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60 pages 2 hours read

Brynne Weaver

Butcher & Blackbird

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

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Prologue-Chapter 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue Summary

Content Warning: This section describes and discusses the novel’s treatment of child abuse, child sexual abuse, and cannibalism.

The prologue takes place years after Chapter 1 and consists of a note explaining a future year’s iteration of a yet-to-be-established annual competition between the two protagonists, “Butcher” (Rowan Kane) and “Blackbird” (Sloane Sutherland), who are both serial killers who kill other serial killers. The target is a killer nicknamed “the Forest Phantom.”

Chapter 1 Summary: “Ichi-go, Ichi-e: Sloane”

Sloane Sutherland, aka “the Orb Weaver,” is a serial killer who kills other serial killers. Three days ago, a serial killer named Albert Briscoe trapped Sloane in a cage in his house in Louisiana before dying of wounds she inflicted. Now, Sloane is stuck in the cage with his corpse and no food. Flies buzz around Briscoe’s corpse and maggots emerge from his belly. Sloane has no idea how she is going to escape the cage until a handsome man with an Irish accent appears.

The man, Rowan Kane (aka “the Boston Butcher”), is also a serial killer who kills serial killers. He came to Briscoe’s house to kill him only to discover that Sloane beat him to it. Rowan and Sloane have heard of each other, and Rowan admires Sloane’s work. She suspends her victims with fishing line, which she decorates with pieces of their skin and gouged-out eyeballs. Rowan finds keys in Briscoe’s pocket, lets Sloane out of the cage, and invites her to lunch. First, Sloane takes a shower in Briscoe’s house, changes into some of his clothes that aren’t blood-stained, and burns the house to destroy evidence.

Chapter 2 Summary: “Fun & Games: Rowan”

Rowan is excited to be eating lunch with the infamous Orb Weaver. She is beautiful. Sloane requests a table that is equidistant between the restaurant’s two exits as if she wants to be able to run away easily if necessary. Although Rowan likes Sloane’s chosen nickname, he suggests that “Blackbird” would have also been a good option, due to her dark hair, “flighty nature,” and a song he heard her singing in the cage. Sloane says the song is personal and not for the public, but after this, Rowan adopts “Blackbird” as his personal nickname for Sloane.

Rowan is curious to learn more about Sloane because the FBI and the press have not figured out much and falsely assume that she is a man. Sloane explains that the webs she creates are maps of the serial killers’ recent kills, although the FBI has not figured this out. Rowan and Sloane discover that they have “hunted” some of the same serial killers before. Rowan tells Sloane about a serial killer who murders hikers in the Pacific Northwest’s national parks, but not much is known about him. Rowan claims he knows a lot about serial killers because it is his “business.” He suggests they start a competition, and whoever wins can kill this forest killer.

Chapter 3 Summary: “Ventricular: Sloane”

A year later, Sloane reflects that she has an “itch” that can only be relieved through committing murders. Every time she kills someone, the itch becomes more difficult to alleviate. She has a man named Michael Northman, who sexually abuses children, restrained on a table. She has been torturing him and plans to kill him. She is also waiting on news about her competition with Rowan. They have not done the first round yet, but they are about to start soon and the anticipation is making her nervous.

Sloane calls her best friend, Lark Montague, to discuss her worries that the competition is reckless and impulsive. Lark encourages Sloane to go through with it because she thinks Sloane needs more friends. Rowan would be an appropriate choice since he has a lot in common with her, plus the competition might be more effective at alleviating Sloane’s “itch” than her regular murders.

Rowan’s older brother, Lachlan, is going to select a serial killer target from somewhere in the US, and then text the killer’s location to Rowan and Sloane at the same time. Then, Rowan and Sloane will travel to the location and have seven days to figure out who the killer is and race each other to kill them. If there is a tie, they will play rock-paper-scissors to determine a winner. Each August, there will be a new target, and the best out of five wins the whole competition. Sloane suspects that Lachlan will tell Rowan first, but Rowan assures her that Lachlan would rather have Rowan lose so he can make fun of him.

