The Butcher Game

Jeremy, also known as the Bayou Butcher, is the primary antagonist of The Butcher Game. 

In the first installment of the Dr. Wren Muller series, Jeremy engages in a cat-and-mouse game with Wren, murdering innocent people as clues for Wren, the forensic pathologist. Seven years prior to the events of The Butcher and the Wren, Jeremy posed as “Cal,” a medical student in Wren’s class. He became obsessed with Wren, kidnapped her, and hunted her through the bayou to kill her. When she escaped, it only fueled Jeremy’s fixation, which continues into The Butcher Game.

Jeremy is a deeply tormented man. As a child, his mother was emotionally abusive toward him, while his father only spent time with him while hunting. Jeremy was jealous of his friend Philip Trudeau, who felt at home with his family and in nature, where they often went hiking or boating. When Jeremy saw the dichotomy between their backgrounds, Jeremy was disturbed: “[A]s safe as it should have felt, it was all so foreign to Jeremy. He managed to find discomfort in the comfort” (62). Jeremy’s “discomfort” with the security of loving relationships contributes to his intentional self-isolation.

As a serial killer, Jeremy combines the abuse he suffered at his mother’s hands and his father’s hunting habit. Enjoying the fear of his victims and a sense of power over them, he orchestrates his violent murders as complex hunting games. Jeremy’s emotions are an important piece of characterization; he nurtures and cultivates his anger, using it to motivate him. For instance, when he is about to kill Jenna on the lake, “[h]e can feel his anger building to a boil and he doesn’t try to control it. Instead, he lets it come. He invites it” (225). Obsession is also key to understanding Jeremy’s character. He’s fixated on his murderous plan to torment Wren, a plan that relies heavily on the forced loyalty of Philip and thus goes awry when Philip betrays him.

The novel ends by slightly shifting Jeremy’s alignment. Now behind bars, he stops being the main series antagonist and instead is positioned as an unlikely source of information for Wren in her investigation of Philip, the new big bad.

Philip is the secondary antagonist of The Butcher Game. He is a pastor at Covenant of Grace Church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where he has lived his whole life. His wife is divorcing him for infidelity, and he has flirtatious relationships with many of his female congregants. Philip is first mentioned in The Butcher and the Wren when Jeremy leaves Philip’s library card on the body of one of his victims. Philip first appears in person in the Prologue of The Butcher Game, taking in the news that Jeremy is the Bayou Butcher without surprise. 

As teenagers, Philip and Jeremy spent summers together in Massachusetts. They often drank cheap beer while underage and recklessly drove Philip’s car around. As the son of a prominent judge, Philip never faced consequences for his delinquency. One night, Philip hit a local woman while driving drunk; to hide this from the police, Jeremy murdered the injured woman and hid her body in the woods. In The Butcher Game, Jeremy uses the incident as blackmail to compel Philip into helping him. However, the novel ends with the reveal that Philip’s guilt about the woman’s death and fear of Jeremy are just a façade.

Philip turns out to be another serial killer, one more powerful than Jeremy because of how deeply he is entrenched in his community. Philip helps Jeremy kill Wren’s husband, Richard, and is implied to have murdered Andrea, the woman whose death initially draws Wren to Massachusetts. To clear the way for his own murders, Philip turns Jeremy in. Jeremy realizes that he has misunderstood Philip: “He never anticipated that the anxious pastor, the son of the beloved judge, would find his own darkness and harness it” (317). After witnessing Jeremy murder the woman in the woods, Philip found his own violent tendencies, which he hides in his pastoral role and his family’s relationship with the law enforcement agencies in his town. Philip is thus set up as the next main antagonist in the series.

Wren’s husband, Richard, met Wren after her abduction by Jeremy. Richard is a kind, empathetic person who has a very supportive relationship with Wren. As she heals from her trauma, Wren greatly appreciates his positivity: “He means every single overly optimistic word that he says. That’s what she loves about him” (6). While Wren is a realist, Richard is an idealist, which helps Wren look on the bright side, even during the heinous ordeal of Jeremy’s return.

Richard is accepting of Wren’s past, even the parts that fill her with shame and humiliation. When Wren tells Richard that she once kissed Jeremy while he was pretending to be Cal, Richard reframes the incident as not her fault: “‘It’s part of your story. I accept every part of you. You know that.’ Richard’s eyes really look at her. He always really looks at her. It is the kind of gaze you receive only from someone the universe placed on Earth for you” (101). Wren’s thoughts about Richard illustrate the depth of her love for him; she believes them to be soulmates brought together by destiny—a positive foil for the mystical connection that Jeremy believes he has with Wren. 

When Jeremy and Philip murder Richard, Wren’s deep love for him turns into deep grief and also a steely determination to bring his killers to justice.