The Specimens A bold retelling of Burke and Hare’s crimes from the women closest to the gruesome truth

by Kidd, Mairi

• ISBN13: 9781785307539
• ISBN10: 1785307533
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2026-02-03
• Publisher: Black & White Publishing

Summary

"A work of fiction that is both a potent portrait of early 19th-century Edinburgh but also a story about female agency or the lack of it. The result is a compelling, painful, haunted piece of work."—The Herald

Edinburgh, 1828. Two women - one rich, one poor - must navigate life against a frenzied backdrop of medical discovery, mob mayhem, and murder.

The home Helen shares in the slums of the Old Town with her lover William Burke could hardly be more different from Susan's dreams of an affluent existence as the wife of Robert Knox, one of the foremost anatomists of the day. But as people begin disappearing, these two very different women face an impossible choice. Should they protect what lives they have or tell the truth about what they know?

This is the story of the notorious serial killings of Burke and Hare, told for the first time through the eyes of two very different women, whose stories explore the depths of the human heart in a perilous, vulnerable world.

Author Biography

MAIRI KIDD is the author of We are All Witches, Warriors and Witches and Damn Rebel Bitches and Feisty and Fiery and Fierce, as well as a number of books for children, and drama for TV, radio and stage. She has a passion for exploring untold stories, and particularly women's lives in history. Mairi is Director of the Saltire Society and has been Head of Literature at Creative Scotland and CEO of Seven Stories the National Centre for Children's Books. She has also been a publisher working to open up the written word to children and young people with dyslexia. Mairi is a Gaelic speaker and regularly appears on TV and radio discussing books. She lives in Portobello with her husband Tom, an illustrator, and their very handsome cat.