Sawbones

Set in Victorian England, Ezra is an apprentice to a Dr McAdams who demonstrates his skill by operating on corpses that are brought to his offices in London. (Its illegal to DIG them up but not to operate on them once they are dug up!) Ezra hopes one day to be a great surgeon like his master but he knows his dreams are hampered by the fact that he is a "mulatto" (half black) and was once a poor Caribbean slave boy that the Dr bought because he had an enormous tumour that the Dr wanted to operate on. One night Ezra prepares to receive 2 corpses - one a strange turkish man who has had his tongue cut out and the other a child who drowned. These two bodies plunge Ezra into a whirlwind mystery where he meets feisty Miss Finch ( a performing show more artist) after her father is murdered, loses the Dr to a psitol shot, is cast on the street and has to solve the riddle of an outcast prince and the missing rubies - all against the backdrop of smelly, grimy, cut-throat Victorian England! A lovely romp through the darker side of Englsig history which teenage boys will love due to all the gore involved with the cutting up of the bodies - both dead and alive!
The author uses some expressions that were relevant at that time that the readers will be unfamiliar with - I found myself looking up the various insults - but the two main characters talk to each other like modern teenagers so younger readers will not get lost by the author sticking to accurately historical speech convention which sometimes make books like these a little harder for younger students to understand.
Obviously the first in a series, the book is satisfying in its conclusion to be read as a stand alone novel.
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In a pungently-painted eighteenth century London a stage magician and a surgeon's apprentice must risk everything to uncover the secret behind a series of murders.
True to the facts behind its subject, Sawbones has gore, grave-robbing, autopsies and amputations without anaesthetic: make no mistake, this book will make you shudder. But what's really sensational about it are its characters: it's been a while since a story had me worrying about them ('What? No! How will they get out of that?!') like Sawbones did.
If you're looking for suitable reading matter as the nights draw in, the wind howls and the shadows flicker, look no further: Sawbones will cut you to the quick.

A fun and atmospheric read let down by an unexpectedly flabby ending.