Little Crew of Butchers: A Novel

by Francine Pascal, Dion Graham (Read by)

Overview

“A free license given to all acts of inhumanity and lust…this execrable crew of butchers.”—Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift

Lucas Baird never got much of a break when he was a child, but by his early twenties, his good looks and easy manner allow him to skate through life without having to put in much effort. On the cusp of manhood in years yet still a boy—what Anthony Trollope called a hobbledehoy—charming Luke has enjoyed his extended adolescence of drinking and small-time cons. But when a freak accident compels him to leave LA—and leave fast—he finds himself in New York, in the seemingly idyllic Long Island beach town of Shorelane, where through a drunken mistake, he becomes trapped in a life-or-death ordeal. Luke’s only potential saviors are a group of local children, who are themselves lost and destined for paths much the same as Luke’s—if not worse—and a young woman, equally lost. For Luke to finally cross into manhood, he will have to come to terms with his own poor judgment and mortality, and find the courage to stay sane in the face of irrational actors.

Reminiscent of The Beach and Lord of the Flies, Little Crew of Butchers is a masterful tale of the innocent savagery of children, but also of the redemptive power of love and courage, and the wisdom that comes from truly growing up.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982615185
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	05/26/2020
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 5.60(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Francine Pascal is the creator of the Sweet Valley High series and one of the world’s most popular fiction writers for teenagers. She is the author of several bestselling novels, including My Mother Was Never a Kid (Hanging Out with Cici), My First Love and Other Disasters, as well as the Fearless series. Her adult novels include Save Johanna! and If Wishes Were Horses and the nonfiction book The Strange Case of Patty Hearst. She has collaborated with Michael Stewart on the Broadway musical George M! and with Jon Marans and Graham Lyle she has written the musical The Fearless Girl. She is on the advisory board of the American Theatre Wing. Her favorite sport is a monthly poker game.

Dion Graham, from HBO’s The Wire, also narrates The First 48 on A&E. Winner of more than a dozen Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for best narration, he has performed on Broadway, off Broadway, internationally, in films, and in several hit television series. His performances have been praised as thoughtful and compelling, vivid and full of life.

Editorial Reviews

2020-03-02
A preteen bully and a 22-year-old con artist collide in Pascal's thriller.

The creator of the Sweet Valley High series turns to adult fiction with mixed results in a story set in a sleepy town on New York's Long Island. Here, 12-year-old “Big Larry” terrorizes a group of younger neighborhood kids including sensitive 10-year-old Charley and Charley's bright, determined 7-year-old sister, Lucy. Into this small-town scene drops shady, attractive Australian Luke, who has skipped bail and hitchhiked across the country from LA. He and Larry work up a mutual enmity while they're both shoplifting from a local drugstore. When, after a rendezvous on a deserted town beach with sweet, innocent drugstore clerk Daisy Rumkin, Luke takes shelter in a storm drain and is pinned down by falling debris, Larry seizes the opportunity to amp up his bullying game into full-scale torture, with the reluctant aid of the members of his little gang. Having gotten hold of his abusive father's gun, Larry makes plans that include not just the elimination of Luke, but violence inflicted on the entire community. Pascal knows how to craft short, snappy chapters that leave the reader wanting more, and little Lucy, described as “weird” by most of those who know her, makes an appealingly different heroine. But the novel is oddly untethered in time. While it's clear that this is supposed to be a relatively contemporary story—Harry Styles, for example, is the teen heartthrob referenced—the characters say things like “Your pa don't know beans” and “My ma says a bum'll steal the eyes out of your head.” Daisy thinks of herself as a “shopgirl” and has never heard of IMDb. In addition, Luke, in whose head we spend a significant portion of the novel and whose redemption is its main narrative arc, is a singularly unappealing hero.

Younger and older readers alike will be baffled by this half-baked adventure.

Kirkus Reviews