The Resurrectionist: Unabridged edition
HERE LIES
KNOWLEDGE. POWER. GLORY. LOVE.
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‘Devilishly macabre … As dark as a midnight graveyard’ PATRICE McDONOUGH
‘Hauntingly gothic, intimately told, and wickedly, wonderfully grotesque’ MARIELLE THOMPSON
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In this decadent, twisty debut novel, a young medical student is lured into the illicit underworld of body snatching in 19th-century Edinburgh … and unexpectedly falls in love.
1828. Naïve but determined James Willoughby has abandoned his 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, Scotland’s leading 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 Nye MacKinnon, a dashing young dissectionist with an artist’s eye for anatomy and a reckless passion for knowledge. Nye promises to help James gain the surgical experience he craves—by inviting him into the illicit world of body snatching.
Intoxicated by Nye and his noble mission, James rapidly descends into the underground ranks of the Resurrectionists—the grave robbers 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. And as they lock eyes across graves and dissection tables, it doesn’t take James and Nye long to realise that they yearn to be more than partners in academic crime …
Queer romance, true crime, and dark academia intertwine in this thrilling tale of love, murder, and the grisly origins of modern medicine.
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‘A macabre gothic mystery … a sensitive coming-of-age tale and a touching queer romance’ firstCLUE
‘With wit as sharp as a scalpel … A thrilling debut that will have readers turning pages deep into the night’ HESTER FOX
‘Expertly captures … the dark and twisted depths that are the byproducts of progress’ ANNA LEE HUBER
'Playing with a captivating point in history, A. Rae Dunlap weaves a story of queer love, coming of age, and macabre science against the richly-drawn atmosphere of a historic and beloved city. The result is a book hauntingly gothic, intimately told, and wickedly, wonderfully grotesque.' Marielle Thompson, author of The Last Witch in Edinburgh -
'The Resurrectionist is a wryly humorous and devilishly macabre cat-and-mouse thriller as dark as a midnight graveyard and as twisting as Edinburgh’s cobblestone streets. It’s an enthralling debut from a writer to watch.' Patrice McDonough, author of Murder by Lamplight -
'Brilliantly researched and beautifully written. Dunlap expertly captures the history and cadence of the era, and the thrill and elation of discovery during the Enlightenment, as well as the dark and twisted depths that are the byproducts of progress. A clever tale filled with macabre intrigue and personal revelation.' Anna Lee Huber, USA Today bestselling author -
'With wit as sharp as a scalpel, and a plot as dark and twisted as the Edinburgh alleys in which it is set, The Resurrectionist is a thrilling debut that will have readers turning pages deep into the night.' Hester Fox, author of The Last Heir to Blackwood Library -
'Mixing a macabre gothic mystery with a sensitive coming-of-age tale and a touching queer romance, Dunlap has written an exciting, well-researched debut historical adventure.' firstCLUE -