Speakers of the Dead
A Walt Whitman Mystery
(Sprache: Englisch)
Speakers of the Dead is a mystery novel centering around the investigative exploits of a young Walt Whitman, in which the reporter-cum-poet navigates the seedy underbelly of New York City's body-snatching industry in an attempt to exonerate his friend of a wrongful murder charge.
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Speakers of the Dead is a mystery novel centering around the investigative exploits of a young Walt Whitman, in which the reporter-cum-poet navigates the seedy underbelly of New York City's body-snatching industry in an attempt to exonerate his friend of a wrongful murder charge.
Klappentext zu „Speakers of the Dead “
Lambda Award Winner Speakers of the Dead is a mystery novel centering around the investigative exploits of a young Walt Whitman, in which the reporter-cum-poet navigates the seedy underbelly of New York City's body-snatching industry in an attempt to exonerate his friend of a wrongful murder charge.
The year is 1843; the place: New York City. Aurora reporter Walt Whitman arrives at the Tombs prison yard where his friend Lena Stowe is scheduled to hang for the murder of her husband, Abraham. Walt intends to present evidence on Lena's behalf, but Sheriff Harris turns him away. Lena drops to her death, and Walt vows to posthumously exonerate her.
Walt's estranged boyfriend, Henry Saunders, returns to New York, and the two men uncover a link between body-snatching and Abraham's murder: a man named Samuel Clement. To get to Clement, Walt and Henry descend into a dangerous underworld where resurrection men steal the bodies of the recently deceased and sell them to medical colleges. With no legal means to acquire cadavers, medical students rely on these criminals, and Abraham's involvement with the Bone Bill legislation that would put the resurrection men out of business seems to have led to his and Lena's deaths.
Fast-paced and gripping, Speakers of the Dead is a vibrant reimagining of one of America's most beloved literary figures.
Lese-Probe zu „Speakers of the Dead “
***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected proof***Copyright ©2016 J. Aaron Sanders
In the dream, Elizabeth Blackwell sits opposite Jane Avery s deathbed. She dabs Jane s furrowed forehead with a wet cloth and whispers that all will be well. Jane tilts her head toward Elizabeth and tries to speak through her cracked lips caked in muck. Then Jane slips into an irreversible coughing fit
And that s when a noise wakes Elizabeth.
She opens her eyes, relieved. She hates that recurring dream, the helpless feeling of watching her friend die. It s been six years since Jane Avery s death, and not a day goes by that Elizabeth doesn t believe she might have saved her had she been properly trained as a physician.
The noise sounds again.
Around her, in the dormitory of the Women s Medical College of Manhattan, the other four students do not stir. Perhaps it was nothing.
She closes her eyes and summons the image of Jane in her prime,
her long, elegant frame and creamy skin. After Latin class at the Cincinnati English and French Academy for Young Ladies, Jane is cleaning the blackboard. She erases the word mulier. She senses Elizabeth watching, turns and smiles
There it is again. A metallic banging this time.
Elizabeth reaches for her robe and slippers. She lights a candle, waking Miss Zacky in the bed next to hers.
Lizzy. Miss Zacky checks her pocket watch. It s three in the morning, and Abraham s trial begins at nine.
Abraham Stowe, cofounder of the women s college and a married man, has been accused of manslaughter, the result of a botched abortion performed on Mary Rogers, with whom he admitted having a love affair. In his defense, and for the sake of Abraham s wife and college cofounder, Lena, the students stayed up late preparing anatomical diagrams outlining the effects of abortion on a woman s body. The diagrams would be compared with the Mary Rogers autopsy report, which Lena
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and Elizabeth believed had been altered to implicate Abraham.
Be that as it may, I heard a noise downstairs. I should have a look.
Miss Zacky groans. You know that means I have to accompany you.
I also know that you are capable of making your own decisions.
The two women skulk across the room into the stairwell, closing the dormitory door behind them. They make their way down the stairs past the third-floor maternity ward, all silent, then to the second-floor infirmary.
