Specimen by Jaima Fixsen

A chilling gothic historical thriller based on Scotland's Burke and Hare murders.

Edinburgh, 1826. Isobel Tait does her best to raise her young son Thomas alone, but yellow fever has left him with a scarred heart. Even a specialist, the renowned Dr.

Connall Burnett, can do nothing for him. Isobel decides to make the most of the remaining time with her son. Until he goes missing.

A chance visit to Dr. Burnett's collection of specimens elicits a horrifying realisation: there, in a small jar among stuffed lizards and misshapen bones, is a new addition: a tiny human heart. The use of stolen bodies by Edinburgh's medical men is a controversial but open secret.

But Isobel can't shake a horrible suspicion that the doctor's a proxy killer obsessed with his quest for specimens. Determined to find proof, she goes undercover as a maid in Burnett's house and soon becomes the keeper of his specimens. She'll have to gather evidence, protect his patients, and exact justice?and not get caught.

Based on a true story, The Specimen is a mesmerising work of Gothic historical fiction that explores one woman's search for truth and vengeance in the darkest of places – where the deadliest secrets lie hidden in plain sight, on a freshly dusted shelf.