The Butcher’s Hook

Anne Jaccob is the daughter of a well-to-do family, though material comforts do nothing to soften a life pinched by misery and neglect. Her father cares nothing for her, her mother is exhausted and absent through her many confinements, and they are all grieving in their own ways for Anne’s baby brother. Denied emotional solace at home and desperate to escape the suitor her father has picked for her, Anne starts to look outside for excitement and affection. She settles on Fub, the butchers’ boy, hardly a suitable match for a young lady. Hardened by grief and made reckless by desire, Anne pushes herself off on a course there’s no turning back from…
Don’t let Janet Ellis’s cosy demeanour fool you, this is a dark, twisting tale of grief, lust and violence in Georgian London, and one unforgettable heroine’s warped attempt to escape the stifling claustrophobia of the female sphere.