Wretch

Wretch is a relentless descent into crime, horror, and vengeance. A brutal unflinching thriller for fans of organized crime sagas, dark detective fiction, and monsters born in the shadows of science.

Chicago is choking under the hottest summer on record, but the true heat comes from the blood spilled on its streets. Detective Donnie Lynch trails a killer who shouldn’t exist. Mob boss Tico “The Meatgrinder” Tortellio has stepped out from the shadows of his empire with a personal vendetta to avenge his daughter—and nothing short of blood will settle the score. Both men are hunting the same man— if “man” is still the right word…

The elusive killer, Derek Hoffman, is a steroid-abusing-sociopath twisted beyond recognition whose body and mind have been grotesquely transformed after his participation in a clinical trial for an experimental ED-arousal-drug called, LIBIDONAL. Hoffman has become something monstrous, a predator driven by lust, rage, and a thirst for blood.

With the city becoming a killing ground for a new apex predator, Lynch and Tortellio race toward the same target. But who will reach Hoffman first? And when they do, can bullets or brutality be enough to stop him? Wretch is a brutal descent into crime, horror, and vengeance. A nightmare version of a city where justice wears many faces, and none of them are merciful.

This discussion guide was shared and sponsored in partnership with Dead Sky Publishing.

Book club questions for Wretch by Jeremy Wagner

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

The questions below may contain spoilers for readers who have not yet finished Wretch.

The weather is often blamed for people’s bad behavior: Heat waves causing rising tension, and the phases of the moon were once thought to be the cause of temporary insanity (hence the word lunacy). Have you noticed this pattern in your own life or in fiction? How does the weather affect human behavior? How is weather used to cover up crime?

Power imbalance and corruption fuel the actions of various characters: Derek Hoffman extorts his brother to get money, Sid Hoffman uses his position as a researcher to illegally enter his brother into a pharmaceutical trial, and Tico uses his connections to corrupt police officers to gain information about his daughter’s attacker. Would the events of the novel have been possible without these abuses of power?

Tico, Donnie, and Hoffman each represent different sides of how masculinity is expressed by men and how it impacts them. Did their relationship with masculinity become a weakness? A strength? How did it influence their relationships with other characters? What makes a “good” man?

Derek Hoffman is the killer of the book, but is he fully responsible for the deaths? If Hoffman isn’t solely responsible, who else is to blame and why?

Throughout the novel, Donnie Lynch deals with several losses: the dissolution of his marriage, his cancer, and finally, his friend and former partner. How did the events of the novel help him reckon with those losses? How did they impact his investigation?

Tico “The Meat Grinder” Tortellio is a mob boss who values his family legacy. What other famous or fictional mob bosses are similar? Why do you think we are so drawn to this archetype? Do you think Tico’s actions were born of love or ego?

Do you think Derek would have still become a murderer even without the effects of Libidonal and the other drugs he took? Why or why not?

The drug trial for Libidonal went horribly wrong. In recent years, Big Pharma has been analyzed more in the media and pop culture. Can you think of other examples where Big Pharma has been under the microscope? At what point is innovation not worth the price? What ethical and moral standards should pharmaceutical companies be held to regarding drug trials?

Each death was, at first, seemingly unconnected until the end revealed how the threads were woven together. Which death was the most surprising to you?

Was the ending satisfying to you? Why or why not? Was justice served?

Wretch Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the Wretch discussion questions

“Three words: Horrifying, relentless, and original. Wretch is a multi-genre masterwork that struts its stuff with superior storytelling and deft characterizations while keeping the sick-in-the-head throttle stomped to the floor from start to finish. If you only read one more horror novel this year, make sure this is it.” — Edward Lee, author of The Television and The Bighead

“WRETCH is a blood-soaked, drug-fueled spectacle of relentless carnage and chaos, with some of the most violent, off-the-wall characters I’ve ever encountered in a novel. Nightmarish, unapologetically brutal, and packed with shocking moments. All the triggers.” — Rio Youers, author of Lola on Fire and The Bang-Bang Sisters

"WRETCH is brutal. It's muscled and sleek but brutish in its intent and that intent is to maul you. An engine of bad things and more...this book is a bruise you can't quite explain and can't stop prodding, because that ugly pain reminds you that you exist and in this world, oft times that's punishment.” — John Boden, author of Jedi Summer and Snarl

“Unapologetic in its bloodlust, WRETCH is an intense page turner that's not for the faint of heart. With love for his hometown dripping off each blood-stained page, Jeremy Wagner is to Chicago what some other horror writer is to Bangor Maine.” — Del James, author of The Language of Fear and Consensual Violence

“Like the movie Get Out, Jeremy Wagner's gory and violent novel WRETCH uses horror to explore timely, broader issues. In this Frankenstein meets The Godfather mashup, Wagner tackles everything from how it feels to be a cop in today's world to addictions at every level—booze and drugs, body sculpting and work outs. But where Wagner's novel really shines is calling out Big Pharma’s own addiction to creating the next little blue pill.” — Laura Caldwell, author of Long Way Home and The Dog Park

“Jeremy Wagner unleashes a frenzy of escalating violence and deviant madness on the Windy City. Gritty and perverse, WRETCH will shock and enthrall you all the way to its debauched climax!” — Ryan Harding, Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Transcendental Mutilation