En los primeros años del siglo XIX proliferan por Londres los resucitadores, ladrones de cadáveres que surten de género a las escuelas de anatomía. Matthew Hawkwood, un runner de Bow Street, ha servido de enlace con los guerrilleros españoles durante la guerra contra Napoleón, pero su nueva misión se desarrollará en un escenario más tétrico que un país en guerra: los cementerios de Londres y el tristemente famoso manicomio de Bedlam. Cuando se producen las primeras muertes, Hawkwood tratará de cazar a los asesinos, pero pronto aparece una presa especialmente escurridiza. El coronel Hyde, un cirujano demente, cuya locura solo puede compararse a su brillantez, se ha escapado del manicomio Bedlam y su genio incomprendido tiene algo que demostrar... lo que sin duda significará más trabajo para los enterradores.

Officer Matthew Harkwood, a Bow Street Runner (London's Foot Patrol), is charged with investigating the recent atrocities by the city's busy resurrectionists, gangs of men who plunder the dead to sell for medical research. In the course of looking into the macabre murder of a minister by a mental patient in the notorious Bedlam, Hawkwood discovers a nefarious plot by a surgeon that leads from the pubs of Smithfield to the highest echelons of government.
Based on actual people and events, the author recreates with chilling and authentic detail the grim realities of medical research in the era, when progressive surgeons imagine medical feats to preserve lives, though still far from the practices that might eventually accommodate their goals. McGee comfortably, almost off-handedly, lays out the vivid reality of resurrectionists and life in morgues and psychiatric facilities. He does not paint a picture of the genteel aristocratic residents of the period, but depicts the sights and smells of the slums of London - and it's not pleasant.
Hawkwood is a great character, both dark and likeable, as is the supporting cast, with quick-witted dialogue, a maintenance of suspense and barely a wasted page to break the pace. The historical context of the books is also well done; McGee has clearly done his research.
It's not for the faint-hearted, but it's a really good read. I enjoyed the first book in the series, and this will keep me following Hawkwood to his next adventure. ( )

I haven't read any of the books in this series but felt reading this book which is number two it really didn't make much difference. Matthew Hawkwood is a Bow Street runner, ex army, very dashing, a Victorian Jack Reacher maybe.

In this outing hes out to solve murders that are somehow connected to the grave robbers. The book is very gory at times and I did squirm. Loved the descriptions and did feel like I was there in Bedlam myself.

I couldn't make my mind up if I was enjoying this book or not. I felt it was a slog at times and there wasn't a lot going on. When I feel like this I tend to see what other reviewers thought, and to see if its worth me continuing. I did read one lovely review with a mild spoiler, with warning and it did sort of tell me the why and why nots. I have to say from this point I have skipped to finish the book.

I'm not sure if I would seek out anymore books in this series. Loved the setting and time of place, liked the story line and Hawkwood himself, just got bored with the book. ( )

Let's face it, if you read a book about bodysnatching, you have to expect a lot of 'yuck' factor. But I never felt that the gruesome details were being told just to be gruesome. This is just the way it was. I enjoyed this. Not everything that happened, but the way it was told. ( )

I expected to enjoy this book far more than I did but that was because I had the wrong writer. This is the first McGee I have read and from an historical point of view it was very interesting indeed, with descriptions of Bedlam, the London slums and sewers and the state of medicine in the early Nineteenth Century.

Hawkwood, an ex army man, is a formidable character and called to investigate a murder in the notorious London Asylum: from there he is summoned to a church yard where a corpse is gruesomely displayed. Nothing seems to link the two at first but of course, fiction being less random than real life, its all part of the same plot, planned by an evil genius and executed by his no less evil henchmen, and women.

Body snatching, amazingly, was not a crime initially, as long as the corpse was stripped of all clothes - even the shroud - or jewellery, since taking those was 'theft'. Bodies were usually taken for medical schools, and good teeth were prized by dentists for dentures. But there's a new buyer in London who is not satisfied with even the most freshly disinterred corpse: for his purposes, he needs them alive.

Matthew Hawkwood soon realises his adversary is a [supposedly] dead man, and one who has some very powerful allies at that. In the end - SPOILER ALERT - the mad scheme to revive his long dead daughter using the fresh blood and organs of other girls is foiled and, despite making some enemies, Hawkwood emerges victorious.

Not an easy or enjoyable read but a very interesting one. ( )