The Saint of Wolves and Butchers

This predictable thriller from Grecian (the Murder Squad series) focuses on the hunt for a Nazi concentration camp commander. In 1951, wanted war criminal Rudolph Bormann succeeds in making his way from South America to rural Kansas, where he begins a new life as Rudy Goodman. In the present, Travis Roan, the head of a family foundation devoted to bringing war criminals to justice, comes to Kansas from L.A. after a report that the German was recognized by Ruth Elder, a concentration camp survivor. When Travis arrives at Ruth’s home, the woman’s grown daughter tells him that her mother has recently died. Undeterred, Travis presses on, aided by his canine companion, Bear, a massive animal with the ability to understand Esperanto. Travis gets another unlikely ally in the person of Kansas Highway Patrol trooper Skottie Foster, a single mother who risks her job to help him. None of the characters lingers in the memory, and the early appearance of Skottie’s precocious daughter, who instantly bonds with Bear, presages a climax that veteran genre readers will find unsurprising. Author tour. Agent: Seth Fishman, Gernert Company. (Apr.)