Lachlan texts Sloane and Rowan that the location is Ivydale, West Virginia. Sloane cuts her torture of Michael short, killing him quickly so she can start preparing for her trip from Raleigh, North Carolina to West Virginia.

Chapter 4 Summary: “Atelier: Rowan”

Rowan’s younger brother, Fionn, who is a doctor and lives in Nebraska, asks about the trip Rowan is packing for. Lachlan explains that Rowan created a murder competition to get closer to Sloane because he has a crush on her. Fionn is annoyed that he is just hearing about this now, but Lachlan says he would know things earlier if he moved to Boston, where he and Rowan both live. Sloane texts Rowan a picture of her drinking champagne on an airplane. Rowan begins packing faster, even though this will not make his flight leave sooner.

Lachlan owns a leatherworking studio called Kane Atelier, but he is also a paid assassin and can access information about criminals beyond what even the FBI knows. Fionn asks Rowan if the competition is really a smart idea, but Rowan has already made up his mind to go and looks forward to seeing Sloane.

Chapter 5 Summary: “Certainty: Sloane”

Late at night, in the lobby of an inn in Ivydale, West Virginia, Sloane reads on her e-reader, accompanied by a cat. She is the only guest checked in until Rowan arrives. Rowan steals some wine from the kitchen, which he opens and shares with Sloane. Neither Sloane nor Rowan know who they are supposed to kill. They chat about other topics, such as Rowan’s restaurant, which he named “3 in Coach.” When Rowan, Lachlan, and Fionn left Ireland for the US, these are the words Lachlan said to purchase tickets. Rowan thought these words marked the beginning of their new, improved life, so he named his restaurant after them.

The innkeeper, Francis Ross, comes to pick up the cat, Winston, for bedtime. He asks what brings them to town; the inn does not get many visitors because Ivydale is not a major travel destination, plus there are plenty of Airbnbs in the area. Sloane claims they are on a hiking trip and that each year, they pick a new place. Francis recommends some trails but warns about one where hikers sometimes go missing and never return. Francis leaves and Sloane goes to bed, leaving Rowan in the lobby with his wine.

Chapter 6 Summary: “Susannah: Rowan”

Neither Sloane nor Rowan have discovered who they are supposed to kill yet. Rowan knocks on Sloane’s door, but she is just leaving and will not tell him where she is going or let him come along. This worries him because he assumes that either she is going to research the killer or going on a date. Rowan goes to his room and conducts research online about crime in the area, but all he finds are some missing-person news stories with no apparent connection to each other.

After three hours, Rowan hears Sloane return to her room. He reflects that she could have killed the killer in this time or had sex with someone, and he does not know which is worse. Rowan hears Sloane singing to music. When she stops singing, he puts his ear to the wall. He hears her using a vibrator, and he thinks he hears her say his name. He also hears someone else; he discovers that a painting on the wall has a real person’s eyes in it and that someone is spying on Sloane. He smashes the painting with a lamp, then runs into the hallway and sees the man running away.

Sloane screams and Rowan goes to her door, telling her that a man was watching her through the wall. She assumes it was just Rowan, but he insists there was someone else watching through the painting. He shows her a secret room behind the painting, and she stalks off down the hall, saying she is going after Francis, whom she was just with, trying to get information. Sloane and Rowan now realize that Francis is the serial killer: he spies on the guests at his inn and sometimes kills them. Rowan now believes that Francis was planning to kill Sloane after spying on her.

Chapter 7 Summary: “Cubism Era: Rowan”

Sloane and Rowan run to Francis’s nearby house. Francis is already in his car, preparing to run. Rowan jumps on the car and hits the windshield with a rock repeatedly. Francis is about to crash into a tree, but Sloane warns Rowan in time so he can jump off the car. Rowan goes to Sloane, puts his hand around her throat, and tells her that Francis is “his” to kill. Sloane agrees to step aside and Rowan releases her. Rowan goes to Francis, accuses him of plotting to kill Sloane after spying on her, then whispers to him that Sloane is “his” and beats him to death. Sloane is silent and hidden in shadows, and Rowan worries he has scared her off until he says her name and she reappears. Sloane says Francis’s face now looks like a Picasso painting and that Rowan is in his “Cubism era.”

