Butcher of Dreams

By Eileen Wyman and Kay Williams

Book Overview

A theater haunted by secrets. A mask hungry for blood. A woman caught between desire and danger. When actress Lee Fairchild opens her own Equity theater on the fringes of Times Square, she expects artistic chaos - not murder, occult symbols, and a seductive young man who threatens to unravel her life.

The 42nd Street Rep should be Lee's triumph. Instead, it becomes a nightmare.

A homeless man is found dead on the theater's third floor, his ring finger severed. A stolen Mexican mask - rumored to be used in ancient sacrificial rites - begins appearing in terrifying glimpses. Actors are attacked. A six-figure bank overdraft threatens to shut the theater down. And Lee's passionate affair with her new assistant, Michael Day, spirals into obsession, fear, and vanishing acts she can't explain.

As NYPD detective Mordecai Green investigates, Lee uncovers disturbing truths about her brilliant Artistic Director, Alan Dunbar - and the dark rituals studied by his lover, a psychiatrist fascinated by blood exchange and Aztec mythology.

When a young woman is found murdered in a ritual tableau inside the theater, Lee realizes the danger is closing in. Someone wants the theater. Someone wants her. And someone is willing to kill again.

To survive, Lee must confront the truth behind the mask - and the darkness she invited into her life.

The main characters are:

Lee Fairchild - Actress. Widow. Survivor.

Still grieving her husband, Lee is desperate to rebuild her life. But her need for connection makes her the perfect target for a man with secrets - and a mask with a hunger of its own.

Michael Day - Beautiful. Broken. Dangerous.

A seductive young assistant with a tragic past and a brain tumor he swears is killing him. Is he victim, predator, or something far stranger?

Mordecai Green - NYPD detective and part-time actor.

Cynical, sharp, and unexpectedly compassionate, he's the only one who sees the pattern forming in the dark.

Kay Williams is a writer and actress, with years of experience in theater and film. Eileen Wyman, writer and editor, has a background in radio/television. Both live in New York City in Hell's Kitchen.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0964924161
• ISBN13: 9780964924161
• Release Date: June 2012
• Publisher: Calliope Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Chilling and tanalizing mystery tour-de-force

Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (12/07) I've always loved mysteries. If I had to read just one genre for the rest of the days, I believe my choice would be the immensely entertaining field of mystery and suspense. I like the short, cozy British ones, adore the old classics and fall easily under the spell of the more contemporary ones. A lot of the new ones, though, fall short in the "thrill factor" area - they tend to be unnecessarily graphic in their shocking descriptions, yet they do not make me truly afraid and even less truly perplexed. Kay Williams' and Eileen Wyman's "Butcher of Dreams," aptly subtitled "A Suspense Novel about the Theater," was one of the really thrilling mysteries. No matter how much I tried to guess who the villain was, the authors managed to sidetrack and blindside me again and again. While I correctly guessed one of the subplots, the main mystery remained so until the chilling end of the book. Lee Fairchild, a talented actress, is managing a rather fledgling theater in NYC's Hell's Kitchen. She is a strong, courageous and smart woman, yet weakened by the recent death of her husband and a crumbling relationship with her only child, Heather. The theater has its own share of problems, starting from the motley crew on its payroll and continuing to its not-so-desirable location, lack of future funding and strange happenings in the area. When a dead vagrant is found in the theatre, his body mutilated in a ritual-looking manner, Lee enters a bizarre world of unexplainable events, all of which threaten the further operations of the theater as well as the lives of crew and cast. Will Lee manage to solve the mystery - or will she become the next victim? "Butcher of Dreams" by Kay Williams and Eileen Wyman delivered on all the fronts that I consider important for a good mystery book. The writing was tight and precise. The characters were amazingly detailed and believable, with their back-stories intricately weaving in and out of the main story line. None of them were totally good or totally bad, which made them all the more human and the reading more pleasurable. The mystery remained mysterious to the very end of the book. And the book was scary enough that I did not want to read it when I was alone in the house. Utterly enjoyable, "Butcher of Dreams" is a book I would wholeheartedly recommend to any lover of well-written mysteries. If that person happens to like the theater and NYC, they will enjoy it even more. Kay Williams and Eileen Wyman have made my list of authors to watch in the future and I am eagerly awaiting their next book.

