"A work of fiction that is both a potent portrait of early 19th-century Edinburgh but also a story about female agency or the lack of it. The result is a compelling, painful, haunted piece of work." THE HERALD
WATERSTONES SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE MONTH AUGUST 2025
Up the close and down the stair, meet the women of Burke and Hare
Edinburgh, 1828. Two women - one rich, one poor - must navigate life against a frenzied backdrop of medical discovery, mob mayhem, and murder.
Susan's sheltered life as the wife of Robert Knox, a wealthy anatomist, is a far cry from Helen's perilous existence in the Old Town slums with her lover William Burke.
Yet as people begin disappearing, these two different women face the same impossible choice. Should they protect what they have or tell the truth about what they know?
Discover the notorious serial killings of Burke and Hare, told for the first time through the eyes of women whose
stories reveal the depths of the human heart.
COMING OCTOBER 2025 - Poor Creatures - Unearth the fascinating story of Mary Shelley: the mind which birthed Frankenstein's monster...
PRAISE FOR THE SPECIMENS
"Beguiling and atmospheric" HEAT MAGAZINE
"A fresh, feminine take on the horrors of Scotland's most notorious serial killers" SALLY MAGNUSSON
"Gruesomely gripping, this story will stay with you for a long time" SUE LAWRENCE
"Mairi Kidd holds a lantern up to the brutality of women's lives in Burke, Hare and Knox's Edinburgh" LUCY RIBCHESTER
Rezensionen / Stimmen
'A work of fiction that is both a potent portrait of early 19th-century Edinburgh but also a story about female agency or the lack of it. The result is a compelling, painful, haunted piece of work.' * THE HERALD * 'Beguiling and atmospheric, this is as much an engrossing character study as a bold reimagining of the infamous anatomy murders.' * HEAT MAGAZINE * 'A fresh, feminine take on the horrors of Burke and Hare and their complicit Edinburgh anatomists' * Sally Magnusson * 'Vivid and discomfiting, written with compassion and a draughtswoman's eye for detail, Mairi Kidd holds a lantern up to the brutality of women's lives in Burke, Hare and Knox's Edinburgh. She draws a fine thread between women's bodily experiences now and then, and her voice is so authentic I felt as if I was there' * Lucy Ribchester * 'Gruesomely gripping, this story will stay with you for a long time, its characters so well developed, you fear you might bump into one in a dark Edinburgh close' * Sue Lawrence *
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Maße
Höhe: 242 mm
Breite: 164 mm
Dicke: 27 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-78530-636-5 (9781785306365)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
MAIRI KIDD is the author of We are All Witches, Warriors and Witches and Damn Rebel Bitches and Feisty and Fiery and Fierce, as well as a number of books for children, and drama for TV, radio and stage. She has a passion for exploring untold stories, and particularly women's lives in history.
Mairi is Director of the Saltire Society and has been Head of Literature at Creative Scotland and CEO of Seven Stories the National Centre for Children's Books. She has also been a publisher working to open up the written word to children and young people with dyslexia, when she had the honour of publishing household names including Julia Donaldson, Michael Morpurgo, Michael Rosen and Quentin Blake.
Mairi is a Gaelic speaker and regularly appears on TV and radio discussing books. She lives in Portobello with her husband Tom, an illustrator, and their very handsome cat.
