Rating: ★★★☆☆
Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Crime
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Publication Date: April 17, 2018
Disclaimer: I received a free eARC copy of this from Penguin Random House First To Read in exchange for an honest review.
When Travis Roan shows up in a small town claiming to be on the trail of a Nazi doctor, Kansas State Trooper Skottie Foster finds herself in over her head as she tries to find the truth.
When Kansas State Trooper Skottie Foster makes a routine traffic stop, she hardly expects the driver to inform her that he’s chasing a man he believes is a Nazi war criminal, a doctor who performed unspeakable experiments at an internment camp during the war. Yet, that’s exactly what Travis Roan claims. What she expects even less is the way Travis’ presence is handled in the next jurisdiction by Sheriff Goodman. Things just keep getting weirder, as Travis isn’t welcome in the small town, and it seems that someone is willing to go to extreme lengths to convince him to leave. Soon, Skottie Foster finds herself dragged into the tangled web, and all she wants is for justice to be served.
☙ I really liked Travis Roan and Bear, his giant dog sidekick, as characters. Actually, the way they’re handled makes me think this is the beginning of what will become an ongoing series, so we’ll see? Travis Roan is from the Roan Foundation, which is a family-owned entity, and his whole family happens to be in the business of hunting down wanted criminals. There are a lot of little hints in the book about his background, from the strange way he talks (which implies English was not his first language), to the fact that he commands Bear in Esperanto, which is a language that is significant to him because of something in his past. I felt like there was just enough exposed for me to like him, but still so much more to explore that I’d love to revisit the character. And of course, Bear is a big, ferocious lug. What’s not to love about that?
☙ I felt the plot and characters were actually fairly unique for an idea that’s been done as often as this. I mean, I’ve seen the basic premise done many times, so I wasn’t sure what to expect going in, but this felt novel enough where I didn’t roll my eyes or anything, for the most part. There were some surprises (not as many as I’d hoped), but I think the strength of it really was in the handling of Rudy Goodman as a character. He’s not evil just because, and he actually has motives (albeit skewed and slightly crazy ones, but I can totally buy his conviction in them).
☙ The cult is fantastically unique and well done … mostly. There was one point that I really just wasn’t a fan of regarding that because it didn’t make much sense logically to me, but as it’s a bit of a spoiler, I won’t go into detail. I loved the background of the cult and its founding and beliefs, not because they were terribly unique, but because the antagonist was so totally bought up in it and convinced of it that during sections with his point of view, it seemed to make total sense from his perspective. Enough so to at least give you pause.
☙ There were so many instances that required me to suspend my disbelief for this plot to work, and I just … I couldn’t. Even from the very beginning. There was really no reason for Skottie Foster to interrogate Travis Roan like he’s a suspect when she approaches him to tell him to leash his (very well behaved, might I add) dog at a rest stop. But fine, I can buy that. However, why would she call ahead to the jurisdiction where he’s heading to tell that sheriff to keep an eye out for his vehicle when he answered all her questions honestly and broke no laws? It just didn’t make any sense, especially considering she gives no reason as to why they should be on the lookout, which seems quite heavy-handed and likely to send the wrong message. Things like this happen over and over again. Obviously, they need to happen for the rest of the plot to “work,” but at the same time, I’m just not buying it. There were far too many of these instances.
☙ When it was thrilling, boy was it thrilling, but mostly, for a large part of the book, it was just slow. Actually, most often, it was me yelling at the characters for being completely stupid/irrational and ugh. Like any book, there are lulls and peaks, but I felt like a lot of “big” reveals were obvious to me, so the fact that they’re dragged out to build up to it felt unnecessary.
☙ I’m fairly certain that everything in this gives small towns a bad rep, and I assure you, as someone who has always lived in a small town, we’re not this bad. I mean, as far as my town’s concerned, you’re going to have to be able to put up with A LOT of random pets and iced tea so sweet that it’ll turn your blood to syrup, but that seems fairly mild in light of this book. I totally understand the draw and appeal to small-town living like this, but given the fact that I live in a small town … it makes it even harder to believe that someone could get away with so much stuff.
☙ The summary makes sure to point out that Skottie is black, but other than it playing into the Nazi thing (which, let’s face it, a lot of other identities would also suffice for this), it seems to have no purpose. Her character doesn’t seem particularly unique or seem to have a different voice or worldview because of it. Her being a female in law enforcement seems to have a bigger impact on the story than her being black. As a brown kid who has grown up and always lived in very white, very rural towns (okay, except that brief stint when I tolerated a city for college), I figured surely she would be a character I could relate to, but that wasn’t the case. So I guess I was sort of disappointed that such a fuss was made about it in the summary that I thought it would be a major plot point, and it just wasn’t. Certainly didn’t warrant a mention in the summary except to earn diversity points (or that’s how it seems to me).
☙ Travis Roan and Rudy Goodman are the only two characters I really connected with … and considering one has a mysterious and questionable background and the other is a former Nazi, that’s maybe not a good thing? The other characters just fell flat for me, though. Skottie was neither good nor bad; I felt more like I just tolerated her. She didn’t feel like she had a whole lot of voice or personality, other than seeking justice. The same with her daughter. Smart kid acting out because of a divorce, until she needs to do something utterly stupid because the plot necessitates it. I just couldn’t stand Sheriff Goodman, because his character was all over the board. I wanted to like him, but I never knew where he was going to stand on any given point, and first impressions left a bitter taste in my mouth that I just couldn’t get past.
The Saint of Wolves and Butchers is a book that I’ve seen a lot of, and I did that internal should I/shouldn’t I when deciding whether to read it. Actually, I passed it up several times because I wasn’t sure it was my “thing.” I’m still not convinced. It was an enjoyable read and easy to get through, with a satisfying ending. It was good, but not particularly memorable. That being said, if a second book were to come out with Travis Roan, would I read it? Heck yes. So you can take what you want from that.
What do you think about the idea of a family who hunts high-profile wrongdoers like the Roan family? Would you read a series of books that focuses on that premise?
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