Mystery and suspense -- stage front!

I thoroughly enjoyed Butcher of Dreams with its picture of 80s off-Broadway theater and its dabbling in Aztec cults and lore. Trusting Lee Fairchild, empathetic Alan Dunbar, and their third partner crusty Ernst Kromer open a repertory theater on 42nd St. in NYC with a foundation grant. From the moment they begin rehearsals, disturbing events take place and seem to conspire against them. One after another each actor in the theater falls under suspicion as the potential perpetrator. Looking at the story from the perspective of 2007, one might wonder how Lee could be so trusting and innocent until one remembers that the story is set in the 80s before identity theft and sociopathic behavior were much in the news. I found the book increasingly difficult to lay down, especially as the second half came into play. The authors have achieved a quite satisfying novel of mystery and suspense.

A big thumbs up!!

Kay Williams and Eileen Wyman team up for this suspenseful mystery/romance. Williams is a writer and actress with ONE LAST DANCE: IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO FALL IN LOVE, a novel begun by her father, journalist Mardo Williams and finished by she and her sister, Jerri Lawrence. Published in 2005, DANCE garnered a Best Regional Fiction Award and a finalist nomination for the National Readers' Choice Award. Eileen Wyman is a comedy writer and has experience in radio and television. Both authors live in Hell's Kitchen, now safe and gentrified, but are originally from Ohio. Lee Fairchild is a recent widow who has picked herself up by launching a under-budgeted theater in Hell's Kitchen on the fringes of Times Square with an old friend. The theater is almost immediately plagued with problems when a derelict is found murdered in a cult-like slaying on the third floor of the theater. A young man named Michael Day wanders off the street and into Lee's life as an assistant and lover. But Day's excess of spending and propensity towards lying, as well as his grand romantic gestures, keep Lee from seeing that someone is robbing the theater blind: "'Bounced?' Lee stopped sorting the mail. The phone cradled in the hollow of her shoulder slipped. She caught it at her rib cage and wrestled it back to her ear. 'That's our new account.' No new exactly. She'd opened it at the beginning of the season, along with the other two. But that was the first check she'd written from it. 'They showed me the notice.' His voice rose indignantly. 'Insufficient funds. It came in their mail this morning.'" Williams and Wyman put together a first-rate suspense. They draw the reader in from the first page, and hold them with their vivid descriptions of ritualistic goings-on in this New York theater, even as Lee Fairchild is struggling to keep her dream afloat. This mystery is so character driven that it is easy to suspect any of the theater company...they all have something to hide. But it is Lee's ultimate struggle with loneliness and an overloaded professional struggle that brings the story to its shocking climax. Don't start this wonderful story if you have something else to do, because this fantastic plot will win the fight! A big thumbs up!! Shelley Glodowski Senior Reviewer

Compelling Mystery in Theatre Setting

I loved it. I was pulled immediately into the tension of the mysterious and frightening events. The behind the scenes life of the theatre and the complex personalities who staff it create a fascinating setting as the mystery develops and the suspense becomes unbearable. Suspicion as to the perpetrator builds in many directions and I found myself wanting to talk to the lead character, Lee Fairchild, to advise her. Eventually I sucumbed. I ignored the world around me and read to the end nonstop.

A gripping mystery with a full cast of suspects

Butcher of Dreams is a terrific read. The authors expertly fulfill the requirements of the classic mystery: grisly crime, many suspects, edge-of-your seat suspense. The setting for the novel is an abandoned Hell's Kitchen burlesque house in the 1980's where a fledgling Off-Broadway repertory company is rehearsing for their first show, a perfect venue for the bizarre events that ensue: strange accidents, grand larceny, Aztec curses, ritualistic murder. I was drawn to Lee Fairchild, the likeable main character & the theater's administrative director. Her quirky but believable professional colleagues with overblown egos & murky pasts add intrigue and momentum. That a psychopath seems to be lurking amid the company only intensifies the mix. An edge-of-your-seat reading experience, well-written & precisely crafted. Highly recommended!