Date: July 4, 2025
Author: Tess Gerritson
Genre: Medical Thriller, historical mystery, psychological suspense
I gave this one better than my best college try. I made it to page 200 before throwing in the towel.
Apparently, in the early 1800’s, grave robbery was a real thing. $20 given to anyone that was brave enough to partake in such activities and not get shot in the bedlam that was possible to ensue if caught. The story flips back and forth between the 19th and 21st century, though I’m not sure of the tie that binds other than maybe the 21st century ladies’ house having been built on a burial ground where graves were robbed?
One problem associated with being a grave robber in the name of science in the book’s day and age was supply vs demand. There just wasn’t enough fresh supply to go around. So to supplement their income when bodies were scarce these grave robbers took matters into their own hands and produced a fresh corpse, no digging required.
The plot thickens when in addition to the random sailors and such that go unexplainably missing, there was another threat on Bostonian citizen’s lives that was likened to the work of the grim reaper.
I didn’t read far enough to find out but I wonder if this story is loosely based on the movie ‘Scream,’ only as a 19th century version that takes place in the mean streets of Boston and instead of kids this story features grave robbers. Do you know of which movie I speak? It made popular the cape and scary mask look back in 1996. The timeline would fit. This book was released in 2007. More than a decade later and screams of similarities?