The Butcher of Nazareth: David Scott Hay’s Dark Gospel Flies With Black Crow Books!

A butcher, a prophecy and the violence people commit in the name of belief.

The Butcher of Nazareth | David Scott Hay | Black Crow Books

The Butcher of Nazareth by David Scott Hay is a horror novel about faith, grief and blood. A butcher who lost his son in Herod’s Culling sees what is to come, and he sets out to stop it. To do that, he has to kill the one child who got away. The book has already won praise from Mariana Enriquez, A.C. Wise and Jo Kaplan. It also comes billed as a Goodreads #1 horror to read in 2026. Here is what you need to know about it, from what it is about to who is putting it out, and what the critics make of it.

A tale of fathers, sons, grief and zealotry, The Butcher of Nazareth turns the gospel story into literary horror about the violence people commit in the name of belief. The writers lining up behind it agree on one thing: it looks like nothing else on the shelf, and it asks hard questions with no easy answers.

The Butcher of Nazareth: A Biblical Horror of Fathers, Sons and Faith

A breakout biblical heart-of-darkness tale of fathers and sons, grief, zealotry, faith, and the terrible freedom of choice, The Butcher of Nazareth is a literary horror novel about the violence people commit in the name of belief.

This new edition comes from Black Crow Books, the horror press run by Jamie-Lee Nardone and Matt Holland. Jamie-Lee made her name in genre PR with Black Crow PR. Matt founded The Broken Binding, the special edition house and bookshop. They set out to put quality over quantity: a small list of new books each year, a best new horror anthology, limited editions and a horror book box. They also said they would not chase trends. A novel where a grieving butcher sets out to kill a young Jesus is about as far from a trend as you can get.

David Scott Hay is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. Born and raised in OKC, he lost the tip of a finger in a chop-saw incident somewhere in Chicago. He currently lives with his wife and son and dog and chickens and a dozen typewriters in a valley between the ocean, the mountains, and the desert. @david.scott.hay.official

I reviewed the book for Ginger Nuts of Horror back in March. This is how I summed it up:

It is a challenging, disorienting, and morally volatile work that refuses to offer easy answers.

You can read my full review of The Butcher of Nazareth on the site. Hay also talked through the book’s roots in our interview with David Scott Hay.

More praise for David Scott Hay

A GOODREADS #1 HORROR TO READ IN 2026

‘DSH’s writing is witty, smart, and precise’

Chicago Sun-Times

‘This is a novel of convulsive, blasphemous biblical horror, a gospel of the shadows full of doubts that asks about destiny and Faith, about the great paradox of human destiny. It is provocative and challenging, with no easy answers. What a relief and what a wonder, a book that looks like nothing else, a monstrous miracle with its hands full of blood’

Mariana Enriquez

‘Unique and unforgettable. A visceral and immersive work of historical horror – masterfully done’

A.C. Wise

‘Enthralling, gut-wrenching, and bloody. . . destined to become a literary classic’

Pedro Iniguez

‘Sometimes a novel comes along that sits almost too comfortably within its decade’s zeitgeist. The Butcher of Nazareth took me on a cruel but compelling journey, drawing me in so deeply that the story’s central obsession quickly became my own’

Peter Rosch

‘The most provocative book of 2026… David Scott Hay has not just written a dark gospel; he has penned a devastating and brilliant meditation on the costs of faith, the weights of choice, and the terrible, beautiful paradoxes at the core of human destiny’

Jim McLeod, Ginger Nuts of Horror

‘Told in Hay’s signature airtight prose, this book is both an unexpected and inevitable follow-up to the brilliant NSFW. DSH is a heavy hitter’

Charlene Elsby

‘DSH’s books are wholly original bangers with prose sharper than the Butcher’s blade. The personal is deftly blended with the apocalyptic, and sincerity and blasphemy walk hand in hand’

Jo Kaplan

‘Hay’s retelling of the Gospel is dark, violent, and brings a fascinating new prospective. This is easily one of the best novels that I’ve read recently and I highly recommend it’

Ben Arzate