Slaughterhouse is a contemporary horror/thriller novel by Carla H. Krueger. The book follows main character Kris Kartofski, a recent divorcee looking for a good life for his only child. Kris finds himself alone in the wilderness of rural Texas with his new love interest Janis and her strange family –  silent and foreboding stepmother Reina, and bubbly but controlling aunt Dawn. Kris is chosen to be “man of the house,” but he doesn't realize what a dangerous role that is until Janis goes missing, and he finds that he is part of an elaborate, dark game. The novel opens in Fort Worth, Texas. Kris is a single father and recent divorcee, who is devastated after the chaotic dissolution of his marriage to his wife Caitlin the year before. Kris is an easy-going and a loving father who wants to create a good life for his young son, Jake, despite the divorce. Kris is skeptical about love and has lost a lot of his trust in women, but decides at the beginning of the novel that it is time to give love another chance. Kris starts online dating, and meets a girl named Janis who seems promising. Janis seems sweet and harmless, and Kris is eager to get back in the dating scene after so many months of loneliness. He decides to take a chance, and drives to her farmhouse in rural Texas to meet her family over dinner. When Kris arrives at the farmhouse in the mid-afternoon, he is not greeted by Janis but by her aunt, a brawny and bubbly, if eccentric, woman named Dawn. Dawn quickly shows Kris in, and he receives a warm welcome from everyone in the family. Dawn shows Kris her grandfather's collection of antique firearms, which Kris decides is a rural Texan tradition. Though something feels a little strange about  the family and the house, Kris wants this to work – he is determined to give Janis and her family a chance, despite his reservations. The collection of firearms isn't the only sign that something is amiss in the family. For one, Dawn seems to have complete control over another member of the household; Janis's stepmother, Reina. Reina is quiet, morose, and subdued, and follows Dawn's orders word for word. Kris is creeped out by the strange demonstration of submission, but shakes it off, certain it's nothing to worry about. When the family sits down for dinner, an elaborate meal of roasted pig and other southern delicacies, Kris is given the carving knife. Janis tells him that now he is the man of the house, and he smiles and begins carving, unaware that title comes with unforeseen consequences. As dinner comes to an end, Kris realizes that the keys to his truck are missing. He expresses his concerns to the other women, who tell him not to worry. Kris is getting more and more antsy the longer he stays in the house. While at first he was trying to be accepting of their family dynamic, he is realizing that something is deeply wrong about this group of women – Janis acts like a child around both Reina and Dawn, and Reina refuses to speak up, as if she is too afraid. Kris is forced to reconcile the fact that he might have to spend the night with a bunch of lunatics when suddenly Janis herself goes missing. With this incident, the lovelorn blindness that plagued Kris in earlier scenes is gone, and he realizes quickly that this is the first ploy in a terrifying game that he may or may not come out of alive. Though Slaughterhouse is only about 70 pages long, one of Carla Krueger's six short novels or horror novellas, the book packs a violent punch as Kris races against three women, one of whom he hoped to love, in a game that might cost him his life. Carla H. Krueger is a former physicist turned novelist whose work plays with danger, daring, strange circumstances, and the unexpected. She has written a number of short stories, six short novellas, and two full-length books. Her titles include Sex Media, This is Where You Join Me, More than 24 Hours, and others. She has been published in Catapult and other online magazines, and was listed in Crime Fiction Lover's “New Talent” column. Slaughterhouse was an ITW Thriller Award nominee in 2013.

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Carla H. Krueger

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