Sixteen-year-old Thomas Timewell is undoubtedly a gentleman - so why is he in a graveyard in the dead of night, shovel in his hand? The Life of a Teenage Body-Snatcher is one of the most original books I've read this year. Set in England in the 1820s, it takes the reader into the fascinating and sometimes super-gross world of the resurrectionists, people who liberate corpses from graveyard for the purposes of medical research. When Thomas' grandfather's final wish to have his body donated for research is denied by the family, Thomas takes matters into his own hands. After a chance encounter with experienced and persuasive resurrectionist Plenitude, Thomas is unwillingly drawn further and further into the body-snatching world, and further and further into a family mystery.

Far from being scary though, Teenage Body-Snatcher is hilarious and suspenseful. Thomas narrates the story in a very earnest, deadpan fashion, but the reader is pleasantly aware of the farcical nature of the events, even as the body count rises. This would be a great book to read out loud or act out; there is a large cast of characters engaging in absurd and witty repartee that reminded me at times of Oscar Wilde. There's Thomas' perpetually doped-up mother; his ketchup-head best friend Charlie; a half-naked tattooed gypsy; a popular and florid author Aubrey Wilks; the rampant cougar Mrs Tilley; a beleagured and incomprehensible Scottish maid; sadistic schoolmaster Mr Atkins and many more. There's fighting! Romance! Decomposing corpses! Madness! Murder! Go forth and read!