Alaina Urquhart's debut novel is incredibly accomplished. Set deep in Louisiana, you can almost feel the heat and humidity. A grisly serial killer, a tenacious medical examiner, and a few amazing twists make this a searing, unputdownable book

Can a medical examiner outsmart a serial killer? The Butcher and the Wren will keep you waiting for an answer until the last bloody page. Prepare to be disturbed. A deliciously dark debut

Impressively detailed in its analysis . . . Captivating, with lacings of the occult. There may be moments when the reader might want to shut their eyes, but the joust between the killer and the pathologist makes that impossible

A chilling page-turner with a massive twist in the middle that's sure to give you goosebumps

The Butcher and the Wren is perfect for fans of Dexter. Pitting a brutal serial killer against a determined medical examiner, the story is a pulsepounding race against time. And the details the author weaves in due to her unique background as an autopsy tech heighten the realism and the suspense. Fans of Morbid will love the host's debut novel

Urquhart paints a tense and dangerous world for us right from the start and delivers it all with a skilled and evocative hand

Dark and twisted, The Butcher And The Wren is a gripping game of cat and mouse in the Louisiana bayou that will leave you wanting for more! Alaina Urquhart is a fresh new voice in crime fiction and I can't wait to read what she writes next

Not for the faint-hearted

A read-in-one-sitting kind of book

Looking for the perfect way to kick off your spooky season? Well, you can end your search now as the co-host of the wildly popular true-crime podcast Morbid, who is also an autopsy technician, is offering up a twisted tale of a serial killer terrorizing the Louisiana bayou. Told from the dueling perspectives of a notorious murderer and the medical examiner who is desperate to catch him, this cat-and-mouse thriller will give your goosebumps chills

True-crime podcast co-host Alaina Urquhart showcases her propensity for the macabre in chilling cat-and-mouse thriller

Another true crime podcaster brings their flair for the macabre to the page with The Butcher and the Wren. Co-host of the chart-topping Morbid podcast, Alaina Urquhart treats fans of pulse-pounding novels to a thrill ride pitting a notorious serial killer in a battle of wits against the medical examiner determined to bring him down

A psychic thriller that will have readers on edge from the first page to the last . . . Perfect for those who love: watching Silence of the Lambs

Set in the ever-moody and hauntingly beautiful city of New Orleans, The Butcher and the Wren tells the story of a meticulous serial killer and the distinguished forensic pathologist, Dr. Wren Muller, set out to stop him. After researching countless horrific true crime cases over the last several years, we have no doubt Urquhart will knock it out of the park with this one. This is the perfect book to pick up if you want to 'Keep it weird.'

A serial killer novel like none you have ever read, The Butcher and the Wren takes a cat-and-mouse chase between two instantly memorable antagonists and turns all the conventions of the genre upside down. Dark, twisty, full of authentic detail, it'll have you listening to the night in an entirely different way

If you've ever wanted to actually get inside the mind of a serial killer, look no further

Sensationally good - two complex characters power the story like a nuclear reaction, and won't let you forget them. Wrobel is one to watch

It's rare for something genuinely fresh to come along in this genre, but this book has it all - a killer premise, twisty plotting, crisp writing and compelling characters. Dazzling, dark and utterly delicious

A rivetingly nasty psychological duel

Pacy and vivid, this is a delicate, merciless probing of a topic as unsettling as it is intriguing

If you like your page-turning popular fiction at the more intelligent end of the spectrum, you could not do better than this.

A gripping thriller

A gripping revenger's tale... This is by far Harris's best book since An Officer and a Spy, which dealt with another great national division: the Dreyfus case. He has produced a ripping page-turner that breathes all the complexities and moral nuances of the Civil War period

Lucid and full of suspense

A thrilling page-turner based on real events . . . packed with rich and fascinating historical detail

In his new thriller, Robert Harris wrests [a] fascinating period back from its unjust oblivion, showing how closely its complex landscape of constitutional crises and Puritan politics played out in new unregulated media resonates with us today

Harris, deft as ever, weaves a hefty amount of historical fact into the narrative, politics, religion, colonial life, family ties - as well as themes of forgiveness and reconciliation. Underneath it all though is the remorseless and building propulsion of hunter and prey

A drama so involving and nerve-wracking, you can barely turn the pages fast enough. Historic!

Another fantastic piece of historical fiction from Robert Harris, immaculately researched and utterly believable

A gripping thriller and a timely reminder of the dangers of a deeply divided and intolerant society

The book excels in its stunning recreation of the landscape of America... Harris proves himself to be masterful at this and it gives the book a vibrant memorability

Few writers combine history, politics and excitement of a thriller as enthrallingly as Robert Harris does.

What Harris does here is nothing short of masterful.

Harris displays an impressive grasp of the historical context without taxing his readers by showing his 'workings'.

Based on real and fascinating history, this is Robert Harris's best since An Officer and a Spy

Pacy and tense, and the pungently evoked past offers up some shrewd present-day parallels

An absolutely stunning historical novel and a ripping crime thriller at the same time. I've been recommending it far and wide and buying it for people for Christmas!

The best historical fiction combines a gripping plot with meticulous research - leaving the reader inspired to learn more about the real-life protagonists. And the latest release from Robert Harris once more proves his mastery of the genre

I loved Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris, which achieves the astonishing feat of taking 17th-century events and people and telling their stories in 21st-century language without a single seam showing

Thrilling

This is a novel that asks big historical questions. You could read it as a pure thriller, and it is one of Harris's most compellingly paced to date. You could read it as a piece of intelligent historical immersion. I think it is more; I think it is his best novel since Fatherland.

It's a belter.

If only all historical thrillers could be this entertaining.

In this tense and beautifully written account of the ensuing manhunt, Harris brings sympathy to characters on either side of the civil war that divided a nation.

A brainy, compulsive page-turner.

A violent, gripping, globetrotting chase thriller

He’s my go-to person that I know will keep me entertained

[A] rich, propulsive novel