The House of Sight and Shadow: A Novel
by By Griffin, Nicholas
Category: Fiction , Literary

In The House of Sight and Shadow, Nicholas Griffin transports us to the eighteenth century, to a London recovering from the ravages of plague and fire, where two doctors crisscross the boundaries of morality in their heady pursuit of scientific progress. Their challenge leads Sir Edmund Calcraft, an eminent and notorious anatomist, and Joseph Bendix, his ambitious young student, into playing a dare game with the growing criminal underworld. At the heart of the book lies a haunting love story that both drives and threatens to destroy their common quest.From gallows to madhouses, from anatomical laboratories to a magical Frost Fair on the frozen Thames, the two men compete with both head and heart. Featuring such real-life rogues as the reviled "ThiefTaker," Jonathan Wild, and the comically louche novelist Daniel Defoe, willing to transform any man's misery into the next day's gossip, The House of Sight and Shadow is a blend of history, myth medicine, and fiction.