Speakers of the Dead: A Walt Whitman Mystery (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780143128717)

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.

Author: J. Aaron Sanders
ISBN-10: 014312871X
ISBN-13: 9780143128717
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Language: English
Published: 03/01/2016
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.20w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 12/14/2015
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/2016
Library Journal 02/01/2016 pg. 57
Booklist 02/01/2016 pg. 27