The Butcher's Daughter - by David Demchuk & Corinne Leigh Clark (Hardcover)

About the Book

"London, England, 1887: At the abandoned apartment of a missing young woman, a dossier of evidence is collected, ordered chronologically, and sent to the Chief Inspector of the London Police for review. It contains a curious correspondence between an inquisitive journalist, Miss Emily Gibson, and the woman Gibson thinks may be the infamous Mrs. Lovett-Sweeney Todd's accomplice, who baked men into pies and sold them in her pie shop on Fleet Street. A "wicked woman"-the talk of London Town. Rumors have swirled about Mrs. Lovett since the disappearance of hundreds of unwitting men decades prior-but is it actually Lovett, even if the suspected woman swears against it? As the woman relays the harrowing account of her life-from her upbringing on Butcher's Row, in the unruly and perilous streets of Victorian London, to her daring escape from a mad doctor-the correspondence unlocks an intricate mystery that brings Miss Gibson closer to the truth, even as that truth may cost her dearly. The Butcher's Daughter is a breathtaking epistolary journey, an inventive horror novel that sets the stage for the terrors of the modern era-and, at long last, unravels the true story behind Mrs. Lovett and her unspeakable crimes"--

Book Synopsis

The story of the vengeful barber Sweeney Todd has gripped fans across literary, stage, and screen renditions--but little has been told of Mrs. Lovett, Todd's partner in crime. Until now.

Enclosed herewith: a bloodcurdling correspondence of horror and intrigue, based on the original Victorian penny dreadful that started it all.

"Your fingers may bleed with paper cuts as you tear through The Butcher's Daughter . . . I am spellbound."--Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

London, 1887: At the abandoned apartment of a missing young woman, a dossier of evidence is collected, ordered chronologically, and sent to the Chief Inspector of the London Metropolitan Police. It contains a frightening correspondence between an inquisitive journalist, Miss Emily Gibson, and the woman Gibson thinks may be the infamous Mrs. Lovett--Sweeney Todd's accomplice, "a wicked woman" who baked men into pies and sold them in her pie shop on Fleet Street. The talk of London Town--even decades after her horrendous misdeeds.

As the woman relays the harrowing account of her life in the unruly and perilous streets of Victorian London, her missives unlock an intricate mystery that brings Miss Gibson closer to the truth, even as that truth may cost her everything. A hair-raising and breathtaking novel for fans of Sarah Waters and Gregory Maguire, The Butcher's Daughter is an irresistible literary thriller that draws richly from historical sources and shines new light on the woman behind the counter of the most disreputable pie shop ever known.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Butcher's Daughter

"Your fingers may bleed with paper cuts as you tear through The Butcher's Daughter. Retailed with consummate confidence, this novel draws out of the foggy demimonde of Victorian London all manner of mayhem. I am spellbound. You will be too, should you attend the tale."
--Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

"Grisly, spellbinding, and oddly touching . . . Demchuk and Clark get their arms bloody to the elbow reaching deep into the carcass of a story about life at the margins and the gruesome allure of wanton violence."
--Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt and Cuckoo

"Engrossing and exquisitely detailed. A twisty tale worthy of the enigmatic Mrs. Lovett."
--Kelley Armstrong, New York Times bestselling author of Bitten and I'll Be Waiting

"A Victorian nightmare. Demchuk and Clark present an assembly of communications and reports that together form temporal windows to a slaughterhouse, turning us into voyeurs glimpsing the edges of carnage. All the ingredients of a macabre treat."
--Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth and All the Hearts You Eat

"A consistently clever and harrowing fin-de-siècle horror, The Butcher's Daughter draws its eerie narrative harmonies from a cacophony of documents. Demchuk and Clark are equally adept in blending genres, creating a unique mixture of sensation fiction and literary horror. Tremendous fun."
--Naben Ruthnum, author of Helpmeet

"A wonderfully sophisticated horror. The Butcher's Daughter is a gloomy, disgusting, and suspenseful rollercoaster ride, brought to vivid life by two exceptionally talented writers. At its heart, it is a tale about bodies--especially women's bodies--about freedom and agency, and those who wish to control other human beings down to their guts. An historical novel, yes, but very much spun from this current bloody moment. Bleak, witty, and disturbing."
--Richard Mirabella, author of Brother & Sister Enter the Forest

"Bloody and beautiful, The Butcher's Daughter is a visceral novel that grips the reader and refuses to let go. David Demchuk and Corinne Leigh Clark brilliantly reimagine a classic, giving it new depths, new horrors, and new layers to peel back by centering the character of Mrs. Lovett and rightfully letting her tell her own tale in her own voice. The moment I started reading, I didn't want to put it down."
--A. C. Wise, author of Wendy, Darling

"The seedy underbelly of Victorian London comes to life in this deliciously dark novel, with mad scientists, murderous cults, merciless madams, and, of course, meat pies. If Sarah Waters had written penny dreadfuls, it might look something like this, but only David Demchuk and Corinne Leigh Clark could make me hungry while reading about cannibalism."
--Nino Cipri, author of Dead Girls Don't Dream

"Those who enjoy being immersed in the gritty, visceral, and historically accurate world of Victorian London as seen in Alan Moore's From Hell or Virginia Feito's Victorian Psycho will eagerly devour this tale."
--Booklist

"A bloody good time . . . Though the authors fiddle with the Sweeney legend as most horror and Broadway fans know it, they build to a startling final twist that readers will think worth the liberties taken."
--Publishers Weekly

"Demchuk (Red X) and debut author Clark have crafted a grim tale of Victorian London with appeal to readers of classic horror retold from new perspectives, such as Lucy Undying by Kiersten White and Eynhallow by Tim McGregor."
--Library Journal


Praise for David Demchuk

"Can a horror novel be too disturbing? David Demchuk's Red X begs that question, not because of any excess of gore or violence but because of its singular and unflinching dark vision. That's a good thing--too much contemporary horror fiction plays for easy shocks and even easier sentimental tears, and Demchuk is clearly after something deeper."
--Toronto Star

"[Red X is] a book full of heart and righteous fury, an urban nightmare with some retro-horror stylings that sidesteps that genre's usual pitfalls of splatter and pessimism to deliver a story of emotional heft and guarded optimism. While it's relentless and can be incredibly disturbing, there are also moments of beauty, hope, and a certain melancholy. It's a complex, disturbing, challenging, and compulsively readable work that commands your attention, and indeed deserves it."
--Tor Nightfire

About the Author

David Demchuk's debut, The Bone Mother, was nominated for the Giller Prize, the Amazon First Novel Award, the Toronto Book Award, the Kobzar Book Award and a Shirley Jackson Award, and won the 2018 Sunburst Award for Best Novel. RED X was listed as a CBC Books pick for Best Canadian Fiction of the Year, and a New York Public Library Best Book of 2021. He now lives with his husband in St. John's, Newfoundland.

Corinne Leigh Clark's gothic heart loves shadowy stories about Victorian London. In 2018, an excerpt from her manuscript-in-progress set in the slums of 19th-century London won a PRH Canada Student Award for Fiction. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Education. She lives with her husband in southern Ontario, Canada.