The Specimens
A bold retelling of Burke and Hare's crimes from the women closest to the gruesome truth
Published on 31. July 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-1-78530-753-9 (ISBN)
Description
"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
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
Reviews / Votes
"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
"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
"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
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bonnier Books Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 127 mm
Width: 198 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
204 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78530-753-9 (9781785307539)
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 Classification
Person
Mairi Kidd graduated with a First in Celtic Studies from the University of Edinburgh and has worked in books ever since. Her novel The Specimens - a retelling of the 1828 crimes of Burke and Hare - was Waterstones Scottish
Book of the Month and the short stories from her collection We Are All Witches formed the basis for the award-winning 'Heal and Harrow' project.
She lives by the sea in Edinburgh with her illustrator husband and their rescue cat.
Book of the Month and the short stories from her collection We Are All Witches formed the basis for the award-winning 'Heal and Harrow' project.
She lives by the sea in Edinburgh with her illustrator husband and their rescue cat.