The Resurrection Fireplace

I think what caught me off guard about this book is that it's set in 18th century London but originally written in Japanese. But that was what originally drew me to The Resurrection Fireplace - I do enjoy some Japanese authors as well as most novels set in the dawn of medical forensics.

This book had a somewhat confusing start but as things unfolded, we find that Dr Daniel Barton's school of anatomy is in possession of three bodies, one of them an unexpected discovery in their special hiding place in the fireplace.

The plot progresses into a dual timeline in which we soon realise that we were following the footsteps of the bodies before they ended up on the slabs. At some point, a blind magistrate got into the investigation, which proved to be so interesting a character that I was starting to think that this book was about him.

The plot twist was not something that I expected, and was the kind of thing that could be fully appreciated with a rereading. An entertaining read and satisfying finish once you get past the first chapters.