The Bone Garden

Julia Hamill is gardening one afternoon in rural Massachusetts when her spade strikes something soft and unyielding - a human skull. Medical examiner Maura Isles quickly determines that the skeleton - that of a woman - dates back to the early 1800s. Boston in the 1830s is a place of disease and pestilence - and no one is more aware of this than Norris Marshall, a student at Harvard Medical School who is forced to support himself by performing the most secretive job of all. Norris is a resurrectionist - a body-snatcher - who procures cadavers from grave robbers in order to further his study of human anatomy. Soon he finds himself hunting the most notorious killer of his time, a shadowy figure who flits through graveyards and autopsy suites, through glittering ballrooms and the luxurious drawing rooms of Boston Brahmins.