Customer Reviews

The Resurrectionist (Old Philadelphia Mystery Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read the first book in this series some time ago, and anxiously awaited the follow-up. This book does not disappoint. The way Mark Graham melds actual history with a deep mystery is superb. This book is not for the faint of heart. If you really don't want to know what life was like in the late 1800's in Philedelphia, don't read this book. If you can't face the racism and rampant corruption in civic positions that occurred then, also don't read this book. This book is meant to make us feel uncomfortable in our complacency. This book has it all, racial tension, corruption, murder, phsycotic criminals, and even a little love mixed in. McCleary is a tough, but honest cop with a uniquely human and vulnerable side. He has to face his own demons as he deals with real-life ones. This is a great series.
Some of the grammar and English is not of the highest order, but I found that I did not mind and the story helped me overlook this.

Some writers do a lot of research and then stop the story to show us how much they've learned. What makes Mark Graham's books so impressive is that the research is an integral part of the plot. The sights, sounds, and smells of 1870s Philadelphia are all here, and all contribute to making the story come alive. And what a story: racism, grave robbing, corruption, told with an economical style that moves like a bullet. I'll be looking for the next book in this very impressive series.

Someone is kidnapping negro women in 1871 Philadelphia. Wilton McCleary is assigned to find out what's going on. He uncovers layer after layer of corruption in the police, government and elsewhere. He falls in love with a beautiful woman of color, a medical student. Is she involved with the disappeared?

This was an engrossing novel. A little gorey but it seems historically accurate. Very fast read.

The books in this series (The Killing Breed, The Resurrectionist, and The Black Maria) are fantastic. When do we get to hear more tales of Wilton McCleary? Hello?

I thoroughly enjoyed Mark Graham's The Resurrectionist. The author vividly recreates the politics, corruption and racial tension of the 1870's, and the mystery he spins flows at a good pace. Philadelphia policeman Wilton McCleary, a Union veteren who survived the Andersonville prison camp, wrestles throughout the book with significant personal ethical issues - and Graham's framing of those issues - theological, racial, social and McClearly's own role in the corrupt Philadelphia police depatment - gives the character depth. I look forward to reading more of McCleary's struggles.

Wilton McCleary returns in a tale of corruption, vice and power set in the gaslight noir of late-19th Century Philadelphia. Those who followed Detective McCleary's first case in Mr. Graham's debut novel, THE KILLING BREED, will delight in reading about the case that earned Wilton his promotion to detective, while those meeting McCleary for the first time will want to read more about his career after the case of THE RESURRECTIONIST.

In his second novel, Mr. Graham reintroduces Wilton McCleary by way of flashback, taking the reader back in time to McCleary's tenure as a beat cop on the Philadelphia Police force. During a mayoral election year rife with political intrigue and racial turmoil, McCleary takes the thankless job of investigating the murder of a black prostitute, and during the course of his investigation, becomes involved with an African American medical student. Stonewalled from the beginning by the police department and the bigotry of the Reconstruction Era, McCleary must fight hard against both to carry on his investigation and relationship. The price of winning, however, grows ever more costly as the stalwart Andersonville survivor unearths deep-rooted racism and a wealth of corruption whose evil has permeated the police department, the mayor's office and the medical establishment, and will attempt to pollute the heart of the woman he loves.

THE RESURRECTIONIST firmly establishes Mr. Graham's reputation as an authentic recreator of late 19th Century Philadelphia, and creator of a bold, new brand of detective fiction. As in THE KILLING BREED, the pages of Mr. Graham's newest work take the reader on a sordid tour of Philadelphia's corrupt underworld, and still manage to capture the alluring charm of a by-gone era. McCleary's humane demeanor is juxtaposed against terse Chandler-like dialogue and description to create a well-paced mystery that reads in the tradition of hard-boiled fiction, but brings to the story a rich, realistic and literary sense of character aesthetic. Mr. Graham's characters, some as compelling as Beowulf, others as repellent as Dostoevski's Underground Man, propel the unfolding mystery at a steady pace, and hold the reader's attention long enough to complete the novel in one sitting. THE RESURRECTIONIST finds both Mr. Graham and Wilton McCleary in full form, and will prove an enjoyable read for mystery and literary connoisseurs alike.

- S.D. PETERS

After reading "The Killing Breed" starring Wilton McCleary a few months ago, I waited anxiously for the next installment and worried it would not match the first. I need not have worried. "The Resurrectionist" is one of the best historical mysteries I've ever read. I love period detail, especially when one gets the sense the detail is well researched and factual. Add into the mix a very human, moral, sensitive, somewhat tortured detective and his battle with his own conscience and emotions as well as the "establishment" and biases of the time, written so well that one feels that one is actually reading Wilton McCleary's diary. Perhaps my only complaint might be that the story ended. I suspect I'll read it again--and once more await the next installment with anticipation. I feel Mark Graham's work is worthy of hardcover and more notice--although I really don't mind paying paperback prices.

Mark Graham has done a great job with character development and historical research. I found this to be a fascinating look at racial/sexual politics during the post civil war era. It was a great read, but I was disappointed that the well rounded female lead was shown as stereotypically weak in the end.

I think Mark Graham is a terrific writer. His protagonist, Wilton McCleary, is an introspective policeman in 1871; a veteran of the Civil War with major issues, he is nonetheless a rather rare thing -- an uncorrupted representative of the law, often at odds with his fellow officers as much as his perpetrators, who are violent predators. These books aren't for those with a weak stomach, but they do have delightful philosophical opinings by our protagonist -- a rare treat in mystery fiction. Of the three books (The Killing Breed, The Resurrectionist and The Black Maria), I liked this one the least, but still enjoyed it enough to give it 5 stars, if for no other reason than that it informs the final book in the triad, which is terrific.

Great historical mystery series.