The Butcher and the Bird by Alaina Urquhart

About the book

The first novel by the forensic technician and creator of Morbid, the most listened to true crime podcast.
«For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by crimes and their impact on the mind and body. In fact, I make a living from it. But that obsession predates my work as a forensic technician.

A couple of years ago, I put together everything I had learned from my work in the morgue and my fascination with horror stories to write The Butcher and the Bird, a thriller in which its two protagonists, Jeremy and Wren, hold opposite opinions about if it is the murderer or the pathologist who keeps the final secrets of the deceased.

I wanted to create a new monster that my readers would look for under the bed before going to bed and a plot that would keep them in suspense, and at the center of the story, place a woman responsible for unraveling the murders and solving the puzzle.”

Why read “The Butcher and the Bird”?
Author and creator of Mórbid, the true crime podcast with the most subscribers.
One of the best editorial starts of the season in the United States.
It has been sold to more than 20 countries.
A fascinating duel to the death that will captivate readers for its protagonists.

Direct to number 1 on the sales lists
The launch in the United States of The Butcher and the Bird, in September 2022, was the best editorial start of the season. One day after its arrival in bookstores, it entered the Top 20 books on Amazon and ranked number 1 in the competitive thrillers section. It debuted on the best-seller lists of The New York Times and The Wall Street, with more than 100,000 copies in one week.

International projection
The rights to the novel have already been acquired for translation and publication in twenty countries, which makes The Butcher and the Bird one of the great international publishing novelties of 2023.

From the morgue to the bookstores
Alaina Urquhart’s work in the morgue of a large hospital in Boston and her knowledge of different associated disciplines allow the author to offer us a realistic story with a unique perspective. Thus, the writer joins the exclusive club of thriller authors who work as forensic doctors or anthropologists, pathological anatomy technicians or scientific police, among other specialties related to criminal investigation.

Upcoming television series
The production company Sister, responsible for such prestigious series as Chernobyl, Broadchurch and Gangs of London, is going to adapt The Butcher and the Bird for television. The visible head of the project is Jennifer Yale, who has already taken charge of the production of Dexter.

Narrative voice and structure
The Butcher and the Bird is narrated in a third person who focuses, in alternating chapters, on Jeremy Rose, the murderer, and Wren Muller, the coroner. Alaina Urquhart uses the present tense, which multiplies the closeness to the characters and the immediacy of the action. The book is divided into two parts, the turning point of which is a surprising plot twist. It consists of a total of thirty-five chapters. The odd numbers—eighteen—reflect Jeremy’s point of view; the pairs—seventeen—were Wren’s. The scenes are very visual and the pace is agile, in the tradition of the best American thriller.

Arco temporal
Alaina Urquhart performs a superb stylistic exercise to integrate and lead the reader through three different time frames. The main action takes place in the present. There are also references to events that occurred seven years ago. Finally, time travel takes us to the early nineties, to Jeremy’s childhood and his difficult relationship with his father.

A precise suspense mechanism
The use of the present, the structure of the novel and the technical skill of the author multiply the suspense. The most immediate is the one based on the double vision of the facts that the reader has, the only one who knows what the murderer is preparing and, at the same time, a witness to the forensic and police investigation. There are races against the clock to save lives and precise use of chapter endings at the height of the action.

Forensic realism
Another of Alaina Urquhart’s strengths as a narrator is her deep knowledge of autopsies and the most important routines of forensic investigation in all its aspects. Ella y ella tells it with shocking realism. We see how she works in the morgue and at the crime scene, in explicit descriptions that, without falling into the morbid, are able to capture the smells, sounds and sensations that surround violent death.