 2.

[Alecia]

TikTok has bamboozled me again and with the same author too. SMH that fact that I didn’t learn my lesson before is beyond me. I don’t even know how I got 43%in but I’m dnf’ing this.

[Andrea McClain · Rating 1 out of 5]

One star is one too many for this turd of a book.

[Katherine Williams · Rating 1 out of 5]

So disappointed! I don’t even know what I just read. The story makes no sense. It’s like reading a long run on sentence.

[Breah Stith · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️

This book went a totally different way than I expected. Not bad just not what I expected.

[Allison Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Admittedly, I got the wrong idea of the plot of this book. More my own fault than the book's, I thought this was more of a typical thriller, wife thinks her husband is a murderer, or maybe she's involved in it, and that is not the leading part of this book. If peoples' entire messed-up lives falling apart around them, told from at least three perspectives, sounds intriguing to you, then by all means give this book a chance. In fact, normally that would be intriguing to me, but the main elements of this story aren't usually things I care to read about, (gangs and cults) but given that, it was still interesting to me.
This book is also what I assume is either a prequel or a tie-in to R.J. Law's Claire Foley series, so while the main events of this book are tied up by the ending, there are a few unanswered questions that are meant to be answered in that series.

[Tash · Rating 1 out of 5]

WOAT

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m not going to lie it took me a while to get through this book. It wasn’t what I was expecting and I almost didn’t finish it, but I never give up on a book.

Once I got into it more it really wasn’t bad. It was pretty good and had thorough characters. I think it wasn’t what I was expecting and that’s not a bad thing! It just was very different than what I thought it would be and it was hard for me to get into it.

I did finish it and give it 2.5 stars because it was a pretty good book, just not my favorite. I enjoyed different aspects of it while others I found hard to get into. I don’t know if I would recommend this book, but to each their own!

[Vicki Owen Burns Perkins · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only reason I finished it was because I used my $10 in Amazon credits to purchase the Kindle version and I didn’t want it to go to waste. Had no idea it was a Claire Foley series. Had no idea who Claire Foley was when she was introduced in the book, and still don’t know. Apparently I have to read the other books in the series to figure out her role in this one. You go into the book thinking that Robin is going to hire a PI to determine if her husband is a serial killer only to find that Robin and her husband are members of a cult who eat people, and her husband is the one who cuts them up for the cult. Ridiculous.

[Claire · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely should not have trusted booktok on this one. Dull but also pretty gross. And the author spent way too much time referring to any characters that weren’t white by their race when it literally had nothing to do with the plot, just came across as lazy and offensive.

[Sarah Mackridge · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't get past the first few chapters. It was so horribly written I could not go any further

[Maura Fritzley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the story line but the improper quotation mark use was distracting. Over not terribly well written and phrases were somewhat repetitious.

[Emily Horton · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible. Grammatical errors and a dreadful plot. Don’t waste your time.

[Kimberly Bain]

Ugh.

Lick their lips, and shrug. Just count the number of times this juvenile author uses these terms. Ugh. This read just sucked.

[Brandy · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 60-70%. The "mystery" wasn't a mystery at all and I lost interest.

[Kasey Perry · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was so hyped on TikTok and I was so excited to read it, but just completely let down. I almost didn't finish it, if not for my determination to see why it was recommended. I still don't know.
I don't know if this is supposed to be part of a series or what but we waited and waited to learn who "the woman" is, only to be told she's "Claire Foley," like that name is supposed to mean something to us, the reader. I even went back to look, thinking I missed something. Nope. No idea why that name matters.
I tried hard to like it. The "protagonist," if you can call him that, was only semi likeable, Robin isn't even that, and I just couldn't get into this at all.