Dr. Ephraim Carroll moved to Philadelphia to study with one of the leading experts in forensic science. In 1889, medicine has begun to change rapidly and part of that is due to the emerging field of forensics. But during a morning of autopsies, Carroll sees the corpse of a beautiful young woman. He gets only a glimpse before his mentor, Dr. William Osler, slams the casket closed. The woman's face haunts him and he begins to piece together the puzzle of her death. It's a trip that will lead Carroll into dark alleys and make him familiar with a sinister world he never knew existed.
While pulling readers in slowly, this novel will eventually leave you anxiously turning pages, following Carroll in his pursuit of a murderer. One of the most fascinating aspects is learning about medicine in the late 1800s -- and realizing how much we take for granted today. A good historical mystery!
A mesmerizing forensic thriller that thrusts the reader
into the operating rooms, drawing rooms, and back alleys
of 1889 Philadelphia, as a young doctor grapples with the
principles of scientific process to track a daring
killer
In the morgue of a Philadelphia hospital, a
group of physicians open a coffin and uncover the corpse
of a beautiful young woman. What they see takes their
breath away. Within days, one of them strongly suspects
that he knows the womanโs identityโฆand the horrifying
events that led to her death. But in this richly
atmospheric novelโan ingenious blend of history, suspense
and early forensic scienceโthe most compelling chapter is
yet to come, as young Ephraim Carroll is plunged into a
maze of murder, secrets and unimaginable
crimes....
Dr. Ephraim Carroll came to Philadelphia
to study with a leading professor, the brilliant William
Osler, believing that he would gain the power to save
countless lives. As America hurtles toward a new century,
medicine is changing rapidly, in part due to the
legalization of autopsyโa crime only a few years before.
But Carroll and his mentor are at odds over what they
glimpsed that morning in the hospitalโs Dead House. And
when a second mysterious death is determined to have been
a ruthless murder, Carroll can feel the darkness gathering
around himโand he ignites an investigation of his
own.
Soon he is moving between the realm of elite
medicine, Philadelphia high society, and a teeming
badlands of criminality and sexual depravity along the
cityโs fetid waterfront. With a wealthy, seductive woman
clouding his vision, the controversial artist Thomas
Eakins sowing scandal, and the secrets of the nationโs
powerful surgeons unraveling around him, Carroll is forced
to confront an agonizing moral choiceโbetween exposing a
killer, undoing a wrong, and, quite possibly, protecting
the future of medicine itselfโฆ.
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