Book Review: "Blood in the Cut" by Alejandro Nodarse

If you are a vegan or vegetarian, or if detailed descriptions of butchering might make you feel squeamish, you’ll probably want to skip this book. You could also skim those scenes as I did, but there are more than a few.

Iggy Guerra is released from a Florida prison and returns home to chaos. His mother has died, his father is healing his grief through alcohol and mysterious activities late at night, and the family butcher shop, La Carnicería Guerra, is in financial trouble. Iggy’s father doesn’t want him around, but he promised his mother he’d try to be patient with his father, so he’s doing the best he can.

It’s not long before Iggy discovers there are threats from all sides. There’s a new high-end restaurant/butcher shop scheduled to open just down the block, his father is in debt to a dangerous big-game hunter in the Everglades, and there’s an animal rights vigilante looking to make people pay for their wrongdoings.

The last thing Iggy wants is to go back to prison, but he keeps finding himself in situations that test his patience, his hunger for revenge, and his need to protect the family business. Orin, the big-game hunter, wants Iggy to take over the business deal he had with his father, a deal that is not only illegal and unethical, but immensely dangerous. But what will refusing Orin lead to?

This is a raw, tense, brooding book, with moments of surprising emotion among the violence and suspense. It definitely has glimpses of S.A. Cosby’s books in the ways it looks at how flawed people are forced into decisions they don’t want, but might be compelled to make.

Blood in the Cut is Alejandro Nodarse’s debut, and I definitely look forward to seeing what he does next. The pacing is a bit uneven, but I found Iggy to be a fascinating character I couldn’t help rooting for.