When poverty-stricken cigar-factory worker Lina Dahlstrom is diagnosed with tuberculosis, the charming American doctor Carl Dance seems to go above and beyond in his efforts to cure her. Dazzled by his cutting edge treatments and commitment to her cure, her family are thrilled – but Lina’s husband Petter absolutely forbids the treatment. Then Petter goes missing, Lina succumbs to her illness and finally the doctor has Lina all to himself. So begins an obsession so utterly gothic and macabre it will have even the most strong-stomached readers squirming.

Marija Peričić has created a darkly compelling exploration of the subtle and not so subtle ways in which men controlled the lives of women in 1930s Stockholm. Told through a series of perspectives, the reader is given insight into the lives of the poor and the wealthy, the living and the dead.

Much like the author’s The Australian/Vogel’s Award-winning debut novel The Lost Pages, Exquisite Corpse is based on the true case of Carl Tanzler and Elena Milagro de Hoyos. To reference the cover quote by Sarah Schmidt, author of the grisly See What Have Done, your jaw will drop and may never close again. This promises to be one of the most disturbing novels you’ll ever read.