The Alphabet Murders – Lars Schutz
FOR THIS KILLER, IT’S A GAME OF A B C
When the body of a man is found brutally murdered in a wildlife park and tattooed with a letter A, criminal profilers Jan Grall and Rabea Wyler are thrown into a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Later, two more mutilated bodies are found, again with tattoos on their skin – B and C – and it becomes clear that Grall and Wyler are dealing with a brutal serial killer. One who won’t stop until his set is complete.
When Grall’s hotel room is marked with a Z and his girlfriend kidnapped, the race is on to find out who the killer is.
Before it’s too late . .
My thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for inviting me to join the blog tour and to the publishers who provided my review copy.
A serial killer tale from Germany which had a distinctly claustrophobic feel despite the action unfolding thick and fast.
The story opens with the reader witnessing the attack on a woman who is being held prisoner by an unknown assailant. He is tattooing something onto her skin and the violence of the “branding” lets us know this book falls firmly into the gritty classification.
Readers are then spun away from this horrific attack to a murder scene – a badly mutilated body has been found in a field of bison. The beasts are unsettled but not as much as the attending officers who cannot fail to notice a large letter A marked on the victim’s body.
Criminal profilers Jan Grall and Rabea Wyler are on the scene to assist with the inevitable investigation. The pair, despite being partners, appear mis-matched. Grall is the key figure in The Alphabet Murders and most of the story will be focused on Grall and his involvement in the case. However, this is a difficult assignment for Grall as he is returning to his home town after a number of years absence and he has to face memories he would rather forget. Events from long ago have shaped the man he became but now he has to share too much information with his partner so the pair can work to apprehend a killer. The stakes are raised even higher for Grall when it appears the murderer has targeted Grall himself as a future victim.
I referred to The Alphabet Murders as being claustrophobic, I feel this was partly down to the dark wintry setting. It gave off a distinctly Se7en vibes at times. Yet some scenes were unfolding at a rapid pace which seemed at odds with the claustrophobia so the action pinged along and the body count quickly increased.
Pacing issues aside (a minor niggle) I am a sucker for a serial killer story and this one has a good few twists which I certainly enjoyed. Definitely a story for the reader who doesn’t want their crime fiction to be sugar-coated…well worth looking out for if “nasty” floats your boat.
The Alphabet Murders is published by Zaffre in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alphabet-Murders-Lars-Schutz/dp/1785768638/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1566929609&refinements=p_27%3ALars+Schutz&s=books&sr=1-2&text=Lars+Schutz
