Butcher & Blackbird (2023) is a Dark Romance novel by Brynne Weaver, part of the Ruinous Love trilogy. Sloane and Rowan are two rival murderers who specialize in killing serial killers. They develop an unlikely, slow-burn romance as they participate in an annual competition where they race to kill various villains in different locations throughout the United States. As their relationship deepens, Sloane and Rowan must navigate the unfamiliar territory of emotional vulnerability, genuine love, and mutual acceptance, while renegotiating their relationships with violence and competition. The novel explores The Ethics of Vigilante Justice, The Nuances of Identity, and The Complexities of Love in Dark Circumstances. The second book in the trilogy, Leather & Lark, was published in 2024.

This guide refers to the paperback edition published by Zando in 2024.

Content Warning: Butcher & Blackbird and this guide mention child abuse, child sexual abuse, and cannibalism.

Plot Summary

The two protagonists take turns narrating the novel. Sloane Sutherland (aka the “Orb Weaver”) is a serial killer who kills other serial killers. She is currently locked in a cage with the corpse of a serial killer named Albert Briscoe whom she has just killed, but she does not know how to get out. She is trapped there for three days with no food until a handsome man named Rowan Kane (aka the “Boston Butcher”) appears, finds the keys to the cage, lets Sloane out, and invites her to lunch. Rowan is also a serial killer who kills other serial killers and was planning to kill Briscoe. Sloane and Rowan have heard of each other by their nicknames. They feel attracted to each other. Rowan gives Sloane the personalized nickname “Blackbird” to match her hair, her flighty nature, and a song she was singing in the cage. Although Rowan and Sloane live in different states, Rowan invites Sloane to participate in an annual competition with him so they can see each other again. Each year, he proposes, they will race to see who can kill a particular serial killer first. Best three out of five wins and the winner gets to kill an elusive villain called the “Forest Phantom.”

A year later, while waiting for news about the annual competition, Sloane tortures a man named Michael Northman who sexually abuses children. She is not sure about seeing Rowan again, but her best friend, Lark Montague, encourages her. Rowan’s brother, Lachlan, who is a leatherworker and a hired assassin, texts Sloane and Rowan the location of a small town in West Virginia where they are supposed to go hunt a serial killer. Sloane kills Michael and then gets on a plane. Rowan’s brothers Lachlan and Fionn tease him about his romantic feelings for Sloane while he packs. Sloane and Rowan meet in the lobby of the inn where they are staying, and where they are the only guests. The innkeeper, Francis, warns them to stay away from a certain trail where people sometimes go missing. Neither Sloane nor Rowan knows whom they are supposed to kill. They are meant to discover the killer, and then race to kill them.

Sloane visits Francis to try to get information out of him, then returns to her hotel room, which shares a wall with Rowan’s. Rowan listens through the wall and hears Sloane using a vibrator, then notices that a painting’s eyes are moving, suggesting there is a real person in the wall watching Sloane. Rowan chases the man away without seeing who he is. Rowan tells Sloane about the man and she realizes it was probably Francis, and that Francis is the killer. Rowan and Sloane go to Francis’s house and Rowan kills him, whispering to him that Sloane is “his.” Sloane cleans Rowan’s wounds and they get rid of the evidence, then go home. Sloane brings Francis’s cat, Winston, to live with her.

Lark encourages Sloane to pursue a romantic relationship with Rowan, but Sloane is hesitant. Sloane makes an impromptu visit to Boston, where Rowan owns a restaurant. She visits the restaurant, but when Rowan confronts her, she pretends she has to leave to attend a business meeting, then goes home to Raleigh without visiting with him. She leaves behind a drawing of a raven that she made. Rowan then visits Raleigh without telling Sloane. He pays a child to deliver groceries to her house three days in a row and instructs her on how to cook them over the phone. Rowan explains that the first person he and Lachlan killed was their father because he was abusive. Rowan used to cook to provide for his brothers, and he loves owning a restaurant. Sloane used to love art, but it has become tainted for her.

