The Resurrectionist

Summary

In the tradition of The Alienist and Anatomy: A Love Story, a decadently macabre, dark and twisty gothic debut
set in 19th century Scotland – when real-life serial killers Burke and Hare terrorized the streets of Edinburgh –
as a young medical student is lured into the illicit underworld of body snatching.
Historical fiction, true crime, and dark academia intertwine in a harrowing tale of murder, greed, and the grisly
origins of modern medicine for readers of Lydia Kang, ML Rio, Sarah Perry, and C.E. McGill.
Portrait of the Medical Student as a Young Body Snatcher
Yet I must insist that in the end, this is not a story about Death. It is perhaps a Life story, or even—yes—a Love
story. It is the story of how I clawed my way from the decay of a crumbling legacy into the modern era of Reason
and Science. It is the story of how I escaped the prison of archaic superstition to the freedom of enlightenment.
It is the story of how a rose can blossom from even the bloodiest soil, of how light can grow from shadow, how
love can grow from despair.
This, dear reader, is the story of my Resurrection.
Edinburgh, Scotland, 1828. Naïve but determined James Willoughby has abandoned his posh, sheltered life
at Oxford to pursue a lifelong dream of studying surgery in Edinburgh. A shining beacon of medical discovery
in the age of New Enlightenment, the city’s university offers everything James desires—except the chance to
work on a human cadaver. For that, he needs to join one of the private schools in Surgeon’s Square, at a cost he
cannot afford. In desperation, he strikes a deal with Aneurin “Nye” MacKinnon, a dashing young dissectionist
with an artist’s eye for anatomy and a reckless passion for knowledge. Nye promises to help him gain the
surgical experience he craves—but it doesn’t take long for James to realize he’s made a devil’s bargain . . .
Nye is a body snatcher. And James has unwittingly become his accomplice. Intoxicated by Nye and his noble
mission, James rapidly descends into the underground ranks of the Resurrectionists—the body snatchers
infamous for stealing fresh corpses from churchyards to be used as anatomical specimens. Before he knows it,
James is caught up in a life-or-death scheme as rival gangs of snatchers compete in a morbid race for power
and prestige.
James and Nye soon find themselves in the crosshairs of a shady pair of unscrupulous opportunists known
as Burke and Hare, who are dead set on cornering the market, no matter the cost. These unsavory characters
will do anything to beat the competition for bodies. Even if it’s cold-blooded murder . . .
Exquisitely macabre and delightfully entertaining, The Resurrectionist combines fact and fiction in a rollicking
tale of the risks and rewards of scientific pursuit, the passions of its boldest pioneers, and the anatomy of
human desire.