★★★ ½
William was one of the best assassins of the 1600s…but it only took one botched job (someone ended up dead…but it was the wrong someone) to blacklist his name from the assassin’s guild.
Without a guild, William is lost. His skills wasted. His income ruined.
BUT there is one more chance for him – the Man-Butcher Prize.
The Man-Butcher is a competition between all of the assassins (and wanna-be-assassins) of the land with the winner gaining prestige and wealth. This is a shot at restoring his “good” name.
BUT (as the name implies) this competition is deadly. William will have to keep all of his wits about him to survive.
Whewwww! This was a wonderfully wild one!
I really didn’t know what to expect going into this book – but wow did it deliver.
There’s a bit of a dual storyline – the “present” where William is entering into the Man-Butcher prize and the “past” where we learn about this assassin’s origins.
Of the two…I did lean towards the Man-Butcher – cause how can you NOT be swept up into that world?
I loved, loved, loved the way Cross handled the competition – so many twists and turns. It was fascinating and exciting. So much action!
The alliance with Vesta was so neat to watch play out and the Cult of the Sacrificial Lambs was a crazy side-plot.
William was a fabulous main character. Intriguing, mysterious and exciting – I loved seeing him interact and develop over this book.
All in all, I really enjoyed my time between these pages and I cannot WAIT to see what he writes next!
A huge thank you to the author for sending me a free copy in exchange for an honest review!
Miranda Reads 