interesting ploy with a bit of Whitman lore thrown in and some comic relief from Edgar Allen Poe. Will definitely try the next one ( )

Did he pay someone to get this published? It was TERRIBLE. ( )

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. ( )

Wow! I am kind of shocked by how much I ended up enjoying this book. I grabbed this book to review without a lot of thought. I later looked at it and wondered what the heck I had been thinking. I don't read poetry. Ever. Ok...I was forced to read some poetry in both high school and college but since then my poetry reading has been limited to greeting cards. In other words, Walt Whitman was not any kind of draw for me. My distaste for poetry didn't even matter because you don't have to know anything about Mr. Whitman to enjoy this book. It might even be better that I didn't know a thing about the man to be honest because I could just go along with this fictionalized version of him without any difficulties.

This story is set in New York during the mid 1800's. The story really focuses on cadaver dissection and body snatching during that time period. I love books that involve forensics or medical information so this story ended up being a great fit for me. I just found the whole topic to be incredibly interesting. This was a period of great learning and in order to learn about the human body, physicians need to be able to see how things work by dissecting cadavers. There was no easy way to acquire bodies legally so body snatching became a very lucrative business. The fact that the college at the center of the story was for women just added another layer to the story.

There is a lot of excitement in this story and I was immediately hooked. There are murders to be solved and a whole lot of suspense along the way. The characterization of Walt Whitman in this story was really very interesting. Yes, this was a fictionalized version of Walt Whitman but I really liked him as a character in this story. He was passionate about proving the innocence of his friends and saving those that he could. I liked that he used the resources that he had to shake things up and try to get the answers that he was looking for. He was willing to make huge sacrifices in order to achieve his goal often putting himself at risk. I thought the feelings between Walt and Henry was sweet and felt very authentic.

I liked the writing style in this story. The book opens with a bang and there were a lot of scenes that were action packed. The action heavy scenes were nicely balanced out with others that really made me stop and think. The descriptions of what was involved in taking a body from the grave and the dissections were really well done. I really didn't figure out who was behind everything until the very end and there were some moments that I was really nervous for the characters. It was really kind of fun to have characters show up in the book that I have heard of and I could help but grin at Edgar Poe in the story. The historical setting was very well done and added a lot to the story as well.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a different kind of mystery. This re-imagining of Walt Whitman is very thought provoking and incredibly entertaining. Once I started reading this one, I really didn't want to put it down. This is the first book by J. Aaron Sanders that I have had a chance to read but I am looking forward to his future works.

I received an advance reader edition of this book from Penguin Publishing Group - Plume Books via First to Read for the purpose of providing an honest review.

This review was also posted at Carole's Random Life. http://carolesrandomlife.blogspot.com ( )

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. ( )