Sawbones by Stuart MacBride

This novella by bestselling police thriller writer Stuart MacBride (the Logan McRae series) combines a serial killer with violent vigilantes. So beware—and perhaps stop right here. It is so grim you will want to wash your hands afterward, and so dark you will need a flashlight to read it.

"As soon as I see the police cruiser in the rear-view mirror, I know we are fucked."

So we find ex-marine Henry, Mark, and newbie Jack traveling through Illinois in a stolen car looking for Laura, the pretty sixteen-year-old daughter of mob boss Mr. Jones.

She was randomly abducted by a serial killer known as Sawbones, who collects girls in his filthy brown Winnebago to take home and slowly dismember while they are alive, distributing the limbs as his calling card. The trio is tasked with bringing her home—with Sawbones as well, alive, for Mr. Jones to mete his own revenge.

The police and FBI are also searching, and if the trio is stopped for any reason (like a broken taillight), they simply disarm the officers and throw them in their trunk, dead or alive.

And they are supposed to be the good guys.

Laura has been taught self-defense by her father and is capable of handling herself. She lives through hell, listening to his carefree singing of hymns while he works, finding herself with his other girls in various degrees of dismemberment, and looks for her chance to break free.

I give MacBride credit for packing so much into this novella. This will not be to everyone's taste, but the level of action is satisfying. We are dealing with torture, dismemberment, castration, kidnapping, degradation, or simply heads being blown off, yet this is an engaging thriller. If you are going to go there, go all the way—as he says in his introduction, he wanted this to be as adult and sweary as possible, so proceed at your own risk!

2008 / Hardcover / 112 pages