In 1830's Boston, a young medical student and a poor Irish girl team up to find a killer.
Ballantine
September 2007
On Sale: September 18, 2007
Featuring: Norris Marshall; Rose Connolly; Oliver Wendell Holmes
368 pages ISBN: 0345497600 EAN: 9780345497604 Hardcover Add to Wish List
Julia Hamill has sunk her life savings into a 130 year-old-
farmhouse in rural Massachusetts where she hopes to recover
from her failed marriage. Gardening one afternoon, her
spade strikes something soft and unyielding – not a rock,
but a human skull. Medical examiner Maura Isles quickly
determines that this is no recent burial. The skeleton –
that of a woman – dates back to the early 1800s, and
forensic evidence indicates foul play. "But too much time
has passed," Maura warns Julia. "We may never the whole
story of how she died…"
Boston in the 1830s is an age of disease and pestilence –
and no one is more aware of this than Norris Marshall, a
student at Boston Medical
College. Unlike his more prosperous classmates, Norris is a
man of modest means, forced to support himself by
performing the most disgusting and secretive job of all.
Norris is a resurrectionist - a body-snatcher - who
procures cadavers from grave robbers in order to further
his study of human anatomy. Soon he finds himself hunting a
killer known as The West End Reaper, a shadowy figure who
flits through graveyards and back alleys, through
glittering ball rooms and the luxurious drawing rooms of
Boston Brahmins.
Seventeen-year-old seamstress Rose Connolly is the only
witness who's seen "The Reaper," a killer whom police
believe may be a man of medicine.
Despite her impoverished Irish roots, Rose is a cleverer
girl than anyone gives her credit for. When The Reaper
takes a second victim, and suspicion falls on Norris
Marshall, Norris must turn to Rose to prove his innocence.
Together, they will track down the most notorious killer of
their time.
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