The Butcher Legacy: A Dr. Wren Muller Novel

The thrilling third novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dr. Wren Muller series from Alaina Urquhart

Two months after the life-altering events of The Butcher Game, Wren is back in the place she knows best: the New Orleans morgue. She buries herself in routine, surrounded by both familiar and new company, John Leroux and Maya Rodriguez, trying to convince herself that normalcy can be rebuilt. But in the weeks leading up to Halloween, shadows begin to move again as young girls vanish in both cities where Jeremy Rose once ran rampant.

Hundreds of miles away, the pastor to a close-knit congregation in Massachusetts Philip Trudeau is back behind the pulpit. But beneath his practiced composure lies something sinister—gruesome secrets and a hunger that did not die when Jeremy was caged.

With Jeremy behind bars and Philip suddenly nowhere to be found, Wren and Leroux must mobilize, and this twisted triangle clashes at every turn. The Butcher Legacy is a relentless, page-turning descent into the dark.

Alaina Urquhart is the author of the New York Times Bestselling novel, The Butcher and the Wren.

As the science loving host of the chart topping podcast Morbid: A True Crime Podcast and an Autopsy Technician by trade, she offers a unique perspective from deep inside the morgue.

Alaina hails from Boston, Massachusetts where she lives with her wonderful husband John, their three amazing daughters, her two Hell Hounds named Sidney Prescott and Blanche Devereaux and a ghost Puggle named Bubba. She is about 75% coffee and truly believes she and Agent Clarice Starling could be friends.

Before writing her first psychological horror novel, she received degrees in Criminal Justice, Psychology and Biology. When she isn’t hosting Morbid, she hosts a podcast called The ReWatcher and a horror movie pod called Scream!. Her days are usually spent either recording, writing or eviscerating. The way she sees it, when she hangs up her microphone for the day, it’s time to let the dead speak.

Praise for The Butcher Legacy

“The Butcher Legacy is a real thriller—and Dr. Wren Muller is a fiery female protagonist that Scarpetta would call friend. I can imagine the two of them working a case together—what a ride that would be!” —Patricia Cornwell

“The Butcher Legacy is razor-sharp entertainment and brilliantly written. A top-notch thriller that kept me turning the pages long into the night, it’s as smart as it is suspenseful.” —Richard Chizmar, New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Boogeyman

“In The Butcher Legacy, Alaina Urquhart delivers a relentlessly dark thriller that escalates with unnerving confidence. Her prose is sharp and unsentimental, driving the story forward with a mounting sense of inevitability and moral rot. This is a book unafraid to stare directly at violence, obsession, and the damage left behind by men who believe they’re righteous. Cold, propulsive, and deeply disturbing, The Butcher Legacy doesn’t flinch.” —Carter Wilson, USA Today bestselling author of Tell Me What You Did

“Like a mix of Karin Slaughter and Silence of the Lambs, The Butcher Legacy features a captivating serial killer who haunts the lives of his investigators, even as he’s behind bars. Every time that I thought I’d guessed the ending, a new wrinkle emerged creating a complicated web of killers, their motives, and their victims.” —Tasha Coryell, author of Love Letters to a Serial Killer and Matchmaking for Psychopaths

“Alaina Urquhart pulls no punches with The Butcher Legacy, this riveting third novel in the Dr. Wren Muller series. I thought my mind was blown after the second one, but consider it blown again! With The Silence of the Lambs vibes throughout, this creepy story crawls under your skin, cuts sharp, cuts often, and gruesomely left me begging for more!” —J.H. Markert, author of Sleep Tight

“The Doctor Wren Muller saga continues apace with The Butcher Legacy, which builds on the characters and relationships laid in The Butcher and the Wren and The Butcher Game. Urquhart’s real-life expertise and clear, clean prose combine to create an intense serial-killer chiller that is shocking and twisty yet also grounded in the realities of homicide investigation. Fans of Doctor Muller should devour it.” —Neil Sharpson, author of The Burial Tide

Praise for the Dr. Wren Muller Series

"The Butcher Game is a startling case study in suspense and obsession." ―Margot Douaihy, USA Today bestselling author of the Sister Holiday Mysteries

“[B]lade-sharp.” —The New York Times

“A read-in-one-sitting kind of book.” —CBS Mornings

“Urquhart paints a tense and dangerous world for us right from the start and delivers it all with a skilled and evocative hand.” —Aaron Mahnke, creator of the Lore podcast and author of The World of Lore series

“[W]ill give your goosebumps chills.” —E! News

“Dark, twisty, full of authentic detail, it’ll have you listening to the night in an entirely different way.” —Booktrib

“Alaina Urquhart treats fans of pulse-pounding novels to a thrill ride pitting a notorious serial killer in a battle of wits against the medical examiner determined to bring him down.” —Books-A-Million