Ice Merchant

Its the year 1889, and a shrewd Yankee ice merchant, Nicolas Van Horne, has been carving out a profitable side-business. Deep in his ships icy hold, dozens of human cadavers lie between the huge blocks of ice. On this delivery, his first to Galvestons new Medical School, Nicolas makes the ghastly discovery that hes been trafficking in murdered boys. Only with the help of Rene Keiller, Galvestons lovely lady scientist, will Nicolas eventually solve the puzzle his ice holds . . . but first he must overcome his personal demon of morphine addiction, and become inextricably entangled in Renes experiments on the most dreaded killer of the time, Yellow Fever.Paul Boor, M.D., is a scientist and professor at Galvestons medical school, the oldest west of the Mississippi. His first novel, BLOOD NOTES, was a modern biomedical thriller. In THE ICE MERCHANT, Dr. Boor explores the history of the body trade, while plumbing the depths of the human frailties of those devoted to scientific discovery.