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'KNOWS HOW TO KEEP HER AUDIENCE HOOKED' The Times 'A MASTERFUL STORYTELLER' Clare Mackintosh 'DARK, WEIRD AND GLORIOUSLY FEMINIST' Elle Georgian London, in the summer of 1763. At nineteen, Anne Jaccob, the elder daughter of well-to-do parents, meets Fub the butcher's apprentice and is awakened to the possibilities of joy and passion. Anne lives a sheltered life: her home is a miserable place and her parents have already chosen a more suitable husband for her than Fub. But Anne is an unusual young woman and is determined to pursue her own happiness in her own way... ...even if that means getting a little blood on her hands. 'A SHARP EYE AND A SHARPER WIT' Guardian 'A SPIRITED, DARK DEBUT' Woman & Home 'STRANGE, DARK AND UTTERLY MESMERIC' Hannah Kent
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Janet Ellis's appealing debut novel is like a cross between Fanny Burney's Evelina and US crime drama Dexter... Ellis excels at the poetics of flesh. She writes with a keen eye for the texture of skin and the meat beneath. She vividly describes the slaughter of a calf, the wet thwack of the knife, the cleaving of muscle from bone, the hot rush of blood. Anne, we come to realise, is something of a sociopath. This is where The Butcher's Hook gets really interesting ... There's a wit and a richness to the writing, a nice way with pastiche, and a real feel for the macabre. And, in Anne, she has created an engaging and at times daringly amoral heroine. Observer (Paperback of the Week)
