Mrs Burke & Mrs Hare – They got away with murder once

Our summary description

As Independent Scottish booksellers, we write all of our descriptions personally, we hope you enjoy this one.

Mrs Burke & Mrs Hare revisits one of Edinburgh’s darkest chapters from an unexpected angle. In the narrow closes of the Old Town, a series of murders supplied bodies to the anatomy lectures of Dr Robert Knox. William Burke and William Hare did not act alone. Their wives, Lucky and Nelly, were deeply involved, yet only Burke paid with his life.

As the city seethed with anger, Lucky, Nelly and Hare vanished, forced to reinvent themselves to survive. Years later, ambitious journalist Duncan Fletcher hears whispers that the women may still be alive. Hoping to make his name, he begins to trace what happened after the trial, accompanied by cobbler Joseph Campbell.

Their search takes them from Edinburgh to the backstreets of London, where old crimes refuse to stay buried. Mrs Burke & Mrs Hare is a darkly compelling historical novel about guilt, survival and the long shadow of violence.