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    Speakers of the Dead: A Walt Whitman Mystery
    Unavailable
    Speakers of the Dead: A Walt Whitman Mystery
    Unavailable
    Speakers of the Dead: A Walt Whitman Mystery
    Audiobook8 hours

    Speakers of the Dead: A Walt Whitman Mystery

    Written by J. Aaron Sanders

    Narrated by Mark Bramhall

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Lambda Award Winner 

    Speakers of the Dead is a mystery novel centering around the investigative exploits of a young Walt Whitman, in which the reporter-cum-poet navigates the seedy underbelly of New York City's body-snatching industry in an attempt to exonerate his friend of a wrongful murder charge.

    The year is 1843; the place: New York City. Aurora reporter Walt Whitman arrives at the Tombs prison yard where his friend Lena Stowe is scheduled to hang for the murder of her husband, Abraham. Walt intends to present evidence on Lena's behalf, but Sheriff Harris turns him away. Lena drops to her death, and Walt vows to posthumously exonerate her.

    Walt's estranged boyfriend, Henry Saunders, returns to New York, and the two men uncover a link between body-snatching and Abraham's murder: a man named Samuel Clement. To get to Clement, Walt and Henry descend into a dangerous underworld where resurrection men steal the bodies of the recently deceased and sell them to medical colleges. With no legal means to acquire cadavers, medical students rely on these criminals, and Abraham's involvement with the Bone Bill--legislation that would put the resurrection men out of business--seems to have led to his and Lena's deaths.

    Fast-paced and gripping, Speakers of the Dead is a vibrant reimagining of one of America's most beloved literary figures.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 1, 2016
    ISBN9780399565267
    Unavailable
    Speakers of the Dead: A Walt Whitman Mystery

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    Reviews for Speakers of the Dead

    4/5

    14 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      First off, can we just say how awesome this cover is?

      Overall the book was very good and I was happy to see some LGBT stuff inside it because this group of people is vastly underwritten, so yay to Sanders for that. The writing is a bit juvenile at times, but I did really enjoy the book and the story lines. There were a lot of twists I didn't see coming. Overall a very good book, but there is swearing in it and obvious gore (as it's about body snatchers), so there is that to keep in mind if someone young(er) is going to read this. I would still recommend this book. 4.5 out of 5 stars. I very good mystery.
    • 4/5
      Mary Rogers, a cigar store clerk, was a minor celebrity in 1841 when she was found floating in the Hudson River. Edgar Allan Poe serialized the murder in a magazine and in 2006 Daniel Stashower memorialized Poe and Mary Rogers in his book, The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder. Mary Rogers has once again risen from the dead in the very capable hands of J. Aaron Sanders with no-less than Walt Whitman as her “savior.” Speakers of the Dead: A Walt Whitman Mystery is a well written historical novel, peopled with real-life characters such as Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, Edgar Allan Poe, Samuel Clement, Isaiah Rynders, and of course, the resurrection men, who are at the forefront of this story. It’s a moral tale, pitting science against religion, a love story between Walt and Henry Saunders, and a speculation into the soul of Whitman as he questions the future of his writing turning from fiction to poetry. Speakers of the Dead is a swiftly moving and captivating novel with appeal to both lovers of historical fiction and mystery lovers alike.