The Specimen By Jaima Fixsen

The Specimen plunges readers into 1826 Edinburgh, where the fog-shrouded city hides chilling secrets. Isobel Tait’s world is upended when she stumbles upon a peculiar medical specimen: a small human heart preserved in a jar. At first, it seems like just another oddity among Dr. Burnett’s extensive collection, but Isobel is gripped by a sense of foreboding. The heart bears the rare condition her missing son suffered from before he disappeared months ago.

In Edinburgh, vanishings are tragically common, and no one seems to notice when people fade into the mist. But Isobel's maternal instincts and grief tell her something is terribly wrong. Burnett, a renowned but eccentric collector, has a fixation on rare medical anomalies—could his obsession have led him to unimaginable lengths to expand his collection?

Determined to uncover the truth, Isobel infiltrates his world by taking a job as the keeper of his macabre collection. What she uncovers in the shadows of Burnett’s laboratory is more horrifying than she could have anticipated. With each specimen she catalogs, Isobel pieces together a grim mystery that hints at a sinister truth behind the missing people of Edinburgh.

Based on real historical crimes, The Specimen masterfully blends Gothic horror and historical fiction as it follows one woman's descent into the darkest recesses of human depravity. Isobel’s quest for vengeance becomes a fight for her own survival as she ventures deeper into a nightmare where the deadliest secrets are preserved in plain sight, waiting to be discovered.