Description
'Devilishly macabre ... As dark as a midnight graveyard' PATRICE McDONOUGH
'Hauntingly gothic, intimately told, and wickedly, wonderfully grotesque' MARIELLE THOMPSON
In this gothic, twisty debut historical novel, a young medical student is lured into the underworld of body snatching in 19th-century Edinburgh ... and unexpectedly falls in love.
1828. James Willoughby arrives in Edinburgh with empty pockets a dream of studying surgery. Desperate to scrape together fees for the city's leading anatomy school, he strikes a deal with Nye MacKinnon, a dashing young dissectionist who shows James a way into this elite academic realm ... via the cemetery.
James descends with Nye into the underground ranks of the Resurrectionists - men infamous for stealing fresh corpses and selling them to professors as anatomical specimens. Before he knows it, they are caught up in a life-or-death scheme as rival gangs of snatchers compete in a morbid race for power and prestige. And as James and Nye lock eyes across graves and dissection tables, they soon realise that they yearn to be more than partners in academic crime ...
The Resurrectionist is a thrilling tale of queer love, murder, and the grisly origins of modern medicine.
'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
A gothic historical thriller with dark academia and queer romance elements, based on true crimes in the private medical schools of Georgian Edinburgh, new for 2025
About the Author
A. Rae Dunlap works as a trailer editor at Disney, bringing to life the magic of the world's most influential storytellers for audiences everywhere. She lives in a small mountain town in California. The Resurrectionist is her first novel.
Reviews
'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
Book Information
ISBN 9780008711535
Author A. Rae Dunlap
Format Hardback
Page Count 336
Imprint HarperNorth
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Weight(grams) 270g
Dimensions(mm) 222mm * 141mm * 24mm
