Will Starling

A Novel

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Pub Date 03 Feb 2015 | Archive Date 03 Feb 2015

Description

The Reckoning of WM. STARLING, Esq., a Foundling, concerning Monstrous Crimes and Infernal Aspirations, with Perpetrators Named and Shrouded Infamies disclosed to Light of Day, as set down by his Own Hand in this year 1816

London, 1816. The Napoleonic War is over, Romanticism is at its high tide, and the great city is charged with the thrill of scientific discovery and Regency abandon. The nineteen-year-old foundling Will Starling returns from the Continent, having spent five years assisting military surgeon Alec Comrie, and now is helping Comrie build a civilian practice in London's rough Cripplegate area. This means entering into an uneasy alliance with the Doomsday Men: grave robbers who supply surgeons with cadavers for dissection. There are wild rumors about Dionysus Atherton, an old university friend of Comrie's and the brightest of London's emerging surgical stars, whispers of experiments on corpses not quite dead, in a bid to unlock the mystery of death itself. Will works obsessively to ferret out the truth; the investigation twists and turns through brothels and charnel houses and the mansions of Mayfair.

The Reckoning of WM. STARLING, Esq., a Foundling, concerning Monstrous Crimes and Infernal Aspirations, with Perpetrators Named and Shrouded Infamies disclosed to Light of Day, as set down by his Own...


Advance Praise

"An extraordinary rendition of life in Regency-era London . . . Weir has written a mystery worthy of every word while adding historical tidbits. . . Characters rollick and scheme through a plot as snaky as a London alley in a setting as powerful as a chamber pot tossed from a garret window. . . What Dickens might have written had he set loose Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll to explore the doomsday trade." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"Starling is a charismatic, engaging narrator, and his personal connection to Atherton frames an underlying story of redemption and the legacy of ultimate power. A fascinating, well-researched exploration of surgery’s shift from disreputable butchery to medical science, shot through with an irresistible Frankenstein current; perfect for those who enjoy Louis Bayard’s dark historical thrillers and Dan Simmons’ Drood (2009)." — Christine Tran, Booklist

"Weir, the creator of CBC’s Arctic Air, has written a note-perfect historical novel of body snatching, murder and evil fun." — The Toronto Star

"[Ian Weir] crafts a wonderfully, thrillingly fun–if truly smelly and gross–romp. . . an extraordinary tale—of inquiry, of secrets pried, of love and vengeance—with melodramatic theatrical and literary tropes in play. . . [a] clever and masterfully told 'lurid Tale.'" — The Winnipeg Review

"Will Starling is a remarkably subversive novel. . . compelling and convincing. . . a novel that is at once rewarding and heartbreaking, satisfying on both intellectual and emotional levels. . . Will Starling - both the character and the book - is a splendid literary achievement, and a genuine pleasure." The Globe and Mail

"Weir’s writing is so springy, and his vision so panoramic, that you won’t care that the novel makes you feel as though you’ve got dirt under your fingernails just from reading it. Yet amid the muck, Will Starling also presents a ringing and surprisingly touching endorsement of science over legend and anecdote." National Post

"A rollicking good yarn with many twists and turns. . . It's a lot of fun and a tale well told." The Vancouver Sun

"Will Starling is a sly, spirited hero who leaps off the page to take you on a riveting journey through London's glorious, hair-raising underbelly -- surgeons' salons, gin shops, and the puzzle of Death itself -- and straight into the nature of storytelling. Weir's prose is both raw and lyrical; his evocation of Regency London, magnificent. Will Starling is a must read." — Stacy Carlson, author of Among the Wonderful

"Will Starling is a rollicking romp through the English language, an earthy, bawdy, brain-bending delight. — Annabel Lyon, author of The Sweet Girl

"Ian Weir's crackerjack novel is many things: a whodunit, a penny dreadful, a scrupulous historical narrative-- but most of all and most simply, it is a rollicking, fireballing, big-hearted book that's just a hell of a lot of fun to read." — Craig Davidson, author of Cataract City

"This is not the polite England of Jane Austen or George Eliot but the graveyards, hospitals and charnel houses of East London . . . Ian Weir's characters are as engaging as the Artful Dodger or Fagin or Martin Chuzzlewit." — Roberta Rich, author of The Midwife of Venice

"An extraordinary rendition of life in Regency-era London . . . Weir has written a mystery worthy of every word while adding historical tidbits. . . Characters rollick and scheme through a plot as...


Marketing Plan

Massive outreach for Indie Next nomination.


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Social Media Marketing.


Widespread Reviews.


Eligible for PROMO ALLOWANCE

Massive outreach for Indie Next nomination.


Discover Great New Writers Submission.


ARC's for Amazon Vine Program.


Social Media Marketing.


Widespread Reviews.


