The Resurrectionist

By: A. Rae Dunlap

Narrated by: Tom Kiteley

In the tradition of The Alienist and Anatomy: A Love Story, a decadently macabre, dark and twisty gothic debut set in 19th century Scotland—when real-life serial killers Burke and Hare terrorized the streets of Edinburgh—as a young medical student is lured into the illicit underworld of body snatching.

Historical fiction, true crime, and dark academia intertwine in a harrowing tale of murder, greed, and the grisly origins of modern medicine for listeners of Lydia Kang, ML Rio, Sarah Perry, and C.E. McGill.

Portrait of the Medical Student as a Young Body Snatcher

Yet I must insist that in the end, this is not a story about Death. It is perhaps a Life story, or even—yes—a Love story. It is the story of how I clawed my way from the decay of a crumbling legacy into the modern era of Reason and Science. It is the story of how I escaped the prison of archaic superstition to the freedom of enlightenment.

It is the story of how a rose can blossom from even the bloodiest soil, of how light can grow from shadow, how love can grow from despair.

This, dear reader, is the story of my Resurrection.

Edinburgh, Scotland, 1828. Naïve but determined James Willoughby has abandoned his posh, 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, the city’s 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 Aneurin “Nye” MacKinnon, a dashing young dissectionist with an artist’s eye for anatomy and a reckless passion for knowledge. Nye promises to help him gain the surgical experience he craves—but it doesn’t take long for James to realize he’s made a devil’s bargain . . .

Nye is a body snatcher. And James has unwittingly become his accomplice. Intoxicated by Nye and his noble mission, James rapidly descends into the underground ranks of the Resurrectionists—the body snatchers 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.

James and Nye soon find themselves in the crosshairs of a shady pair of unscrupulous opportunists known as Burke and Hare, who are dead set on cornering the market, no matter the cost. These unsavory characters will do anything to beat the competition for bodies. Even if it’s cold-blooded murder . . .

Exquisitely macabre and delightfully entertaining, The Resurrectionist combines fact and fiction in a rollicking tale of the risks and rewards of scientific pursuit, the passions of its boldest pioneers, and the anatomy of human desire.

©2024 A. Rae Dunlap (P)2024 Recorded Books

All of it

The story itself was not what I thought. Very captivating and interesting story. Loved it!

Compelling story, incredible narrator

The book is a wonderful read and listen - Dunlap tells an incredible story, and the narrator is one of the best I’ve heard. Accents and characters make the listening experience so enjoyable. Download and listen!

Thoroughly enjoyed this book

Interesting and engaging novel based on true crime and history of the scientific “enlightenment” era in 1820’s Edinburgh. I loved the cast of characters, they were well developed and though they were performing ghastly work, they were quite likable.
The narration was great. Parts of the story got a little wordy in their descriptions, but the reader kept the book engaging with his portrayal of the characters.

Brilliant

This story had me hooked from the first 5 mins. The characters are well laid out and the story flowed throughout the whole book.book. This is a must listen, I am sad the story is over

Captivating

Immersive Edinburgh medical story with some antics, some tension, some tenderness, some wryness, a fun love story and a truly fun performance. Definitely better on audio with all the accents.

Meh

Boring. It’s hard to get into a story about resurrectionists, when half of the book is a romance novel.

Feels like ChatGPT or AI

The repetitive use of several hallmark AI expressions throughout the length of this book made me conclude that it was heavily written or edited with an AI text generator. Neither the author nor publisher have acknowledged the use of AI.

The story was broken into several small unrelated conflicts which were resolved quickly without dramatic stakes, thus failing to build an engaging long-term narrative arc. Even the final resolution had no build-up or climax.

this is not a "twisty gothic" thriller

There was nothing "thriller" about this novel. I love historical fiction, and was so excited when I came across this book in the library, but this was boring. A lot of historical name drops by the author, but this was slow and honestly just not at all what I expected after reading the book summary. It was a challenge to finish so I thought giving the audiobook a go would be better. The narrator did a phenomenal job with the different character voices. Also, it's more along the lines of a YA romance novel.