The butcher's hook - Janet Ellis

***LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOT PRIZE 2016***

'A HIGH-FINISH PERFORMANCE' Observer
'DARK WEIRD AND GLORIOUSLY FEMINIST' Elle UK
'A SHARP EYE AND A SHARPER WIT - A MEMORABLE HEROINE' Guardian
'INIMITABLE, INGENIOUSLY BRUTAL... CRIES OUT FOR A COSTUME DRAMA SERIES' Telegraph
'A BOLDNESS RARE IN A FIRST NOVEL' Mail on Sunday
'A STRANGE, UNSETTLING STORY' The Times
'ONE TO WATCH' Guardian
'A STORY OF DISPASSIONATE, BLOODY BRILLIANCE' Sunday Express
'ONE OF THE HOTTEST DEBUT NOVELISTS OF THE YEAR' Glamour
'A GRIPPING, GIRL-POWER STORY' Sun
'A CRACKING READ' Cathy Rentzenbrink, Prima
'A SPIRITED, DARK DEBUT' Woman & Home
'STRANGE, DARK AND UTTERLY MESMERIC' Hannah Kent, author of Burial Rites
'A MASTERFUL STORYTELLER' Clare Mackintosh, author of I Let You Go
'BEWITCHING' Antonia Hodgson, bestselling author of The Devil in the Marshalsea
'A TRIUMPH' Erin Kelly, author of The Poison Tree

Georgian London, in the summer of 1763.
At nineteen, Anne Jaccob is awakened to the possibility of joy when she meets Fub, the butcher's apprentice, and begins to imagine a life of passion with him.
The only daughter of well-to-do parents, Anne lives a sheltered life. Her home is a miserable place. Though her family want for nothing, her father is uncaring, her mother is ailing, and the baby brother who taught her to love is dead. Unfortunately her parents have already chosen a more suitable husband for her than Fub.
But Anne is a determined young woman, with an idiosyncratic moral compass. In the matter of pursuing her own happiness, she shows no fear or hesitation. Even if it means getting a little blood on her hands.
A vivid and surprising tale, The Butcher's Hook brims with the colour and atmosphere of Georgian London, as seen through the eyes of a strange and memorable young woman.
-~-~-~-~-~-

'Do you know what this is?' He holds a short twist of thick metal, in the shape of the letter 'S', sharpened at both ends. I shake my head.
'A butcher's hook,' he says, testing the tip of his finger against each point. 'A perfect design. Whichever way up you use it, it's always ready. One end to hook, the other to hang. It has only one simple purpose.' He stands on a stool and fixes it over the bar above him. It waits there, empty.
He climbs down. 'Pleasing, isn't it?'