Herbert isn’t like other children his age. He isn’t like the academic elite, the geeky children who get all the grades and are adored by their teachers. He isn’t like the extroverts, the socially adept and popular kids who never want for anything and always have a shoulder to cry on. And he isn’t like the bullies, the ones who taunt and beat him on a daily basis. Herbert isn’t like any of his peers, or indeed anyone he knows. The person Herbert identifies with the most, the person he idolizes and yearns to be, is The Butcher, a brutal and prolific serial killer.
Following another beating by the kids he despises at a school he hates, Herbert returns home to his inconspicuous existence with his solitary, silent, and coldhearted father. But life for Herbert is about to change. The shackles that have held him to mediocrity and anonymity are about to be broken. Not only does Herbert discover his father has died, but on further examination, he also discovers his dad was The Butcher, the very man whom everyone had feared and whom he had worshipped.
Life had been cruel to his father and death had been cruel to his legend, but Herbert decides that he will carry on his father’s name. He will be the man in the shadows, the thing that everyone fears. He will become The Butcher.
