Q: What recent Penn Press history book has captured the attention of the Journal of the American Medical Association?
A: Lisa Rosner's The Anatomy Murders: Being the True and Spectacular History of
Edinburgh's Notorious Burke and Hare and of the Man of Science Who
Abetted Them in the Commission of Their Most Heinous Crimes. Of course.
A review of Rosner's book appears in the July 14 issue of JAMA. Here's an excerpt:
The tale of Burke, Hare, Helen McDougal (Burke's "wife"), and Margaret (Hare's wife)—as well as of the persons murdered; Knox, his assistants, and his students; and the police and
judiciary—is powerfully retold by Lisa Rosner in The Anatomy
Murders. In a series of skillfully crafted chapters, she explains
how and why each person was drawn into the web spun by Burke and
Hare. Each begins by describing one or more of the murdered
persons before moving on to discuss various aspects of the murder
spree."
Read the full review at the JAMA web site.