Eligible for PROMO ALLOWANCE


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781586422301
PRICE $17.00 (USD)

Average rating from 8 members


Featured Reviews

London, 1816. Will Starling is helping former military surgeon Alec Comrie set up a medical practice in a rundown area of the city. To survive they must look the other way when the Doomsday Men come to call. These are men who rob graves for corpses they then sell to surgeons and medical schools. When one grave robbery goes awry and a man is murdered, young Megan Nancarrow is arrested. Not only does Will believe her to be innocent, he thinks she is at the center of a huge conspiracy perpetrated by a man called Atherton, a former classmate of Comrie and also a fellow surgeon. There are terrible rumors about the bodies that end up in Atherton’s lab, bodies that do not appear to be dead, that scream and try to escape. Will is bound and determined to exonerate Meg and discover once and for all what atrocities are occurring in Atherton’s lab.

An incredible tale, rich in historical detail and in the bloody horrors of the time. Highly recommended

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Thank you to Steerforth Press and netgalley for this arc.

I did not want this book to end. It was that good. I liked everything about it, cuz you can't go wrong with a great historical fiction book with awesome characters and storytelling. you will laugh, cry, yell, and enjoy yourself immensely.

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Perhaps Will Starling was born to hang. He was left at a foundling hospital as an infant. Once he was old enough to strike out on his own, Will press-gangs himself into the British Army to fight Napoleon. (There was some question about whether or not the infantryman was joking or not.) Just when you think Will has landed on his feet as a surgeon's assistant in London, love and hatred pull him into a dark mystery in Ian Weir's Will Starling.

Our first clue that things are not going well for Will is his admission that he's writing from a condemned cell in Newgate Prison. He's writing, as the broadsheets would have it, his "Last Dying Confession." In this confession, Will pieces together the events of the previous March of 1816, when a rogue surgeon tried to cure death and ruined the lives of nearly everyone who knew him.

Will get involved when a man choked to death on a candied plum while trying to assault Will's sweetheart. Later, the sweetheart comes to tell Will that she saw the man and was afraid for her life. Will's questions lead him to Dionysius Atherton. Atherton is rich and connected and untouchable when it comes to the law.

As Will pieces together what happened to Atherton's victims, Weir paints a highly detailed portrait of London for his readers. London, in Will Starling, is peopled by Resurrection Men, rakes and Cyprians, actors willing to fake testimony in court, unethical scientists, bruisers and ex-soldiers. I adored the language Weir used. His vocabulary is refreshingly gargantuan (a good eighteenth century word), peppered with classical allusions and Latin malapropisms. I had a great time reading this book.

I received a free copy of this ebook from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. It will be released 3 February 2015.

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Let me bite the bullet and say it; I don’t think that Frankenstein is a great book. However there is no doubting its importance or its cultural relevance. At the heart of the book lies an endlessly fascinating question; was Frankenstein’s error in creating life, or in failing to take responsibility for the life he created? A similar dilemma can be found in Will Starling, a terrific new novel by Ian Weir.

Some novels take some time to find their rhythm, but I knew that this book was good from the first page. Mr. Wier grabs you by the lapels, with great style and a distinct and original prose. The first-person narration, by one Will Starling, is full of charm and unflagging energy, and I could have read this novel for that alone and been satisfied. There is however, a whole lot more to this novel than that.

WIll has just come back from the Napoleonic wars to England, having become an assistant to the brilliant but poor Surgeon Alec Comrie. They are starting a practice in the slums of Cripplegate, and have some familiarity with the Doomsday Men; the body-snatchers who provide corpses for surgeons. They are also known the rich and equally brilliant Surgeon Dionysus Atherton.

The plot of this tale is rollicking yet layered, so I am loathe to tell you much more, but after a botched grave-robbery, and some mob justice, a grieving prostitute is accused of murder, and Will Starling, with one foot in the street and one foot in the world of science and medicine, begins to see a conspiracy of diabolical cleverness that may involve Atherton, and may also just ensnare anyone who gets caught up in it.

Like the medical science of the time, the world portrayed by Mr. Weir is bloody and short. This is an historical novel that is full of sharp detail, but it’s not about hoop skirts and fox hunts. There is a loaf of anger in this story and most of it is righteous and well-deserved. Most of the characters in Will Starling have the deck stacked against them, but they push on, with a perseverance and an elan that makes a grim book a pleasure to read. Not to say that things are all sunshine and roses; there is plenty of misery to go around. Unrequited love, injustice, poverty, betrayal, arrogance, hubris, it’s all here in spades.

The bravery of common people, and the dignity of the downtrodden, and Mr. Weir’s care for these characters makes it all work. Will, the narrator is the star, but all of the rest of the characters, not matter how small, are brought to life. Meg Nancarrow will haunt me for years. She’s the kind of character that could carry her own book with ease.

When the story starts to race towards the end I got the feeling that I often get with the best of books; that the outcome is both surprising and inevitable, and that as much as I wanted to find out what happened, I dreaded the book coming to end. The question Ms. Shelley asked so many years ago is still relevant, and in Will Starling Mr. Weir shows that the answer may never be known; but posing that question, and doing it with daring and originality, is important enough.

Review by: Mark Palm Full Reviews Available at: http://www.thebookendfamily.weebly.com

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