Product Description

Tess Gerritsen's chilling new bestseller uncovers secrets that are as old - and as terrifying - as time itself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30745 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-14
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Synopsis
Julia Hamill is gardening one afternoon in rural Massachusetts when her spade strikes something soft and unyielding - not a rock but a human skull. Medical examiner, Maura Isles quickly determines that the skeleton - that of a woman - dates back to the early 1800s. 'But too much time has passed,' Maura warns Julia. 'We may never know the whole story of how she died.' Boston in the 1830s is a place of disease and pestilence - and no one is more aware of this than Norris Marshall, a student at Harvard Medical School who is forced to support himself by performing the most secretive job of all. Norris is a resurrectionist - a body-snatcher - who procures cadavers from grave robbers in order to further his study of human anatomy. Soon he finds himself hunting the most notorious killer of his time, a shadowy figure who flits through graveyards and glittering ballrooms. What he does not realize is that the killer is far closer than he thinks ...

From the Publisher
This is a really special novel for Tess because it combines her detailed knowledge of the medical world (she was, of course, a doctor in her own right), her love of history and her gift for crime-writing.

It focuses on the single fact that in the 1840s women all over the world were dying in their millions of child-bed fever - and no one knew how or why the infection was being spread. The idea that surgeons - who were performing autopsies and then going into maternity wards without washing their hands - could be responsible was dismissed as scandalous - until a single doctor, Oliver Wendell Holmes, presented a paper on this subject in Boston in 1843. Holmes is one of the main characters in The Bone Garden, which also focuses on a terrifying serial killer who preys on medical students in particular. It is the novel Tess has always wanted to write.

From the Back Cover
Julia Hamill is gardening one afternoon in rural Massachusetts when her spade strikes something soft and unyielding – not a rock but a human skull.

Medical examiner Maura Isles quickly determines that the skeleton – that of a woman – dates back to the early 1800s.‘But too much time has passed,’ Maura warns Julia. ‘We may never know the whole story of how she died.’

Boston in the 1830s is a place of disease and pestilence – and no one is more aware of this than Norris Marshall, a student at Harvard Medical School who is forced to support himself by performing the most secretive job of all.

Norris is a resurrectionist - a body-snatcher - who procures cadavers from grave robbers in order to further his study of human anatomy. Soon he finds himself hunting the most notorious killer of his time, a shadowy figure who flits through graveyards and glittering ballrooms.

What he does not realize is that the killer is far closer than he thinks ...

Customer Reviews

Amazing!
This is my first Tess Gerritsen book ever. I could not put it down for one second. I actually got on the wrong bus because I was so into the story!

Better than i thought
In present time a women finds a skeleton in her back garden and wants to find out more. We go back to 1830's to find out more.
I am an avid reader of Tess's books and love there pace and detail. I had seen her talk about this book in a Borders in Maine and was intrigued. Just got around to read it after reading some not very kind reviews and i must admit i really enjoyed it. I love mysteries and a big fan of Victorian london books and this reminded me of this but in Boston. The only thing i found disappointing was the sentimental bits, but well worth a read and different from here usual stuff.

A 'new style' Tess Gerritsen
What a great book! The 'new style' Tess Gerritsen makes a wonderful mix of thriller and medical mystery. The book is mainly written in the past and gives a very vivid and haunting picture of the practice of medicine and ressurectionists - certainly not for the faint-hearted! It could be alikened to an 'American' 'Jack the Ripper' but even for that it is an excellent read and quite her best book to date.