Inside, the patient nearest the door, Mrs. Cook, sleeps soundly. Mrs. Stephens, a few beds over, also lies still. Mrs. Dowd, in the bed next to the window, shifts at the sound of their entrance. She sits up straight, struggles to breathe through the dehydration associated with the cholera-like symptoms that landed her in the sick- room the day before.
Elizabeth props Mrs. Dowd with a pillow while Miss Zacky goes for laudanum.
There, there, Mrs. Dowd, Elizabeth says. Take your time. But Mrs. Dowd s deep, panicked breath can t catch up to itself, and suffocation is closing in. Elizabeth keeps talking, rubbing her back. You can do it, she says.
Mrs. Dowd s eyes roll back, and she heaves.
Elizabeth doesn t hesitate. She slides onto the bed and wraps her arms around her patient. She finds the sternum and pushes hard. Nothing happens, and so she repeats the move. This time, Mrs. Dowd coughs up a bite of meat, which lands on the white sheet at the end of the bed. Elizabeth holds the woman until she catches her breath. Didn t quite finish our supper, did we?
While Elizabeth holds her upright, Miss Zacky raises the glass to Mrs. Dowd s mouth. She struggles to swallow at first, but then works it down.
When the laudanum t
Be that as it may, I heard a noise downstairs. I should have a look.
Miss Zacky groans. You know that means I have to accompany you.
I also know that you are capable of making your own decisions.
The two women skulk across the room into the stairwell, closing the dormitory door behind them. They make their way down the stairs past the third-floor maternity ward, all silent, then to the second-floor infirmary.
Inside, the patient nearest the door, Mrs. Cook, sleeps soundly. Mrs. Stephens, a few beds over, also lies still. Mrs. Dowd, in the bed next to the window, shifts at the sound of their entrance. She sits up straight, struggles to breathe through the dehydration associated with the cholera-like symptoms that landed her in the sick- room the day before.
Elizabeth props Mrs. Dowd with a pillow while Miss Zacky goes for laudanum.
There, there, Mrs. Dowd, Elizabeth says. Take your time. But Mrs. Dowd s deep, panicked breath can t catch up to itself, and suffocation is closing in. Elizabeth keeps talking, rubbing her back. You can do it, she says.
Mrs. Dowd s eyes roll back, and she heaves.
Elizabeth doesn t hesitate. She slides onto the bed and wraps her arms around her patient. She finds the sternum and pushes hard. Nothing happens, and so she repeats the move. This time, Mrs. Dowd coughs up a bite of meat, which lands on the white sheet at the end of the bed. Elizabeth holds the woman until she catches her breath. Didn t quite finish our supper, did we?
While Elizabeth holds her upright, Miss Zacky raises the glass to Mrs. Dowd s mouth. She struggles to swallow at first, but then works it down.
When the laudanum t
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Autoren-Porträt von J. Aaron Sanders
J. Aaron Sanders is Associate Professor of English at Columbus State University where he teaches literature and creative writing. He holds a PhD in American Literature from The University of Connecticut and an MFA in Fiction from The University of Utah. His stories have appeared in Carolina Quarterly, Gulf Coast, Quarterly West, andBeloit Fiction Journal, among others. This is his first novel.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: J. Aaron Sanders
- 2016, 320 Seiten, Maße: 13,1 x 20,3 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Plume
- ISBN-10: 014312871X
- ISBN-13: 9780143128717
- Erscheinungsdatum: 19.02.2016
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
Boldly plotted and compulsively readable, Speakers of the Dead is a welcome discovery for any fan of literary history thrillers. Sanders's debut pulls off an elusive accomplishment, making us rethink what we know about favorite historical figures and entertaining us at the same time. Matthew Pearl, author of The Last Bookaneer and The Dante Club
In Speakers of the Dead, the conceit alone is worthy of your attention, Whitman as detective, but Aaron Sanders goes above and beyond in creating a character and a world that feels both entirely authentic and yet deliriously imagined, supported by elegant prose that demands your attention. This is what you want from a good mystery, enough verve and complexity that you cannot focus on anything else, and Sanders does this as well as anyone in the game.