Months later, Sloane and Rowan go to California to hunt their next target, Thorsten Harris, who, unbeknownst to Rowan, practices cannibalism. Sloane and Rowan charm Thorsten at a bar. He invites them to his house for dinner, where a seemingly nonverbal servant named David serves them several courses, most of which Sloane avoids eating. Sloane assumes Thorsten lobotomized David and forced him into servitude, but Thorsten claims David had an accident and Thorsten “saved” him by offering him employment. Thorsten drugs Rowan, who confesses his feelings for Sloane, accidentally eats human flesh, then passes out.

When Rowan comes to, Sloane has Thorsten tied up and is cutting off pieces of his skin and gouging his eyes out to suspend in a web, like she always does to her victims. Sloane explains that the first person she killed was an art teacher who abused Lark. Now, like Rowan, she kills monstrous people because she wants to make the world safer and protect others. She no longer uses color in her art. Sloane kills Thorsten and nurses Rowan back to health. David absentmindedly eats flesh and semen ice cream, then Sloane suggests Rowan give David a dishwashing job at his restaurant, and Rowan reluctantly agrees. In reality, David is a serial killer who is just pretending to have been lobotomized, but neither protagonist realizes this yet.

Eight months later, Sloane attends a gala in Boston with Rowan, who is receiving an award for his restaurant. He is also working on opening a second restaurant and has been busy. Sloane thinks this is a date and is disappointed when Rowan suggests they kill a man at the gala named Dr. Stephen Rostis, who murders his patients. Just then, Rowan gets a call about an emergency at his restaurant and has to leave. Sloane returns to her hotel before an early flight.

Four months later, Sloane and Rowan meet outside the house of their next target, Harvey Mead, a chainsaw killer in rural Texas. They split up and search the house, but Harvey kicks Sloane down a hill, injures her shoulder, and then locks her in the cellar with another woman. Rowan lets Sloane out of the cellar, kisses her, attacks Harvey with an ax, and ties him up. Sloane taunts Harvey with the mummified corpse of his mother that she found in his house until he dies of a heart attack. The other woman wanders off and Rowan drives Sloane to his brother Fionn’s house in Nebraska because Fionn is a doctor. Fionn tends to Sloane’s arm. Rowan helps Sloane bathe, and then Sloane and Rowan have sex. Rowan has Sloane’s raven drawing tattooed on his back. A woman named Rose, who is living with Fionn, reads Rowan’s tarot cards and warns him that something chaotic and potentially destructive is coming.

Sloane moves to Boston to be with Rowan, arranging to work for a medical company from home. Rowan shows Sloane his new restaurant, which will open soon. He’s named it Butcher & Blackbird. They tell each other they love each other, then have sex. The opening of the new restaurant is a success, but Rowan is under a lot of stress and asks Sloane if, for the next round of their competition, they can work together instead of racing against each other. Rowan goes to fix something at his restaurant and Sloane runs errands.

When Rowan gets to the restaurant, David is there, threatening to kill him and Sloane unless he gets rid of Sloane, in which case he will only kill Rowan. Sloane shows up at the restaurant and Rowan breaks up with her to protect her from David but references a comment he made in April, which does not make sense to Sloane. She leaves the restaurant, then checks her texts from Rowan from April and finds a comment about David, which clues her into the fact that he is causing trouble. She checks a secret camera she planted in the restaurant, which confirms this. Sloane goes to the restaurant and kills David, saving Rowan, although David has already cut up Rowan’s arms.

Lark moves to Boston and seems to develop a romance with Lachlan. Sloane draws a color tattoo to cover Rowan’s scars. Sloane and Rowan kill Dr. Stephen Rostis together, then Rowan proposes to Sloane. Sloane stresses about planning a wedding because she does not know whether to invite her parents (whom she is mostly estranged from) and she does not like crowds. The unnamed sibling of one of the people Rowan killed plans to kill Lachlan to get revenge on Rowan. Sloane takes a trip to a spa resort on the beach with Lark, then Rowan appears and suggests they get married there, so they do, with Lachlan walking her down the “aisle.”