Resurrectionist: A Regency Crime Thriller

Two bizarre murders preoccupy the charismatic Matthew Hawkwood, a former army officer turned London Bow Street Runner, in McGee’s stellar second Regency crime thriller (after Hawkwood). Chief magistrate James Read orders Hawkwood to go to Cripplegate Churchyard, where a man’s corpse has been nailed by the wrists to a tree trunk “in a crude parody of the crucifixion.” Later, in the notorious Bethlem Hospital known as Bedlam, a body with its face removed turns up in the cell of a resident, Colonel Hyde. But is the body Hyde’s? Hawkwood quickly ascertains that things aren’t quite what they seem, and his pursuit of the solution to both murders plunges him into the body-snatching underworld. The surprises keep coming as the pages fly by. Besides perfectly mixing action and detection, McGee convincingly evokes early 19th-century London and the world of the Bow Street Runners. Agent: Jennifer Weltz, Jean V. Naggar Literary. (Dec.)