1867 - Morgue surgeon at one of London's most prestigious hospitals, Dr. Peter Ainsley is familiar with the smells of the dead and the dying but when the brilliant, young doctor is summoned to a small English town in the north his ability to keep his patients at a cold, comfortable distance is put to the test.
Convinced the untimely death of a twelve year old girl, Josephine Lloyd, was an act of poison, Ainsley and the local physician Dr. Bennett must battle the wealthy and stubborn Lloyd family to gain access to the body of the girl, knowing an autopsy is their only chance to detect what ended the young girl's life. Even as her older sister, Lillian, languishes in bed fearing the poison will take her as well, the family remains obstinate. When Dr. Bennett is found dead in his own house, the rebellious Ainsley has no choice but to take matters into his own hands if he is to save the life of the beautiful
Lillian Lloyd.
The love-struck surgeon soon finds himself tangled in a web of deceit and betrayal ultimately leading him to the murderer
he never suspected.
Vicar Andrews is avoiding his brother's funeral by hiding upstairs in the family house, rifling through the boxes that will inevitably go to an estate sale, when he discovers a journal far too old to be his brother's. Possessed by curiosity and eagre for the distraction from the guests he's supposed to console, Vicar finds himself lost in the world of the journal's owner, Winn Peterson - a resident at his very house one hundred years ago.
As he loses himself in her increasingly disturbing recollection of events within the house, the similarities between their situations grow to an incoincidental degree. The sudden appearance of the doctor in both Winn's life and his late brother's, as well as the rapid decline of their respective states of health, prove a worrying trend in the dark history of the Andrews Estate. Battling the traumatic memories of his own turbulent past, Vicar begins to suspect that the connection between his brother's death and the unfortunate fate of Winn Peterson are tied together by something far more sinister than a suspicious doctor.
Completed 25 July 2023 at 100k words
Featured 2x on StoriesUndiscovered