Anne Jaccob is coming of age in late eighteenth-century London, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. When she is taken advantage of by her tutor — a great friend of her father’s — and is set up to marry a squeamish snob named Simeon Onions, she begins to realize just how powerless she is in Victorian society. Anne is watchful, cunning, and bored.
Her saviour appears in the form of Fub, the butcher’s boy. Their romance is both a great spur and an excitement. Anne knows she is doomed to a loveless marriage to Onions and she is determined to escape with Fub and be his mistress. But will Fub ultimately be her salvation or damnation? And how far will she go to get what she wants?
Dark and sweeping, The Butcher’s Hook is a richly textured debut featuring one of the most memorable characters in fiction.
The Butcher’s Hook is bewitching: Anne Jacob is a dark and dangerous heroine and her story is gripping and full of surprises. This is an exciting and hugely impressive debut from Janet Ellis.
Ellis has created something marvellous in the character of Anne Jaccob — her voice is strange, dark and utterly mesmeric. This is historical fiction as I've never encountered it before: full of viscera, snarling humour, and obsessive desire. I loved it.
Stunning writing from the opening page, this book is captivating, unpredictable and often blackly comic. Janet Ellis depicts not only eighteenth century London in wonderful detail but also the creation of a one-of-a-kind psychopath. This isn’t a cosy period book but one in which the author throws firecrackers at the reader.
Beautifully written; the voice is perfect. Every page had a line I wish I’d thought of myself.