Kevin Wilson, author of The Family Fang
A vivid and engaging adventure, written with a modern freshness and understanding of which the young Whitman himself might have approved.
Nicola Upson, author of The Death of Lucy Kyte
How did reporter Walt Whitman transform himself from an unremarkable New York flaneur into America s most visionary poet? J. Aaron Sanders pursues this mystery as passionately as he does the murders and body snatchers slipping through the shadows of nineteenth-century New York. A first-rate literary mystery, thrilling and illuminating in equal measure.
Sherill Tippins, author of Inside the Dream Palace: The Life and Times of New York s Legendary Chelsea Hotel
In Speakers of the Dead, J. Aaron Sanders gives us Walt Whitman as we've never seen him a young, jaunty, and ambitious reporter, who risks his life for truth. Sanders confident prose and deft storytelling come together in a transporting novel that is at once a mystery, a tragedy, and a tale of deep friendship. From its stunning opening of a young woman at the gallows, the novel gallops along, taking us along for the
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ride, and all the while we see glimmers of the poet Whitman is to become. An old-fashioned novel in the best sense. Riveting and haunting.
Rae Meadows, author of Mercy Train
Not only is Speakers of the Dead an action-packed thriller, it presents a fresh and surprising portrayal of the poet Walt Whitman as a brawling, crusading investigative journalist hot-on-the-heels of a murder mystery through the streets of nineteenth century New York. Quite a feat for a first time novelist and what fun!
Michael Knight, author of The Typist
[I]n Sanders s gripping first novel, set in New York City in 1843, Walt Whitman, a 23 year-old- reporter, tries but fails to rescue a friend of his from the hangman at the Tombs, the city jail. [T]he author imbues all his characters, even the villains, with humanity. Fans of Daniel Stashower s account of the Mary Rogers case, The Beautiful Cigar Girl, won t want to miss this auspicious debut.
PW
An elegant literary mystery [and] a fine debut, bringing to vivid life one of America s greatest poets and presenting a fresh perspective on a less-familiar period of U.S. history.
Library Journal, starred review
This is both the author s first novel and the first of a series that brings Whitman to vibrant life, in a fashion similar to what Stephanie Barron has done for Jane Austen and Gyles Brandreth for Oscar Wilde.
Booklist
Sanders s novel brings this fascinating time and place in American history to vivid life and spins a gripping and gruesome narrative of how a close encounter with death transformed a young man into a towering artist.
The Rumpus
Gorgeous and emotional [Speakers of the Dead presents] Sanders as an exceptionally skillful and poetic writer.
Lamda Literary Review
Rae Meadows, author of Mercy Train
Not only is Speakers of the Dead an action-packed thriller, it presents a fresh and surprising portrayal of the poet Walt Whitman as a brawling, crusading investigative journalist hot-on-the-heels of a murder mystery through the streets of nineteenth century New York. Quite a feat for a first time novelist and what fun!
Michael Knight, author of The Typist
[I]n Sanders s gripping first novel, set in New York City in 1843, Walt Whitman, a 23 year-old- reporter, tries but fails to rescue a friend of his from the hangman at the Tombs, the city jail. [T]he author imbues all his characters, even the villains, with humanity. Fans of Daniel Stashower s account of the Mary Rogers case, The Beautiful Cigar Girl, won t want to miss this auspicious debut.
PW
An elegant literary mystery [and] a fine debut, bringing to vivid life one of America s greatest poets and presenting a fresh perspective on a less-familiar period of U.S. history.
Library Journal, starred review
This is both the author s first novel and the first of a series that brings Whitman to vibrant life, in a fashion similar to what Stephanie Barron has done for Jane Austen and Gyles Brandreth for Oscar Wilde.
Booklist
Sanders s novel brings this fascinating time and place in American history to vivid life and spins a gripping and gruesome narrative of how a close encounter with death transformed a young man into a towering artist.
The Rumpus
Gorgeous and emotional [Speakers of the Dead presents] Sanders as an exceptionally skillful and poetic writer.
Lamda Literary Review
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