The Books I'm Reading Now
I'm reading A. Rae Dunlap's debut novel The Resurrectionist, focused on early medicine, serial killers, and a gothic setting in 19th-century Scotland; I'm reading Kate Atkinson's most recent Jackson Brodie mystery, Death at the Sign of the Rook; and I'm listening to Leigh Bardugo's novel set in the Spanish Golden Age, The Familiar.
What are you reading, bookworms?
01 The Resurrectionist by A. Rae Dunlap
I've seen A. Rae Dunlap's The Resurrectionist compared to Caleb Carr's The Alienist, a suspenseful novel about the evolution of forensic science I adored reading years ago.
Dunlap's debut novel is dark, twisty, gothic, and it's set in 19th-century Scotland as (real-life) serial killers Burke and Hare are terrorizing Edinburgh.
James Willoughby, a poor, naive young medical student, becomes drawn into the underworld of body snatching when he seeks cadavers for his surgery study--and runs into the terrifying killers Burke and Hare.
I'm reading this title, scheduled for publication December 24, courtesy of NetGalley and Kensington Books.
02 Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
Ex-detective Jackson Brodie returns in Kate Atkinson's Agatha-Christie-like setup in Death at the Sign of the Rook.
In Brodie's quiet little town, he's tediously searching for a stolen painting when he stumbles across a string of unsolved art thefts--and he's led to Burton Makepeace, an old hotel that also hosts Murder Mystery weekends.
This is the sixth installment in Atkinson's Jackson Brodie series, but it can be read as a stand-alone novel.
Atkinson is also the author of Shrines of Gaiety, Case Histories, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Life After Life, Human Croquet, When Will There Be Good News, and more books.
03 The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
Luzia Cotado lives in a grim house on a shabby street in the new capital of Madrid, working as a scullery maid for an insufferable, unsatisfied mistress.
But when her employer figures out that Luzia is using tiny works of magic to get through her day, she insists that Luzia turn her attentions to magical efforts that will benefit her.
The woman's greed and desire for greater social standing mean that Luzia attracts the attention of more and more powerful people, including the king--who is desperate for an advantage in Spain's war against England. Luzia is enlisted to help--and soon finds herself navigating the complex world of seers, frauds, and holy men vying for the king's attention.
She must manage her new position and the weighty expectations set upon her--while hiding her Jewish blood, which would make her a target of the terrifying Inquisition.
Leigh Bardugo is also the author of Ninth House, Hell Bent, the King of Scars series (Rule of Wolves is book two), the Six of Crows series, the Shadow and Bone series (which I mentioned in the Greedy Reading List Six Royally Magical Young Adult Series) and The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic.
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