A thrilling historical drama, thoughtful and emotionally poignant.
A man is offered a fortune to illegally excavate a body for scientific research in the second novel by screenwriter Scheuring (The Far Shore, 2017), who co-wrote the 2003 film A Man Apart.
In 1820, professional anatomists in England had a vexing problem: They had an intense desire to understand the human body but a chronic undersupply of cadavers to autopsy. This created an unusual partnership between respectable physicians and unseemly grave robbers, euphemistically referred to as resurrectionists. Scheuring deftly captures its peculiar nature in an author’s note: “A more antithetical set of bedfellows I cannot imagine, especially in England, with its rigid class structures: the university-educated doctor of high station conspiring with the brutish, illiterate criminal of such compromised moral standing that he would breach hallowed convention, steal from the Lord’s own soil, and traffic in the sludge and decay of rotting corpses.” Job Mowatt is one such resurrectionist, desperately trying to build a better life for his daughter, Ivy, both beautiful and brilliant, her future sure to be stymied by the “trappings of station” if he can’t raise enough money for her education. Then, an opportunity arises: Job is offered an “astronomical” sum of money to unearth the body of Ella Beddoe, the wife of Marcus Beddoe, a powerful and dangerous man. The offer is made by Dr. Percival Quinn, “one of the most learned anatomists in all of London,” and not just out of thirst for scientific knowledge. His wife, Neva, is pregnant but, due to prior illness, is unlikely to survive the delivery, and he hopes studying Ella’s body—she was pregnant at the time of her death—will provide the clues that saves his wife.
Scheuring does a masterful job of juxtaposing two typically incongruent worlds, glittering high society and the soiled underbelly of the poor. Ivy exists on the border of those worlds—destitute by a socio-economic accident of birth but also blessed with the looks and brains to rise above her lot. And despite the great social distance between Job and Percival, both men exist primarily to protect the loved ones who face grave danger, a comparison drawn by the author with impressive subtlety and power. Moreover, Scheuring provocatively raises questions not only about the gruesome work of resurrectionism, but of the lust for science that demands it and how scientific procedures are themselves implicated in a dark dehumanization. Consider this chilling depiction of the anatomy of a human body: “Another hallmark moment: the first violation. When a student must take blade to a body and cut away what heretofore had been critical to life and dispose of it as if it were nothing more than table scraps. When the body goes from the virgin, inviolable province of the human soul to a work-thing of science, an assembly of disparate, inanimate, investigative possibilities.” This is a bracing, remarkable work. Both historically astute and grippingly dramatic, it implicitly raises questions about the human cost of saving human lives and of the potential degradation wrought by a science meant to elevate humanity to a higher plane of civilization.
A thrilling historical drama, thoughtful and emotionally poignant.Pub Date: April 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-9984502-2-3
Page Count: 328
Publisher: One Light Road
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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