Enclosed herewith: the hitherto untold story of Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd's infamous partner in crime-a bloodcurdling correspondence of profound horror and intrigue
For fans of Sarah Waters, Gregory Maguire, and Graeme Macrae Burnet, and based on the original Victorian penny dreadful
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. 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 David Demchuk's debut The Bone Mother was nominated for the Scotiabank 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.
