Blade and Bone

A forensic crime thriller set in Revolutionary Paris.

Young surgeon Ezra McAdam must hasten to Paris to rescue his friend Loveday Finch and her charge Mahmoud, the Ottoman prince, who have been caught up in the Revolution. On the way, Ezra experiences the war first hand on the battlefields of Northern France, where his surgical skills are in high demand by the beleaguered French army. Meanwhile, in Paris, the guillotine is busy, and the medical world is finding the surfeit of bodies useful to its research into the seat of life. Ezra is not persuaded by the controversial theories of his French colleagues, but his mind is on other matters. Finding Loveday and Mahmoud is proving harder than he had imagined: it would appear that Paris really is the most dangerous place on earth. Ezra’s search takes him from the grand Hotel Dieu to the dark catacombs below the city; from the opulent War Office to the tall, forbidding Conciergerie – the city prison – here he must undertake the most audacious rescue attempt of all.

The YA Book Prize-shortlisted author returns to the 18th Century and the story of Ezra McAdam in the sequel to Sawbones. The Bookseller Packed with fascinating insights into the medical practices of the time, including experiments on guillotined heads, Johnson's novel is pacy, gruesome and thought-provoking. The Guardian

Catherine Johnson is an award-winning writer of Welsh/African Caribbean descent, now living in Hastings in East Sussex. Her novels for children include Stella; The Dying Game; Arctic Hero, selected for Booked Up 2009; The Curious Tale of the Lady Caraboo; and A Nest of Vipers, shortlisted for the UKLA Award 2009. She lectures in creative writing at London Metropolitan University and is a Trustee of The Reading Agency. She works regularly with children and teachers in primary schools and libraries across the UK. This is the sequel to Sawbones, winner of the Historical Association's Young Quills Award for Historical Fiction.

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