Having won his emancipation after fighting on the side of the colonies during the American Revolution, Salem Hawley is a free man. Only a handful of years after the end of British rule, Hawley finds himself drawn into a new war unlike anything he has ever seen.
New York City is on the cusp of a new revolution as the science of medicine advances, but procuring bodies for study is still illegal. Bands of resurrectionists are stealing corpses from New York cemeteries, and women of the night are disappearing from the streets, only to meet grisly ends elsewhere.
After a friend’s family is robbed from their graves, Hawley is compelled to fight back against the wave of exhumations plaguing the Black cemetery. Little does he know, the theft of bodies is key to far darker arts being performed by the resurrectionists. If successful, the work of these occultists could spell the end of the fledgling American Experiment… and the world itself.
The Resurrectionists, the first book in the Salem Hawley series, is a novella of historical cosmic horror from the author of Broken Shells and Mass Hysteria.
Dark Reads Review
Thanks to NetGalley, Michael Patrick Hicks and High Fever Books who provided an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The Resurrectionists is set during the 1788 Doctors Riot, Post-Revolutionary War when illegal body snatching by doctors and medical students was rife. A pretty macabre premise to start with right?! Hicks’s mix of historical fact and Cosmic Horror fiction was a perfect blend.
I was hooked from the very first page, the book throws you straight into the sadistic extracurricular activities of the resurrectionists, it was full throttle gore, wonderfully written and not for the fainthearted!
The story follows two narratives, the first follows Salem Hawley as he sets out to put a stop to the illegal grave robbing from the African American grave yards, in the process he has unwittingly gotten himself involved in something much worse. The resurrectionists are attempting to invoke an ancient evil…
The other part is told from the POV of the resurrectionists, although they are totally vile, I couldn’t wait to find out what they were planning, if it would work and what would happen if it did work!
The imagery was awesome throughout, those creatures! (Shudder)
The abrupt ending has left me very eager for the next two books! I’m looking forward to getting to know Salem better and I am TOO curious to find out where the hell Hereford is and what is going to happen to him next!
The Resurrectionists is a macabre Cosmic Horror Novella with tonnes of gore, monsters and mystery.
You need to read this one and its out today!
Get your copy direct from the Michael’s Website or from Amazon
I also just want to take a moment to acknowledge how beautiful the cover for this book is. It was created by author Kealan Patrick Burke, who also runs Elderlemon Design. Just wow!
- Paperback: 156 pages
- Publisher: High Fever Books
- ISBN-10: 1947570129
- ISBN-13: 978-1947570122
- Pub Date: 4th June 2019
About The Author
Michael Patrick Hicks is the author of Broken Shells: A Subterranean Horror Novella, Mass Hysteria, an Audiobook Listeners Choice Awards Horror Finalist, and Convergence, an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Finalist. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association and the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers.
In addition to his own works of original fiction, he has written for the online publications Audiobook Reviewer and Graphic Novel Reporter, and has previously worked as a freelance journalist and news photographer in Metro Detroit.
Michael lives in Michigan with his wife and two children. In between compulsively buying books and adding titles that he does not have time for to his Netflix queue, he is hard at work on his next story.
Dark Reads Reviews 
Just read and reviewed this one as well. Absolutely loved it. Much like you, I am really curious about Hereford and can’t wait to get my hands on the next book.
Great review!
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Thank you! It’s a cracking read isn’t it? I will head over and check out your review now.
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Yea, refreshing compared to the Lo ecraft I was forcing my way through 🙂
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*Lovecraft
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This is a book that surprised me. I knew going in that it was going to be well written, Hicks has established himself in my mind, it also surprised me the amount of research that went into this book.
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