The Resurrectionist by James Bradley

Publisher's Synopsis

London, 1826. Leaving behind his father's failures, Gabriel Swift arrives to study with Edwin Poll, the greatest of the city's anatomists. It is his chance to find advancement by making a name for himself. But instead he finds himself drawn to his master's nemesis, Lucan, the most powerful of the city's resurrectionists and ruler of its trade in stolen bodies. Dismissed by Mr Poll, Gabriel descends into the violence and corruption of London's underworld, a place where everything and everyone is for sale, and where - as Gabriel discovers - the taking of a life is easier than it might seem.

Ten years later, another man teaches art in the penal colony of New South Wales, his spare time spent trapping and painting birds. But as becomes clear when he falls in love with one of his pupils, no one may escape their past forever, and the worst prisons are often those we make for ourselves.

My Review of The Resurrectionist by James Bradley

Modern medicine had to start somewhere, right? Doctors didn't always know the exact make up of the human body, they had to study it's anatomy in full detail. The problem was, how best to learn about the human body. Why, the answer's obvious! Take a body, cut it open and have a look inside. Second problem - where do you go to get a good supply of bodies. Well, in London in the 1820's the grave robbing industry was big business and the resurrectionists, as they were called, did a roaring trade supplying corpses for the furtherment of science.

James Bradley has thrown us headlong into the grimy, filth-encrusted streets of London in 1823 and a dark thriller that crawls through the night in a perfectly pitched novel that resonates with despair and loathing. The Resurrectionist steps into a nightmare world replete with dead bodies, murderers and poverty's greedy hand waiting to greet a misstep. It's foul and fascinating and well told.

This is the story of Gabriel Swift, a young man apprenticed to Mr Edwin Poll, one of London's most noted anatomists. The story opens as Gabriel and his fellow apprentice take delivery of a couple of corpses from some resurrectionists. The transaction takes place in the dead of night and they then work quietly and steadily, cleaning and preparing the bodies so that they may be used by Mr Poll in future lectures. It's an attention-grabbing opener that sets the mood for the story to follow, dark, secretive and quiet, all the while Bradley is generous in his detail making it thoroughly absorbing.

Trouble is brewing for Mr Poll after a falling out with Lucan, the imposing resurrectionist who controls the trade in stolen bodies across London. Lectures begin to get cancelled as bodies either don't get delivered or are stolen after they are "resurrected". The resulting paucity in suitable corpses causes tensions among Poll's employees, particularly between Gabriel and the shrewdly evil Mr Tyne.

From here events build in intensity as Gabriel eventually falls victim to questionable company, falls in love, falls prey to another man's taunts. Falls out of favour with his employer and finally, falls under the spell of an opium and alcohol addiction. Although he initially rejoices in his new found sense of freedom, he soon realises just how precarious his place in society has become. Not surprisingly, he winds up at a terribly low point, penniless and homeless, and turns to Mr Poll's adversary, Lukan, throwing his lot in with him to become a resurrectionist.

But this only heralds the beginning of a truly nightmarish world for Gabriel with the true meaning of gothic thriller being played out at an ever-increasing pace.

For his part, Gabriel begins the story an innocent, a mere observer who appears extremely impressionable and subservient, accepting events as they happen, never becoming fully involved yet never removing himself from them either. Upon this blank canvas we are to witness the gradual change from innocence to immorality, cast upon him by an unforgiving society.

The quiet start of the opening serves to set the morbid tone under which an undercurrent of unease will grow for the rest of the story. Consider the opening few sentences:

In their sacks they ride as in their mother's womb: knee to chest, head pressed down, as if to die merely to return to the flesh from which we were born, and this a second conception. A rope behind the knees to hold them thus, another to bind their arms, then the mouth of the sack closed about them and bound again, the whole presenting a compact bundle, easily disguised, for to be seen abroad with such a cargo is to tempt the mob.

Order and respect are the order of the day, acting as a stark counterpoint to the chaos into which Gabriel's world will descend. James Bradley's prose is exquisite in its power and description, painting a sinister London though the many shades of darkness that dominate the story. The dialogue, too, is pitch perfect carrying a hint of malice where necessary, preferring to leave unsaid any open threats or warnings.

The only puzzling part of the book comes in the form of a second act that cuts in with about 60 pages to go, just as we are hurtling along to what promises to be an incredible climax. Suddenly, we are thrust forward 10 years and relocated to the diametrically opposite location that is the new colony of New South Wales. Just like that, all impetus is taken out of the story and we cruise to a gentle ending, left to ponder over sins of the past and the possibility of redemption for them. It was an ending that I found a little disappointing.

While the story will largely be remembered for the more grotesque scenes, it's the reminder of just how short a drop it could be from comfort to damnation. This is a story to be savoured slowly as its impact will be intense on many levels. You may want to look away every now and then, fighting that squidgy feeling in the pit of your stomach, but the brave will be richly rewarded.