The Butcher of Nazareth

For fa ns of Between Two Fires and The Devils comes a breakout biblical horror novel that Kirkus Reviews lauded as "The New Testament à la Cormac McCarthy,” about a butcher plagued by violent visions of the future who sets out to kill a pre-ministry Jesus.

How does one choose between personal redemption and the salvation of the world?

The Butcher has spent decades trying to atone for his part in King Herod’s Culling, during which he was forced to slay his own son.

Plagued by visions, the Butcher sees holy wars, inquisitions, persecution, and finally a flame deluge that turns the earth to ash and glass. Determined to prevent such an apocalyptic future, he sets out to kill the one child who escaped Herod’s blade: Jesus of Nazareth.

The journey takes a personal turn when he adopts a dead infant and begins to imagine a different miracle: the restoration of his own family. Accompanied by a monstrous one-horned goat, the Butcher murders his way from Bethlehem to Jerusalem to Nazareth, where he finds not the radiant savior of prophecy but a heavyset, honey-loving man still waiting for his Calling.

When he asks Jesus to resurrect the child, the answer will force both men to confront the terrible cost of faith, forgiveness, and redemption.

A breakout biblical heart-of-darkness tale of fathers and sons, grief, zealotry, faith, and the terrible freedom of choice, The Butcher of Nazareth is a literary horror novel about the violence people commit in the name of belief.