The Butcher Game

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, child abuse, and mental illness.

Wren, the protagonist of The Butcher Game and the Dr. Wren Muller series, is a forensic pathologist. 

In the first novel in the series, Wren’s backstory intersects with that of Jeremy Rose, a serial killer known as the Bayou Butcher. In medical school, Wren, then named Emily, befriended “Cal”—actually Jeremy in disguise. Jeremy kidnapped Emily and hunted her through a swamp. Emily managed to escape and survive. To underscore her resilience, she renamed herself Wren. Obsessed with the one victim he didn’t kill, Jeremy tracked Wren—now a forensic pathologist with the New Orleans Police Department—to lure her into a sadistic game of cat and mouse. Wren nearly caught Jeremy, but he evaded her and the police. 

Jeremy’s escape haunts Wren throughout The Butcher Game, both as a professional failure and as the source of her psychological trauma. To manage her anxiety and paranoia, Wren’s life is rooted in routine and control. Jeremy’s return ruptures this regimen, throwing Wren’s maladaptive coping strategy out of whack: “A disruption in routine feels lightly catastrophic to Wren, a true creature of habit” (7). 

Wren also relies on her professional acumen to stem her panic and dread of Jeremy.