The Butcher's Hook: a dark and twisted tale of Georgian London

The Butcher's Hook doesn't read like a first novel - it is a high-finish performance. Its heroine is an 18th-century teenage girl, who starts demurely although her sex drive turns out to be anything but demure. You need to be braced for violence to rival any Jacobean tragedy: The Butcher's Hook will hook you. - Observer (New Faces of Fiction)This is a dark, weird, gloriously feminist story of a girl in 1763 pushing against the limits of her role and a dark love story. - Elle UK (Best New Books for 2016)This author remains one to watch. She has a sharp eye and a sharper wit. More importantly still, she possesses a subtle and compassionate understanding of the human heart - GuardianEllis has a public personality of great charm, and a good deal of this gets into her writing... she revels in the historical details, has a grasp of pace and knows how to keep her audience hooked - The TimesEllis weaves her tale with deft skill, striking imagery and a boldness rare in a first novel - Mail on SundayA story of dispassionate, bloody brilliance rich in believable period detail - MetroA gripping girl-power story - SunEllis 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. - Hannah Kent, bestselling author of BURIAL RITES