The Butcher and the Liar

Nebraska Book Award Winner
Finalist for the 2026 Kirkus Indie Awards
Finalist for the 2026 Silver Falchion Awards

"A haunting, inventive, and genre-blurring serial-killer tale...Woeppel’s narrative dances nimbly between a coming-of-age story, a ghost story, a murder mystery, and a dark exploration of trauma; somehow, she manages to make all these different tones harmonize and create something fresh, exciting, and unexpected." —Kirkus Review, Starred review

Daisy Bellon thinks she may have buried her skeletons forever. At thirty-five, she runs a butcher shop in a forgotten corner of Chicago, keeping her past locked away. But when an anonymous letter arrives, she’s thrust back to the day her life split in two.

At nine years old, Daisy meets Caleb Garcia, a boy who makes her believe in the possibility of friendship and happiness. But that same night, she stumbles upon her father dismembering a woman in their basement and becomes his unwilling apprentice, sworn to keep his monstrous secrets. When the victim’s ghost appears in Daisy’s room, she's bound to a haunting legacy. To endure, Daisy weaves a web of lies, clinging to the light of Caleb’s friendship while slipping deeper into the darkness of her father’s shadow.

More than two decades later, following the arrival of the mysterious letter, someone close to Daisy is brutally murdered in an all-too-familiar fashion. Forced to confront the truth about her family and herself, Daisy must decide whether to let the darkness consume her—or to fight for love and redemption, even if it means revealing everything she’s tried to bury.

A haunting psychological thriller, The Butcher and the Liar has mystery lovers and literary fiction readers on the edge of their seats.