Medical Historical Fiction

1348. The Black Death enters England through the port of Melcombe; the people of the county start to die in the thousands. In the demesne of Develish, Lady Anne takes control of her people's future, chooses a bastard slave, Thaddeus Thurkell, to act as her steward, and together they decide to quarantine Develish by bringing the serfs inside the walls. With this sudden overturning of the accepted social order, where serfs exist only to serve their lords, conflicts soon arise....

When the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944, they sent virtually the entire Jewish population to Auschwitz. A Jew and a medical doctor, the prisoner Dr. Miklos Nyiszli was spared death for a grimmer fate: to perform "scientific research" on his fellow inmates under the supervision of the man who became known as the infamous "Angel of Death" - Dr. Josef Mengele. Nyiszli was named Mengele's personal research pathologist. In that capacity he also served as physician to the Sonderkommando, the Jewish prisoners who worked exclusively in the crematoriums and were routinely executed after four months.

Forensic pathologist Richard Pryor uses his 'golden handshake' to set up in private practice with scientist Angela Bray. A friendly coroner gives them a start, and when two women both claim that human remains found near a reservoir are their relatives, the dilemma is given to them to investigate. Set in 1950’s post-war Britain, this thrilling new series is set during the emergence of forensic science.

Two women develop a groundbreaking surgery: the Cesarean section. It's a highly dangerous procedure and the research is grueling, but even worse is the vitriolic response from men. Most don't trust the findings of women, and many can choose to deny their wives medical care. Already facing resistance on all sides, Nora is shaken when she meets a patient who will die without the surgery. If the procedure is successful, her work could change the world. But a failure could cost everything: precious lives, Nora's career, and the role women will be allowed to play in medicine.

Los Angeles, 1920s: Socialite Mirielle West's days are crowded with shopping, luncheons, and prepping for the myriad glittering parties she attends with her actor husband, Charlie. She's been too busy to even notice the small patch of pale skin on the back of her hand. Other than an occasional overindulgence in gin and champagne, which helps to numb the pain of recent tragedy, Mirielle is the picture of health. But her doctor insists on more tests, and Mirielle reluctantly agrees. The diagnosis - leprosy - is devastating and unthinkable.

An orphan leaves Dark Ages London, taking a dangerous journey and posing as a Jew to study medicine in Persia, in "an adventurous and inspiring tale" (Library Journal). A child holds the hand of his dying mother and is terrified, aware something is taking her. Orphaned and given to an itinerant barber-surgeon, Rob Cole becomes a fast-talking swindler, peddling a worthless medicine. But as he matures, his strange gift - an acute sensitivity to impending death - never leaves him, and he yearns to become a healer.

Napoleon has been defeated at Waterloo, and the ensuing peace brings with it both the desertion of nearly half of Captain Aubrey's crew and the sudden dimming of Aubrey's career prospects in a peacetime navy. When the Surprise is nearly sunk on her way to South America - where Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are to help Chile assert her independence from Spain - the delay occasioned by repairs reaps a harvest of strange consequences.

When Rachel qualifies as nurse, she does so because she wants to help others and make a difference. But she is also running from a past life that must stay hidden forever. Completing her training, Rachel moves to London but misses home desperately, so when she hears about an opportunity to train as a district nurse in a village near Rochdale, she seizes the opportunity, even though it will take her closer to the trouble she left behind. She knows nothing about Eastby End and she is shocked to find it a little more than a slum.

Newly promoted to command of his first ship, Captain Jack Aubrey, along with his crew, and new friend and ship’s surgeon Stephen Maturin, must patrol a Mediterranean fraught with peril but rich with rewards. A glimpse of white sails on the horizon could mean a prize to be taken – or a fight for survival.

London, 1920. There's a killer on the streets of Camden Town, and no woman is safe. When a woman's body is dragged from the Regent's Canal on a freezing January night, eminent forensic pathologist and criminal sleuth Dr Bernard Spilsbury immediately detects foul play. And when a second woman washes up dead under similar circumstances, police realise they are looking for a dangerous predator. Is someone luring lonely spinsters to their deaths through a newspaper Lonely Hearts column? And can they be stopped before they strike again?

With her husband, Nick, away fighting, Dora struggles to keep the home fires burning but finds herself in a difficult position when she is put in charge of a ward of injured German POWs. Can she find it in her heart to care for her enemies? Fellow nurse Kitty faces a similar struggle looking after the men who killed her beloved brother. But her life becomes even more complicated when she falls for one of the prisoners. And Helen Denton returns from nursing in Europe with a secret. She has her own reasons for hating the Germans.

For the district nurses of Victory Walk, there's been little time to bask in the triumph of D-day as London is facing a new threat - the buzz bombs. Everyone is terrified, never knowing where the next one will strike. Into this tense atmosphere, new nurse Iris must make her mark. She’s had more experience of nursing than many, but since arriving in East London from the countryside, she has struggled to fit in with the other staff. Meanwhile, Alice is facing an agonising wait to hear if her boyfriend, Joe, has survived D-day.

The first in the Quirke mysteries - now a major TV series starring Gabriel Byrne. Now a major TV series: Quirke starring Gabriel Byrne and written by Andrew Davies. Quirke’s pathology department, set deep beneath the city, is his own gloomy realm: always quiet, always night and always under his control. Until late one evening after a party he stumbles across a body that should not be there - and his brother-in-law falsifying the corpse’s cause of death.

Edmund Harkins has gone missing. Few in Bampton liked him, knowing him to be a wife-beater and distinctly unsavory character, so when some hungry pigs unearth his corpse from a shallow grave, there is hardly an outpouring of grief. As bailiff, it is Hugh de Singleton’s duty to bring Edmund’s killer to justice. But where is he to start investigating when almost everyone in the village has a motive? And when everyone is pleased to see the scoundrel dead, who knows how far they might go to help someone get away with murder?

1830. After a violent storm, a woman is found alone, naked and near death, on the Northumberland moors. She has no memory of who she is or how she got there. But she can remember how to help a woman in labour and how to expertly dress a wound and can speak fluent French. With the odds against her, a penniless single woman, she starts to build her life from scratch, using her skills to help other women around her. She finds a happy place in the world. Until tragedy strikes, and she must run for her life.

In the 1930s, fresh from a stint in the Royal Navy Reserve, and against the wishes of his disapproving father, Fingal O'Reilly goes to Dublin to study medicine. Fingal and his fellow aspiring doctors face the arduous demands of Trinity College and Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital. The hours are long and the cases challenging, but Fingal manages to find time to box and play rugby—and to romance a fetching, gray-eyed nurse named Kitty O'Hallorhan.

Brussels, April 1915. A beautiful young woman finds herself on the run from the enemy. Also being pursued is Ned Scott, a British army major who has been badly injured. The pair find themselves at a hospital run by the famous Edith Cavell, who agrees to treat the major while offering them both refuge and a false identity - she names the young girl Anna.

The nurses of St Angelus Hospital face the hardship of another winter in this heartbreaking story by million-copy best seller Nadine Dorries. In 1950s Liverpool, five very different girls begin their training at St Angelus Hospital, in Lovely Lane. The nurses are known locally as the Angels. They are Dana, Victoria, Beth, Celia and Pammy, and at St Angelus they learn quickly about life in all its richness and its sorrow. The Angels must battle through the snow to save Victoria's baby, and young doctor Teddy Davenport begins to make some serious mistakes....

It's 1957, and three young women are beginning their nursing training at the Florence Nightingale Hospital in London's East End. Winne desperately wants to win her mother's approval - but will following in her footsteps and becoming a nurse help? Tearaway Viv has never been one to follow the rules, though the Nightingale may help her mend her ways. Beth is following her late sister's dream by training as a nurse. Will it be the right path for her? There's a steep learning curve ahead. But with friendship on their side, the Nightingale Daughters are ready to rise to the challenge.

Matron Kathleen Fox has the job of putting the hospital back together but wonders if she is up to the task. In an attempt to bring some festive cheer, she decides to put on a Christmas show. The idea is greeted with mixed feelings by the nurses, who all have their own problems, and also by the new Assistant Matron and ward sister, who find themselves rivals for the role of organiser. But as rehearsals begin, the performers begin to find the show is not just a tonic for the patients.