The Specimens cover art

The Specimens

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Specimens

By: Mairi Kidd
Narrated by: Gerda Stevenson
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £31.99

Buy Now for £31.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

 "A work of fiction that is both a potent portrait of early 19th-century Edinburgh but also a story about female agency or the lack of it. The result is a compelling, painful, haunted piece of work." THE HERALD

WATERSTONES SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE MONTH AUGUST 2025

Up the close and down the stair, meet the women of Burke and Hare

Edinburgh, 1828. Two women - one rich, one poor - must navigate life against a frenzied backdrop of medical discovery, mob mayhem, and murder.

Susan's sheltered life as the wife of Robert Knox, a wealthy anatomist, is a far cry from Helen's perilous existence in the Old Town slums with her lover William Burke.

Yet as people begin disappearing, these two different women face the same impossible choice. Should they protect what they have or tell the truth about what they know?

Discover the notorious serial killings of Burke and Hare, told for the first time through the eyes of women whose
stories reveal the depths of the human heart.

COMING OCTOBER 2025 - Poor Creatures - Unearth the fascinating story of Mary Shelley: the mind which birthed Frankenstein's monster...


PRAISE FOR THE SPECIMENS

"Beguiling and atmospheric" HEAT MAGAZINE

"A fresh, feminine take on the horrors of Scotland's most notorious serial killers" SALLY MAGNUSSON

"Gruesomely gripping, this story will stay with you for a long time" SUE LAWRENCE

"Mairi Kidd holds a lantern up to the brutality of women's lives in Burke, Hare and Knox's Edinburgh" LUCY RIBCHESTER©2024 Mairi Kidd (P)2024 Bonnier Books UK Crime Crime Thrillers Genre Fiction Historical Medical Thriller & Suspense Murder Heartfelt

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The House of Lost Whispers cover art
The Ravenswood Witch cover art
The Witchfinder’s Assistant cover art
The Smallest Man cover art
Daughter of the Tarot cover art
At the Stroke of Midnight cover art
Hawthorn cover art
The Cornish Witch cover art
The House of the Witch cover art
The Shadow on the Bridge cover art
Murder Most Foul cover art
The Trials of Marjorie Crowe cover art
The Peculiar Incident at Thistlewick House cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Great storyline. The book kept me asking the same questions as motives and addictions grew, what is right and what is wrong and when to stop!

Hard to put down

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellent read, Edinburgh sounds wild back in the day in this book. definitely worth a read.

brilliant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellently performed audiobook.

While the author has captured the the period beautifully, the narrator has brought meaning and nuance to the reader.

I was swept along by the convergence of characters and the distinction between the two leading subjects, almost hoping that matters couldn’t get any worse as the tale wore on.

This macabre account of malpractice, deception and credulous innocence in early 19th century Edinburgh, brings colour and context to the lives of 2 infamous baddies (Burke & Hare) and sheds light on why and how they procured their living from the complicit and wealthy anatomist, Robert Knox.

This a well-balanced and compelling historical novel which I enjoyed enormously.

Atmospheric Depiction

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Such an interesting and fascinating book. So atmospheric. All brought to life by the best narrator I have ever heard. Amazing.

Amazing narrator

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved this from the outset. Living in Edinburgh and being familiar with all the locations made it really come to life for me, helped by the brilliant, atmospheric descriptions by the author. The connections to Edinburgh's dark history gave me goosebumps, especially towards the end and provides plenty food for thought. Wonderful, admirable and strong leading women with intriguing, believable characters throughout makes this a engaging, fascinating read and all narrated fantastically too. Brilliant! 👏

Beautifully written, fascinating story....even if mostly fictional

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews