Leeds. April, 1824. Wealthy engineer Joseph Clark employs thief-taker Simon Westow to find the men who stole the buried corpse of Catherine Jordan, his employee's daughter.
Simon is stunned and horrified to realize there's a gang of body snatchers in Leeds. He needs to discover who bought Catherine's body and where it is now. As he hunts for answers, he learns that a number of corpses have vanished from graveyards in the town. Can Simon and his assistant Jane bring the brutal, violent Resurrection men who are selling the dead to medical schools to justice and give some peace to the bereft families?
It's my pleasure to be hosting the blog tour for The Dead Will Rise today. Many thanks to Chris Nickson, Severn House Books and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me and for my advance digital copy, received through Netgalley.
Despite the title of the fifth book in Chris Nickson's Simon Westow series, there is no suggestion of the supernatural occurring here; this horror is decidedly of the earthly variety and inspired by the real-life incidents of graves being robbed of their bodies. These body snatchers – or resurrectionists – were able to earn what was a substantial amount of money by selling the exhumed corpses of the recently buried to medical and anatomy schools. It's a grim thought and perhaps even more upsetting when the body of a child is involved.
Thief-taker, Simon Westow willingly accepts the request to find the people responsible for such a heinous act and throughout the story, his disgust and outrage is clear. This is the first book I've read in the series and so I was learning about the character as I read; it soon becomes patently obvious that Westow is a deeply principled man who adores his wife and two sons. It's also evident that he has a darker side and acknowledges that the life he has chosen will most likely result in his eventually meeting a dark end. There's certainly an ominous sense of tension throughout The Dead Will Rise, with the streets and ginnels of an expanding Leeds providing an atmospheric, vividly described backdrop to the story.
I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of three female characters in the novel; two of whom – Westow's wife, Rosie and his young assistant, Jane – will be familiar to returning readers, while the third, Amanda Parker is an intriguingly shady figure. Rosie and Jane are allowed to be far more than we perhaps expect from women in the past, and although the former is a wife and mother, she ensures she becomes involved in a case which she takes an acute interest in. It's Jane, however, who I found to be the most fascinating character in the book and it's mostly here where I felt at a disadvantage not having read the earlier instalments in the series. There is no doubt that The Dead Will Rise can be enjoyed as a stand-alone but I did miss seeing the development of her character and having a greater understanding of who she is. This shouldn't be seen as a criticism as I was given enough to be able to empathise with her at all times, but I would ideally recommend reading the previous novels first, if you can.
Nothing is rushed in The Dead Will Rise and even though danger never feels far away, it's the painstaking work of identifying the culprits and then watching and waiting for the right moment to apprehend them which makes the strongest impression. The sense of frustration is almost palpable at times ensuring a feeling of authenticity throughout. From the excellent descriptions of both people and places to the suspenseful, well-paced storyline, The Dead Will Rise takes a macabre subject and imbues it with a sense of humanity; for all the excitement and tension, readers are never allowed to forget the victims – whether that means the dead or those now forced to grieve two losses. This is a compelling, clearly meticulously researched historical mystery with a strong sense of time and place. I enjoyed it very much and thoroughly recommend it.
The Dead Will Rise is published by Severn House Books and can be purchased from Amazon UK or Amazon US.
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Thanks for the blog tour support x
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