I have an amazing damppebbles blog tour for you today! It's time for a bit of dark comedy courtesy of The Butcher by Nathan Burrows. Scroll down to read my review as part of the blog tour.
She thought it was pork. She was wrong.
The first time hapless food inspector Emily Underwood meets butcher Frank Pinch, he’s not got much at all in his display counters. But what he does have is a rather unusual plan to restock his shelves. The next time they bump into each other, he’s won an award for his sausages but is running out of meat.
Can Frank keep up production of his unusually tasty sausages? Will Emily discover the source of Frank’s award-winning meat? And what will happen the next time she tries to inspect his butcher’s shop?
Book 1 in the Rub-a-Dub-Dub trilogy, this deliciously British dark comedy will change the way you look at sausages forever.
The first time hapless food inspector Emily Underwood meets butcher Frank Pinch, he’s not got much at all in his display counters. But what he does have is a rather unusual plan to restock his shelves. The next time they bump into each other, he’s won an award for his sausages but is running out of meat.
Can Frank keep up production of his unusually tasty sausages? Will Emily discover the source of Frank’s award-winning meat? And what will happen the next time she tries to inspect his butcher’s shop?
Book 1 in the Rub-a-Dub-Dub trilogy, this deliciously British dark comedy will change the way you look at sausages forever.
What did I think?
As a non-meat eater and much to the chagrin of my family and friends, I have always referred to sausages as being made of hooves and @rseholes and containing no meat at all, so I was really intrigued when I read the synopsis of The Butcher by Nathan Burrows. It had me at 'She thought it was pork. She was wrong.' That has to be the best strapline ever!
In a not too distant future, The Butcher is set in Norwich post-Brexit where we Brits can barely afford to eat as everything is so expensive. The local butcher, Frank Pinch, and his farmer brother, Tom, are struggling to make a living until the pair stumble upon a recipe for some prize winning sausages. Suddenly Frank goes from having half-empty shelves to having a queue out of the door; news of his amazing sausages spreads far and wide and he even gets a visit from a red-headed celebrity. Frank and Tom also get a less welcome visit from recently qualified Food Standards Agency inspector, Emily. Will they pass the inspection or will Emily find out what is really in Frank's sausages?
The humour is very dark and dry which had me laughing along as I read; I was over three quarters of the way through and just thinking that it wasn't laugh out loud funny when I had a huge laugh out loud moment and had to share what I was laughing at. As much as it is funny, it's actually a very thought-provoking book as you can never really know exactly what you're eating and it always surprises me when people eat pies simply labelled as 'meat'. What kind of meat is it? Cow? Horse? Cat? Man?
With the most unlikely serial killers you will ever come across, The Butcher contains more humour than there is meat in a sausage to make a unique comedy crime novel. If you have a sense of humour, you will LOVE this book; I can't wait to read book 2, The Baker, especially after the little teaser in the back of The Butcher. I think this is going to be a brilliant trilogy.
My rating:
Buy it for only 99p/99c for a limited time from:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Google Books
Kobo
About the author:
Nathan Burrows is a writer based in Norfolk in
the United Kingdom. His debut novel, a legal thriller called 'Blind
Justice', was published in March 2018.
He's also the author of
a dark comedy trilogy set in Norfolk. The first in the series is 'The
Butcher', a deliciously funny story about - amongst other things -
sausages. The second in the series is 'The Baker', which features
Norfolk's most useless cult. And finally, 'The Candlestick Maker' is
about a fitness instructor with a difference.
The next book to
be released will be 'Man Down', a return to more traditional
thrillers. It's a military story set in Afghanistan which will be
released in the Autumn, 2019. Also releasing later in the year is
'Finding Milly', which explores just how far a man will go to find
his missing daughter.
Nathan's a keen reader as well as a
writer. He occasionally runs marathons, has a Norwich City football
club season ticket, and is the proud part-owner of a Daschund puppy
called Bertie.
For more information, visit
www.nathanburrows.com
Find Nathan on Social Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NathanBurrowsUK
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NathanBurrowsUK/
Website: https://nathanburrows.com/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nathan-Burrows/e/B079KS96CQ/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
Find Nathan on Social Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NathanBurrowsUK
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NathanBurrowsUK/
Website: https://nathanburrows.com/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nathan-Burrows/e/B079KS96CQ/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
Follow the tour:
Thanks so much, Michelle x
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