The Resurrectionists

The Resurrectionists is a Cthulhu Mythos novella by American author Michael Patrick Hicks, the first in his Salem Hawley series of historical horror fiction. It was first published by High Fever Books, Hicks's own small press label, in June 2019; paperback, ebook and audio download editions were released, and it was also translated into French as a solely digital release The Resurrectionists at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
==Synopsis==
In 1788, New York City is in the grip of an epidemic of body snatchings targeting the black community, ostensibly for the purpose of medical research, but which also provide cover for a darker purpose: a cabal of occultists in possession of a copy of the Al Azif are conducting experiments on summoning the Old Ones spoken of in its pages.
As racial tensions in the city intensify, former slave Salem Hawley attempts to even the score with the graverobbers, despite the uncaring attitude of the local authorities. However, the cabal ramps up their efforts in the midst of a protest at the bodysnatchers, slaughtering dozens of young medical students and opening a portal which allows the Old Ones to break through. Only the intervention of Hawley and a small band of plucky protesters prevents the breach from remaining open and spewing forth monsters which would destroy the world.
At the story's conclusion, and providing a set up for the following book, Hawley is recruited by a senior medical man, Richard Bayley, to track down the stolen Al Azif, ostensibly to destroy the book in an effort to keep the Earth safe. However, Hawley is unaware that Bayley is in fact the cabal's leader, having escaped during the confusion caused by the breach in reality, and intent on retrieving his property from a traitorous cultist.
==Behind the Mythos==
The background events described in The Resurrectionists are based around the real-world 1788 Doctors' Riots, a spat of civil disobedience in New York City triggered by the medical profession's proclivity for corpse-snatching 1788 Doctors' Riot at Wikipedia. Some members of the occult cabal were also based on real people, including Richard Bayley himself, although with a great deal of artistic licence applied "Acknowledgements", The Resurrectionists, Kindle Edition.
==Gallery==
The Resurrectionists (French edition).jpeg|Alternate cover for the 2020 French translation
The Resurrectionists (audiobook).jpeg|Audiobook cover
==References==
Category:Michael Patrick Hicks works
Category:Expanded Mythos Works
Category:Novels
Category:Ebooks
Category:The Salem Hawley series