Sloane cleans Rowan’s wounds in Francis’s bathroom. Rowan catches Sloane looking at a scar on his lip. He explains that his abusive father gave it to him. Rowan and Lachlan killed their father after years of abuse, and Rowan’s mother died in childbirth with Fionn. Sloane and Rowan stick around for three more days to clean up the crime scene and destroy any evidence.

Prologue-Chapter 7 Analysis

Weaver uses two main narrative strategies to build suspense, romantic tension, and dramatic irony. The first is alternating the narration between the two protagonists. Because both protagonists tell parts of the story from their own perspective, the reader is aware that Sloane and Rowan are both attracted to each other from their first meeting, even though they have not fully admitted it to each other yet. Revealing their mutual feelings may seem to extinguish the romantic mystery, but since the characters do not share with each other everything that they share with the reader, suspense is maintained because the reader is left wondering when and how the characters will confess their feelings for each other and actually begin a relationship. The second strategy Weaver uses is non-chronological narration. For example, the prologue takes place years after the first chapter, creating intrigue and curiosity about the annual competition between Rowan and Sloane. When reading the beginning of the first chapter, the reader is left wondering how the competition will come to fruition and how it will play out over the years. Weaver also uses time jumps. An entire year is skipped between Chapters 2 and 3 so that the focus remains on the relationship between Rowan and Sloane and their activities together, rather than on their separate activities during the year in which they do not see each other.

The opening chapters introduce the theme of The Nuances of Identity through both protagonists as well as the first serial killer they hunt in their competition, Francis Ross. When Sloane and Rowan first meet, they have heard of each other, but only by their murderer nicknames. They do not know each other’s real names, appearances, or personalities. Both protagonists are charmed by each other in ways they could not have predicted by their nicknames alone. When Rowan creates a new, personal nickname for Sloane, “Blackbird,” it points to the inadequacy of a nickname to capture the entirety of a person’s identity. “Orb Weaver” describes the way Sloane stages her murder scenes, but Rowan’s nickname shows that it fails to capture aspects of her personality not connected to her killings. The fact that Sloane’s killer persona does not fully align with her personality foreshadows their failure to identify innkeeper Francis Ross as the serial killer they are hunting at first glance. Although both protagonists think Francis is a bit off-putting, they do not suspect him of being the killer until they catch him spying on Sloane. This raises the novel’s tension because, with serial killers concealing their own identities and hiding in plain sight, it is unclear when and if Sloane and Rowan are truly “safe.” Furthermore, it drives home the fact that identity is made up of multiple facets, some of which may be concealed either deliberately or subconsciously. “Knowing” a person, the text hints, is complicated by the many selves each person contains.

This section also begins to explore The Ethics of Vigilante Justice. Sloane’s elaborate staging of the crime scenes where she murders people are disturbing, as are the extensive ways in which she tortures her victims; this would seem to suggest that she is a depraved and immoral killer. However, the fact that she and Rowan only kill perpetrators of crimes such as murder and child abuse justifies their crimes in their eyes. Other characters who know about Sloane and Rowan’s murderous activities likewise do not question the morality of this vigilante justice. This makes it seem like the “normal” people in Sloane and Rowan’s lives are morally on board with their murderous activities, due to how reprehensible their victims are. The novel does not address whether it would be morally better for Sloane and Rowan to turn their victims over to law enforcement rather than take matters into their own hands. On the contrary, whenever someone mentions the FBI, it is to denigrate them. Although it is not entirely clear why Sloane and Rowan think it is their specific duty to rid the planet of villains, it is clear that the novel draws a distinction between Sloane and Rowan, who are killing to protect others, and their victims, who kill simply because they enjoy inspiring fear and wreaking havoc. Nevertheless, Sloane and Rowan’s enjoyment of their murders—not to mention Sloane’s “itch” for killing—suggests that the line between them and their victims is not as stark as they might believe.

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By Brynne Weaver