Strong female characters, body snatching, and lots of stabbings and slashings. A review of The Dead Will Rise

 Though Simon Westow, the thief taker, is the protagonist, there are lots of strong, competent and intelligent women in The Dead Will Rise. Jane, Simon's fellow detective, his wife Rosie, Mrs. Shields who teaches Jane to read, and all the many female shopkeepers in the town of Leeds make this an adventure with lots of ladies. Lots of stabbings, too. Lots and lots of them. I expected the novel to start splashing blood all over me.

This story of a thief taker (a detective who locates stolen objects) chasing down body snatchers who have stolen a little girl's corpse is exciting enough that I read late into the night. Then I had disturbing, stabby dreams, but that's okay or I wouldn't read  stabby blood-splashing books.

I had one tiny little problem solely because I'm obsessive about history, even little, tiny minor things. The Dead Will Rise takes place in 1824. The author, Chris Nickson, had one of the villains don a "biilycock" on his head. I didn't know what that was, so I looked it up. A billycock is a bowler hat created in 1849 by Thomas and William Bowler. Okay, maybe the bad guy wore one twenty-five years before they were created. The rest of the book is so good that I'll overlook the haberdashery mistake.

The author also adds some of the history of "resurrection men" and the lax laws that made body snatching a misdemeanor. I always appreciate history added on to the end to tell me what kind of society the characters were living in.

Thank you to Netgalley and Severn Books for allowing me to read and review The Dead Will Rise.

Spellcheck keeps telling me stabby isn't a word, but stabby describes The Dead Will Rise really well.