Fleshmarket (Hardcover)

by Nicola Morgan (Author) "Robbie lingered..." (more)
Key Phrases: anatomy school, flesh market, New Town, Professor Syme, Robert Knox (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up–A story set in Scotland in the early 1800s. Five days after Robbie Anderson's mother has a tumor removed from her breast, she dies; thus begins the downward spiral of her family. Robbie's father disappears, leaving the 14-year-old to care for his younger sister, Essie. Morgan provides graphic descriptions of the brutal surgery and the squalor in which most of Edinburgh's populace lived during this period. Her characters work hard just to keep their living quarters and a small amount of food in their bellies. Robbie gets involved with two shady men who deliver "fresh bodies" for a fee to a doctor interested in human anatomy–the same doctor whom he believes killed his mother. When the teen's anger and grief overwhelm him, he slips further into a life of crime and drinking. It takes Essie to snap him out of his depression. However, the bodies he helped deliver still haunt him–he knows deep down that innocent people are being murdered, and he makes a decision to do the right thing, no matter the consequences. The protagonist's need for revenge is palpable, and Morgan's story is fast paced and absorbing. Readers who are fascinated by forensics and anatomy will find this a gripping story.–Anna M. Nelson, Seabrook Library, NH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description
Edinburgh, 1822. Young Robbie is just eight years old when he witnesses his mother’s agonizing pain and then death from the removal of a breast tumor during public surgery at the hands of one savage surgeon, Dr. Knox. The sounds of his mother’s piercing cries haunt Robbie as he and his hapless father and baby sister try to go on.

But life proves bitter when Robbie’s father loses his business and disappears. Years of poverty go by as Robbie cares for his sister in the Edinburgh slums. Fueled by anger and grief, the teenaged Robbie seems to be heading for a life on the wrong side of the law when he helps the men providing “the butcher Knox” with dead bodies for his medical research.

For years, Robbie thinks of Knox as his mother’s killer and wants revenge. He’s convinced that Knox is involved in a murderous trade in bodies for experimentation and plans a confrontation. It will take time to see the motives behind Knox’s corrupt methods. Perhaps there will be a way to give some meaning to his mother’s tragic death after all.

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• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (August 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038573154X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385731546
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces
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• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,021,622 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
  
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• In-Print Editions: Paperback  |  Library Binding  |  All Editions