In a small town in rural America, a quiet boy who likes to draw evolves into a tortured man with an irresistible urge to kill and maim, while another, bullied and abandoned, chooses to become a detective. Author R.J. King doesn’t try to explain why one child becomes a monster and the other becomes a dedicated civil servant in his debut novel A Shepherd of Wolves. When he tells their separate stories in an unsettling narrative that alternates between childhood and present horror, though, readers may begin to see patterns.
We meet Edmund first, a mild-mannered man who keeps his apartment spotless and his focus sharp. King peppers this account with words that tease, like “guest,” “treat” and “fate,” so we know early on that his visit to a local gay bar isn’t going to end well. Edmund brings home his drunk and unsuspecting “guest” who is finally strangled and dismembered, his body parts left scattered in the kitchen and dining room.
SCARRED PASTS AND CURRENT SECRETS
When Detective Raymond Wright learns about it, what’s left of the mutilated corpse has been found near Marsh Creek. “We’ve got a mess down here,” he hears someone say when he answers the phone.
Here is where King begins to build the backstories, starting with Detective Wright. In a flashback, we learn that his father disappeared and his mother was left to raise him and his baby brother on her own. King threads together flashback, dream, and the gruesome murder. Then the narrative returns to Edmund, who is calmly satisfying his hunger with human flesh.
Edmund Glass’s family history is no better than Detective Wright’s; he’s also been left fatherless. Quiet and taciturn, he started to search out small animals to torment, yet as a grown man he now works with an outreach ministry and maintains a close friendship with a woman named Christine. His secret life has remained undiscovered.
FICTION WITH AN ALARMINGLY REAL UNDERCURRENT
King does an expert job lacing the separate stories together, alternating between past and present as well as between Edmund Glass and Raymond Wright. The plot starts to feel eerily familiar.
A ten-second internet search is just about all it takes to realize that King’s debut novel could easily be nonfiction. There are hundreds of accounts of cannibalistic serial killers throughout history and dozens in the United States alone. The strings of grisly unsolved murders bewilder police, terrify townspeople and pierce almost everyone.
A Shepherd of Wolves presents a highly credible story with characters readers can understand and even sympathize with: the tragically invisible victims of tormented Edmund, the guileless girlfriend, and the fiercely determined Detective Raymond Wright. King’s book is a disquieting but satisfying read.
Learn more about King on his BookTrib author profile page.
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About RJ King:
R.J. King was born and raised in Jacksonville, NC. He currently lives in MD and graduated from the University of Baltimore, where he earned a B.A. in English and specialized in creative writing. A Shepherd of Wolves is the first book he has published. He hopes to put out more in the near future.
