Coffee Pot Book Tour: Elizabeth Hutchison Bernard; The Beauty Doctor
The Details:
Book
Title: THE BEAUTY DOCTOR: A NOVEL
Author:
Elizabeth Hutchison Bernard
Publication
Date: January 4, 2024
Publisher:
Black Rose Writing
Page
Length: 327
Genre:
Historical Mystery Suspense
Audiobook narrator: Lisa Bozek
The Blurb:
A
Bone-Chilling Mystery-Suspense-Thriller Set in the Edwardian Era
Finalist,
Eric Hoffer Book Award
"Beauty
is power," Dr. Rome told her. "And with enough power, one can achieve
anything."
Straightening
noses, trimming eyelids, lifting jowls . . . In the year 1907, his
revolutionary beauty surgery is considered daring, perhaps dangerous. Still,
women want what Dr. Rome promises. Neither is his young assistant Abigail
Platford immune to Dr. Rome's persuasive charm.
Abigail
once dreamed of becoming a doctor, though of a much different sort. That dream
ended with her father's tragic death from a medical error for which she holds
herself responsible. Dr. Rome, who proudly displays his medical degree from
Johns Hopkins, seems to believe in her. If he were willing to act as her
mentor, might there still be a chance to realize her dream of someday becoming
a doctor serving New York City's poor?
But
something feels terribly wrong, as though an insidious evil is closing in.
Broken promises, lies, and intrigues abound. The powerful are threatening to
destroy the weak, and a doctor's sacred duty hangs in the balance. Abigail no
longer knows who to believe; but with Dr. Rome now her mentor and her lover,
she desperately wants to trust him.
Even when
she discovers that one of their patients has mysteriously disappeared.
From
bestselling author Elizabeth Hutchison Bernard, a suspenseful work of
historical fiction grounded in the social and moral issues of the Edwardian era
in America. Second Edition with Author's Preface.
Excerpt from Chapter Seven of THE BEAUTY DOCTOR by Elizabeth Hutchison Bernard:
Dispensing with any semblance of ceremony, Dr. Rome ripped
away the sheet covering the body. There was no way for Abigail to avoid looking
at her, a slender young woman likely only a little older than she was, naked
and clearly dead. There was a fresh cut on her abdomen, from the navel down.
Abigail knew enough to recognize an incision for a Cesarean section.
“What happened?” she asked, her voice a whisper.
“Complications of pregnancy. They don’t all make it, you
know.”
“And the baby?”
“I wouldn’t have any idea.”
She raised the back of her hand to her forehead and closed
her eyes. She was loath to admit it, but she felt faint. “Why is she here?”
“Because you once complained that you hadn’t spent hours on
end studying Gray’s Anatomy for nothing. But the fact is, you can’t
learn anatomy from a book. Tonight you will have a proper lesson.”
He really had done this for her! But did that change how she
felt?
“Dr. Rome—I don’t know what to say. I appreciate it greatly,
but—”
“You’re not pleased?”
“I need to know … where did she come from?” Abigail recalled
what she’d read once about anatomists in earlier times who would buy corpses
from professional body snatchers. There were even those who engaged in anatomy
murder to get the fresh cadavers medical students used for their dissections.
Of course, Shark had not murdered anyone …
“Good God, what’s wrong with you? Where’s your curiosity?
Your guts? She was on her way to the potter’s field on Hart Island. Far better
she should contribute to science.”
Abigail dared to gaze down on the young woman’s face. Her
eyelids were closed in repose; her long, dark hair cascaded softly over her
shoulders. She was only slightly blue, her body not yet stiff. The odor
emanating from her was not unpleasant, almost like a sweetly pungent flower.
She could not have been dead for long. Dr. Rome rubbed his palms together, in
that voracious manner of his. “Now, let’s consider this woman’s lips, which are
rather thin,” he said, seeming to have moved on from his momentary irritation.
“In a few minutes, I’ll show you how to make them voluptuous. We’ll also raise
the angle of the mouth, just to give her a pleasant expression. I’ll let you
inject some paraffin all by yourself. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? As for the
nose, you’ve seen how I remove a hump. This time, we’re going to elevate the
tip—even though she has a perfect nose as it is.” He ran a finger down the
bridge. “A shame, really. She wasn’t at all bad looking.” He brushed his hand
along her neck. “There’s something else I want to try—a way to lift the neck
through incisions inside the mouth. I’ve read about it. Novel, but apparently
there are some problems. We’ll see. You need to understand that operating on a
corpse isn’t quite the same as working with living tissue, but often we need to
make do.”
She was trying to listen, to focus on what he was saying,
but all she could think of was the poor woman laid out on the table. Did she
have a family somewhere? Was there a man who loved her? And her baby—what had
happened to it? She wondered if the young mother had even known whether her
child lived or died.
“Miss Platford!” Dr. Rome had paused his lecture long enough
to notice she was not paying attention. “I hope you realize that our time is
limited. A fresh cadaver, especially one as nice as this, is a precious thing.”
Abigail pulled her eyes away from the woman’s ripped
abdomen. “It’s sad. She’s so young.”
He sighed, coming over to her and laying his hands on her
shoulders. “You’ve never seen death before?”
An image of her father’s face, devoid of life, flashed
before her eyes. She mustn’t think about it now, not when Dr. Rome expected her
to act like any ambitious student should: eager to take the knife, to make the
first cut.
He gave her an encouraging pat on the arm and took a step
back. “I suggest you ready yourself, and we’ll get started.”
Buy Links:
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.
Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/316BAr
Author Bio:
Website:
https://www.ehbernard.com
Twitter:
https://www.X.com/EHBernardAuthor
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/EHBernardAuthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/EHBernardAuthor
Amazon
Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Elizabeth-Hutchison-Bernard/author/B072N681MZ
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16953486.Elizabeth_Hutchison_Bernard
Thank you very much for hosting Elizabeth Hutchison Bernard today.
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Cathie xo
The Coffee Pot Book Club