Medical Historical Fiction

Commissioned by the Amsterdam Surgeons’ Guild, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp was the first major Rembrandt work to catapult the young painter to international fame. Taking this painting as its inspiration, Nina Siegal’s novel The Anatomy Lesson opens on the morning of the medical dissection and follows several characters as they prepare for the evening’s big event:

In the fourteenth century, opportunities for women are limited to the home. But spirited young Madlen finds her calling as assistant to the city's trusted midwife, Clara. Working alongside Clara, Madlen develops a surprisingly soothing technique and quickly becomes a talented healer. After Clara's tragic death, Madlen alone rushes to assist the birth of a local nobleman's child. But rather than the joy of birth, Madlen walks into an accusation of murder and witchcraft because of her extraordinary gifts. Forced to flee her own town, she establishes a new identity in the home of her aunt.

After serving as a nurse in the Crimea, British-born Celia Davies left her privileged family for an impulsive marriage to a handsome Irishman. Patrick brought her to San Francisco's bustling shores but then disappeared and is now presumed dead. Determined to carry on, Celia partners with her half-Chinese cousin, Barbara, and her opinionated housekeeper, Addie, to open a free medical clinic for women who have nowhere else to turn.

Busy putting in stitches and bandaging lumberjacks' injuries, young Dr. Thomas Parks has no idea that his worst enemy is lurking in the sleepy village of Port McKinney in the spring of 1892. When one of the working girls at the Clarissa Hotel is brought to the Clinic desperately ill, Thomas's newly arrived associate wastes no time in making the diagnosis: Asian Cholera has somehow found this back water near Puget Sound. The cholera strikes viciously and kills in days, sometimes even hours....

British-born nurse Celia Davies runs a free medical clinic to assist the poor women of San Francisco. She has earned the trust and friendship of many of the city's downtrodden, including a young orphan named Owen. Owen works for a real estate company and discovered a dead body in the office's basement. Celia turns to Detective Nick Greaves for help, only to learn that one of the main suspects - the husband of Celia's dearest friend - is an old enemy of Nick's.

Award-winning author Imogen Robertson continues the acclaimed series she began with Instruments of Darkness. Set in London during the Revolutionary War, Anatomy of Murder follows unlikely forensic investigator Mrs. Harriet Westerman and reclusive anatomist Gabriel Crowther as they try to solve the mysterious death of a man dragged from the murky depths of the Thames River.

Wien, 1908: Die Stadt erlebt eine sagenhafte Blütezeit von Kunst und Wissenschaft. Doch davon bekommt die schüchterne Jungärztin Fanny Goldmann nur wenig mit, verbringt sie doch am liebsten ihre Zeit mit den Leichen in der gerichtlichen Medizin. Meist spielt sie dort nur die Handlangerin für ihre männlichen Kollegen. Als aber ein toter Obdachloser eingeliefert wird, führt Fanny nachts heimlich eine Obduktion durch und stellt fest, dass es sich um einen gesuchten Meisterdieb, den Sküs, handelt. Fanny beschließt, mehr über den Mord herauszufinden.

Die Bestsellerautorin Henrike Engel mit dem neuen großen Roman über vergangene Zeiten und unbekannte Welten am Hamburger Hafen. Hamburg, 1911: Anne Fitzpatrick behandelt in ihrer Arztpraxis am Hafen immer häufiger chinesische Frauen, die in den Kolonien als Arbeitskräfte angeworben wurden. Viele von ihnen wurden schwer misshandelt. Als eine der Frauen in Annes Armen stirbt, schwört die Hafenärztin die Verantwortlichen zu finden. Zusammen mit Kommissar Berthold Rheydt fängt sie an, in der Schmuckstraße, dem Chinesenviertel auf Sankt Pauli, nachzuforschen.

Die Geschichte beruht auf wahren Begebenheiten und anonymen Berichten. Kurz vor der Kapitulation der Deutschen Wehrmacht, verschwinden drei U-Boote der Klasse XXI. Die modernsten ihrer Zeit. Fracht und Ziel sind geheim. Nach Ende des Krieges, finden zahlreiche deutsche Wissenschaftler in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika eine neue Heimat. Einige dieser genialen Köpfe verfolgen nur ein Ziel: Die Errichtung eines "Deep State".Im beschaulichen Gainesville, in Florida, hält Nathan Sanders eine Vorlesung an der Medizinischen Fakultät, als er in die Pathologie gerufen wird.

Set in the early 1960s, this is the story of a family-oriented community, surrounding a winterbourne stream, in Northern California. It is full of average law-abiding citizens who live in picturesque equestrian properties with white three-rail fences. A violent motor vehicle accident and the attempted resuscitation of the victim, a homeless drug addict, by surgeon Doctor Franklin Carson and his Labrador, Winston, begins a fast-paced story of deception and lies. The event calls attention to a problem in the small community.

Licht und Schatten in der Weimarer Republik. Berlin 1929: Marlene von Weilert genießt ihren Erfolg als Ärztin an der Kinderklinik Weißensee, privat aber leidet sie, weil ihre Ehe mit Maximilian bisher kinderlos geblieben ist. Marlene entscheidet sich schließlich, für die Familienplanung beruflich kürzer zu treten. Doch dann wird das Antibiotikum Penicillin entdeckt, und Marlene brennt darauf, das Wundermittel zu erforschen. Es könnte Tausenden Kindern das Leben retten. Marlene ist hin- und hergerissen zwischen beruflicher Pflicht und persönlichem Glück.

Twenty-four-year-old medical student Nick Weissman spends two weeks delivering babies in the kitchens and bedrooms of the inner city's slum tenements. Over his head medically and unprotected in one of America's most dangerous neighborhoods, his character and resourcefulness are tested in the extreme when a national tragedy intervenes. The young White protagonist steps into his racial fear, testing his fledgling professionalism and his honor to care for a Black family in grave danger. 

A Jewish widow and a mysterious stranger help her son Benjamin overcome polio, while refugees from Nazi death camps find safety, and spies threaten Galveston. As clouds of war gather, a man crashes his car into Sarah’s front yard and dies in her front yard. Almost at once, the young widow finds her life full of danger following that day. Sarah will learn that her crippled son has a secret - one that he believes must never be revealed.

Die drei Hebammen müssen sich in den schwierigen Kriegszeiten behaupten und versuchen, so gut es geht, Menschlichkeit in dieser unmenschlichen Zeit zu bewahren.

London, 1934. Das berühmte Nightingale Hospital sucht neue Krankenschwestern. Unter den Kandidatinnen sind drei junge Frauen, die unterschiedlicher kaum sein könnten: Während Dora aus ärmlichen Verhältnissen stammt, ist Millie eine waschechte Aristokratin, die lieber etwas Sinnvolles tut, als sich einen Ehemann zu suchen. Helen dagegen leidet unter ihrer dominanten Mutter, vor der sie ein Geheimnis verbirgt. Doch welche von ihnen hat das Zeug dazu, eine echte Nightingale-Schwester zu werden?

Sicily, 1943. Eddie Harkins, former Philadelphia beat cop turned Military Police lieutenant, reluctantly finds himself first at the scene of a murder at the US Army's 11th Field Hospital. There the nurses contend with heat, dirt, short-handed staffs, the threat of German counterattack, an ever-present flood of horribly wounded GIs, and the threat of assault by one of their own - at least until someone shoots Dr. Myers Stephenson in the head.

Struggling with guilt over her sister's death and the stress of her medical residency, Maya Radelis runs away to Scotland. A robin seems to lead her to an antique shop, where she finds a century-old engagement ring. But what is the ring’s history? She follows the slim paper trail, wondering if it is only coincidence that her dreams reveal the story of a Swiss woman physician who wore the ring during World War I. In Paris she meets fellow New Yorker David Fischer, a lawyer with family in Switzerland as well as America.

The discovery of a deadly virus being smuggled across the border pits FBI Special Agent James Mason and his strike force against an unknown adversary hell-bent on humanity’s destruction. In a desperate effort to contain the pathogen, they launch a predawn raid, only to find that their enemy knows they’re coming...and it’s not about to be taken alive. An explosion rips through the building, killing the majority of Mason’s team, including his partner and mentor.

On an unnamed island, in a Gothic hospital sitting in the shadow of a volcano, a wordless orphan girl works on the wards housing the insane and the incapable. When a silent, unmoving and unnerving new patient - a foreigner - arrives at the hospital, strange phenomena occur, bizarre murders take place and the lives of the patients and the island's inhabitants are thrown into turmoil. What happens between them is an extraordinary exploration of consciousness, reality and madness.

Dr. Raymond Filigree, running away from a disastrous medical career, mistakes an unknown name on a map for the perfect refuge. Instead of settling into a quiet, solitary life, he discovers an asbestos mining corporation with no regard for the safety of its workers and no care for the truth. Thirty years later, Dr. Lou Fitzgerald stumbles across the abandoned Wittenoom Hospital. She, too, is a fugitive from a medical career.... Dustfall is the tale of the crashing consequences of medical error, the suffering caused by asbestos mining, and the power of storytelling.