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Delivering on the promise put forth by 2014's series debut THE MURDER MAN, Tony Parsons has crafted another taut thriller that is as effective as a page-turning thriller as it is a sensitive and touching character study. Picking up where its predecessor left off, detective Max Wolfe is struggling to adjust to traditional police work and, more importantly, to being a single father to five-year old Scout. Over the New Year's holiday, the very upper-class Wood family, headed by sports agent Brad and beautiful former Olympian Mary, are brutally murderer, along with their daughter.
This is not just any brutal family slaying either. The weapon of choice was a stun gun like those used to slaughter cattle. Perhaps even more bizarre than the weapon is the fact that there is no sign of the youngest member of the family, four-year old Bradley Wood, in the slain family's lavish mansion. DCI Wolfe and his team are quickly called into handle this sensitive case that almost immediately causes a firestorm of media attention.
Scotland Yard's Black Museum, a master archive of crime, has only one recent example of a stun-gun murder being committed in recent years: a slaying of a family committed by the now free, but terminally ill Peter Nawkins, who is living in a gypsy-style commune. Wolfe and his team come to pay a courtesy call either to eliminate him from the list of suspects or make an easy bust, but the argumentative reception that the police get from Nawkins' brother and niece, not to mention the rest of the commune, leads to a confrontation.
Evidence found at the commune reveal that Nawkins has a curious obsession with Mary Wood, though the infamous Slaughter Man has a seemingly solid alibi and his weakened state makes it seem doubtful that he is even capable of committing the crime. Thanks to Mary Wood's twin sister, Charlotte, whose striking figure is hard for Max to completely ignore and whose media savvy is hard for the press to ignore, Wolfe narrows his focus to finding young Bradley Wood, who statistics say is almost certainly dead by now, but who Charlotte insists is still alive.
The investigation alone would make for an above average page-turning thriller with an uncommon attention to detail, but like its predecessor what makes THE SLAUGHTER MAN special is the human touch that Parsons delivers. His humanity and sensitivity is found not only in the domestic scenes with Scout, as he adjusts to being a single father and to all that entails; but also in the tactful way he conducts the investigation. Max Wolfe is no cliché gentleman detective; he can be as gruff as anyone, but the humanity he exudes gives this series an authenticity rarely found in this type of book and creates a supremely satisfying piece of work on several levels.
There are a few strains of plot and thematic opportunity that are introduced and then seemingly forgotten in THE SLAUGHTER MAN, and one may wonder if, as moving as the single-father scenes with Scout are, they might tire a little if revisited too often. Overall, though, this is a terrific thriller as well as an authentic and affecting, yet non-clichéd look into the world of a newly single father. Let's hope that Max Wolfe is in our literary lives for a long time to come.
§ Ben Neal is a librarian who likes to fancy himself an amateur writer, humorist, detective, and coffee connoisseur in his spare time. He can be reached at beneneal@indiana.edu.
Reviewed by Ben Neal, August 2015
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