History made him a hero. His experiments made him something else.
London, 1998. Beneath the former home of Benjamin Franklin, workmen uncover a sealed stone box filled with human bones. The secret has slept for more than two centuries.
In 1750, young William Hewson enters the forbidden world of anatomy after the death of his twin sister. His brilliance attracts the attention of Benjamin Franklin, a respected inventor whose public reputation hides a far darker obsession: the search for the human soul.
Drawn into Franklin’s secret circle of Freemasons and scientists called the Lunar Society, Hewson becomes both protege and captive. In hidden rooms lit by candlelight, dissections shift from scientific study to ritual. Franklin insists that only blood and sacrifice can reveal the truth about life itself.
As political unrest spreads across Europe and the American colonies, Hewson’s breakthroughs in medicine are overshadowed by his mentor’s crimes. The closer he comes to understanding the inner workings of the body, the deeper he is pulled into a nightmare of madness, murder, and betrayal.
From the basements of eighteenth century London to the first sparks of revolution, The Anatomist’s Curse follows the descent of a genius who believed he could reshape humanity and the young scientist caught in his shadow.
