Tom Hartmann has the unfortunate habit of getting too close to highly-charged criminal elements. Here he travels to the South of France, to see his old friend Eddie Jones, who has a business proposal to share. The problem is just that Eddie also has the body of a beautiful woman in the trunk of his car.

At the same time, Tom’s ex-wife, Police Detective Catherine Price, is handed a murder case. The mutilated body of the feared art critic, Gerhard Elmings, is found mounted into a piece of artwork made of acrylic glass, which is delivered to a gallery during a vernissage.

The Butcher is a literary romp through human folly and vanity, horror and revenge.

Suspense and comedy in perfect harmony … Dashingly well told … Like a rock and roll crime fiction! … Øystein Wiik had his debut as a crime fiction writer last year with “Deadly applause”, and I just say what a debut! This is his “difficult second book” and we can only say that he’s done it again … Wiik writes a kind of rock and roll thriller. There’s high speed and a clown’s wild imagination. You’re served one joyous thrill after the other … “The butcher” is an international high speed thriller. 
Liv Gade, Sandefjords blad

“It’s liberating with a Norwegian crime novel with such typical characters, (…) a nice lightness in Wiik’s crime stories, (…) good pace with high speed…” Maria Årolilja Rø, Adresseavisen

“Many of this country’s new writers of crime fiction would learn a lot by studying Wiik’s methods in THE BUTCHER.   There are colours and smells, weather and wind here. And illustrious characters. Short, efficient cuts throughout the story. There are scenes so burlesque and mad here that I’m sometimes laughing out loud while reading. And one more thing: Wiik knows how to write. He’s a writer… A very well accomplished crime novel!” Ingvar Ambjørnsen, VG