The Specimens – A bold retelling of Burke and Hare’s crimes

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Edinburgh, 1828. In the closes of the Old Town, Helen shares a cramped life with William Burke, making do in a city that offers little mercy to the poor. A short distance away, Susan Knox inhabits a far more comfortable world, married to a celebrated anatomist whose professional ambitions mirror her own desire for security and status.

The city connects them in ways neither woman could have imagined. As bodies begin to vanish and whispers circulate through taverns and lecture rooms alike, Edinburgh reveals a hunger that cuts across class and respectability. What is taken from the margins is transformed, cleaned, and displayed for profit and prestige.

The Specimens listens closely to the women who stand just outside history’s spotlight, watching events unfold from positions of enforced silence. Faced with knowledge that could destroy the lives they have built, Helen and Susan must decide what survival demands of them. In a city fascinated by progress and blind to its cost, truth becomes a dangerous thing to carry, and conscience is never free from consequence.